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.

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Giants activate Tony Abreu, option Nick Noonan to Fresno

Infielder Tony Abreu has been activated from the 60-day DL and will join the San Francisco Giants, according to Henry Schulman of the Chronicle. To make room, Ryan Vogelsong was transferred from the 15 to 60-day DL and infielder Nick Noonan has been optioned to Triple-A Fresno.

Abreu was the favorite to make the Opening Day roster as a backup infielder, only losing out to Noonan when he strained his left knee in Spring Training. The 28-year old second basemen has played for three major league teams since 2007, finishing the 2012 season as a member of the Kansas City Royals. In 464 career plate appearances in the majors, Abreu has a .252/.280/.355 slash line.

Abreu has played second, third and shortstop throughout his career, making him an ideal utility infielder. Though he has the same versatility as the player he is replacing, I don’t expect him to garner any more playing time than Noonan did in his time on the roster.

Noonan’s role had been limited, starting just eight games and logging 63 plate appearances. He had just 12 hits in his young major-league career, and only one went for extra bases. Unlike Abreu, Noonan, 24, is a developing player and will be well-served getting everyday reps in Fresno.

Vogelsong has been out since May 20th with two broken bones in his right pinky finger. With a move to the 60-day DL the earliest the right-handed starter could return is July 19th, which is San Francisco’s first game after the All-Star Break.

Postgame Wrap: Matt Cain Gets Timmy’d

Matt Cain is broken. Matt Cain is not broken. Matt Cain is broken from the stretch. Matt Cain can’t pitch with runners on base.

Matt Cain would like you to listen very carefully right now. There is nothing wrong with him.

I know this season has been hard to watch, and I understand if it’s hard to hold out optimism after we saw our Timmy hopes dashed against the rocks. But Cain recovered from a horrible first inning to dominate until the eighth.

And then, Goldschmidt. It had to be Goldschmidt, especially after he came up short in his previous at-bats. The twitters and the Greg Papas afterward were talking about Bochy’s decision to leave Jeremy Affeldt in to face Goldschmidt, and why he didn’t call in Sergio Romo. The only problem is that Goldschmidt is something like 3-7 against Romo, so it’s not obvious which would be better. As it happens, Affeldt stayed in and dished up his first homer of the year. Nitpick all you like, but sometimes when you have a great hitter like Goldschmidt, every pitcher has a bad matchup against him.

But really, Matt Cain. After the crappy first inning he allowed just three hits and no walks and struck out four, and gave up just one earned run. He yelled at the ump after the first inning – very uncharacteristic for the Horse – because he thought he was getting squeezed. Was he?

Uh yeah, a little bit. Every one of those little green triangles inside the box is a pitch that – according to this estimation of the strikezone – should have been called a strike. Given how many there are, it’s even more remarkable that he was able to overcome it and keep going as long as he did.

The real problem is the offense. Even though Angel Pagan’s numbers on the year aren’t too sparkly, the Giants sure seem to have trouble scoring without him. I’m a fan of the lineup change that Bochy made today; Posey is a bit more of an OBP guy and Panda has the power, so hopefully that will stir things up a bit. Having Sandoval back, even just 80% of him, will be a dramatic improvement over Arias/Noonan.

Other than that, the rest of the team is slumping a bit. Over the past seven days the Giants are hitting an atrocious .214/.242/.283, with just one home run. Brandon Crawford is batting an underwhelming .278/.278/.278 in the last week, while the red-hot Marco Scutaro has hit a pedestrian .235/.316/.353 over that span. How has Belt been doing? Yeah, don’t ask. With hitting like that, the whole team would get Cain’d, if they pitched well enough to deserve that label.

So in conclusion, good pitching is good. Bad hitting is bad. Keep up the good pitching and try to improve the bad hitting.

Good talk, team.