Losing a series to the Mariners is downright distasteful. Especially when you’ve been tantalizingly good recently. Like, sneaky good. Four of your five pitchers look like aces. Your hitters are healthy and not mired in Velezian slumps. These are the series to win. But they didn’t. So I rant. Thoughts from the weekend series at SafeCo. Safeco? Fine. Continue reading
Author Archives: Thomas Todd
Postgame Wrap: Brandons Watched
Nothing was perfect today.
In light of that, and the fact that I didn’t get to write about last night’s game, I’ll keep today’s post to my favorite segment,
Brandon Watch: Continue reading
Postgame Wrap: Dropping Hamiltons
Ryan Vogelsong walks off the field to a standing ovation in the eighth inning.
Regression is an ugly buzz word in baseball chatter these days. “X player will regress to the mean after a career year.†“That’s a small sample size, X player will surely regress.†“I regress seeing X3, stupid Brett Ratner.†It doesn’t appear that any of these things apply to Ryan Vogelsong.
Nothing he did today was particularly sparkling or overpowering, but the thunderous Rangers bats seemed less thunderous, hitting ground balls and settling for warning-track fly balls. Besides Mitch Moreland, who hit a Bondsian shot into the water that all but ended his outing, Vogelsong sapped the power from a powerful lineup. The Rangers have a league-leading .806 OPS as a team, which is a buck oh five higher than Brandon Belt’s .701.
With nicks and bruises bothering Casilla and Romo, the Giants bullpen needed to get healthy. Starts by Vogelsong have been a panacea. Vogey has finished the 6th inning in all eleven starts this season, and the 7th inning in all but three. This is only his second time reaching the 8th but, to be fair, they only play seven innings in Japan. Limited space, from what I hear.