Postgame Wrap: Paul Goldschmidt, In His Infinite Mercy, Lets Giants Win a Game

News flash: Hunter Pence is having a hell of a year. Coming off an offseason where the consensus said that Pence was being criminally overpaid, he’s doing a great job of providing power and speed and, at times, keeping the Giants offense afloat. Pence “only” got two hits tonight, but his really amazing strength of feet came in the second inning. After reaching base on a fielder’s choice, Pence stole second and then third, scoring when catcher Miguel Montero made a bad throw to third. Even though Pence’s and Posey’s homers later in the game were probably more prominent in the box score, Pence’s hustle play really energized the offense.

Also, Hunter Pence is now 12-12 in stolen base attempts this season. That leads the league (Alcides Escobar has 10), and it actually puts Pence in pretty good company.

Fun fact: Nine of Pence’s 10 homers on the year have been solo homers. I’m not really sure what this means, but it seems like something that should not be true.

Also:

Screen Shot 2013-06-08 at 9.50.03 PM

Tremendous.

Tonight’s game was quite pleasant on account of the winning that the Giants did. Madison Bumgarner pitched well until the hitters told him he could take it easy, and the bullpen collapse stopped short of actual nuclear meltdown. Ramon Ramirez is certainly not the same pitcher he was in 2010, so for the time being I would appreciate only seeing him in games with a nine-run lead. Oh hey look, this is fun:

The Brandons were the real heroes tonight. Yesterday I talked about how both have been struggling recently, so seeing a combined 7-10 tonight was a pleasant surprise. Gregor Blanco doubled twice too, and every Giants starting position player reached base tonight. Good times.

The one bit of bad news came when Pablo Sandoval came out of the game in the third inning after grounding out, because his foot was bothering him (sez Pavs). It’s pretty surprising that Sandoval has been playing at all, given that just a couple days ago the Giants said the Panda might be out for a whole week. No word yet on the plan going forward, but whatever happens the offense will need to keep contributing to compensate for his injury.

Stats of the Day

0: Reasons why Cody Ross should risk advancing to third with two outs and his team down by 8 in the 4th inning

4: Walks issued by the Giants in the 6th inning

9.5: On a scale from 1 to 10, 1 being not so extreme and 10 being extremely extreme, how extreme Hunter Pence was tonight

0: Times Paul Goldschmidt reached base tonight

9: Games this season in which Paul Goldschmidt has not reached base (61 total)

Funny GIF of the day

Feel-good link of the day:

Diamondbacks draft paralyzed Arizona State player Cory Hahn in 34th round