Postgame Wrap: Four Aces

Wow.

Tonight’s game was so masterful, I’m almost at a loss for words to describe it. Madison Bumgarner was the best I’ve ever seen him, shutting down a good lineup like they were the Rangers on Halloween. He pitched in, out, up, down, and made one simple mistake of not intentionally walking Ryan Hanigan.

But man, that slider. It deserves a postgame wrap of its own. Bumgarner threw his slider 38 times – he threw his four-seamer only 37 times – and got a ridiculous 10 whiffs with his slider out of 31 thrown for strikes.

And strikes. Strikes. So many strikes. Bum threw 72 strikes out of 107 total pitches, with 9 of those balls coming in a 16-pitch first inning, and never went over 14 pitches in an inning after that. He was phenomenal, throwing pitches in the strike zone that nobody could hit. It’s an underrated talent, but an important one.

For example, look at Bumgarner’s PitchFX for tonight based on At-bat result. Continue reading →

Postgame Wrap: Giants Sweep Dodgers, Make My Heart Go Broom Broom

I’m not gonna lie to you guys and say I watched all of this game. Danny and I both had to work today and there was no way to get my employer to shut off the 57-inch HD TVs to prevent spoilers. But my DVR skim stops include: The Lincecum-Billingsley collision, the Hector Sanchez dive, Uribe’s at-bat in the 7th, and the 9th inning. Oh and every run-scoring play. I just love those. Let’s do today in note form: Continue reading →

Postgame Wrap: Giants Blank Dodgers Again, Sniff Division Lead

Every June 13th in San Francisco will now officially be “Matt Cain Day”. Thank goodness, another dominant start and mayor Ed Lee was about to declare baseball season in San Francisco “Clayton Kershaw Season”. For almost four whole baseball games at AT&T Park, the Giants couldn’t get an earned run past Clayton Kershaw. Melky Cabrera’s 4th-inning solo home run snapped that streak, and thusly expedited his inevitable apotheosis. Vote Melky, guys. Vote Melky til it hurts.

When eying the pitching match-ups for this series, a quick glance revealed:

Zito vs. Guy I Haven’t Heard of With An Unsustainable ERA

Vogelsong vs. Jesus

Lincecum vs. Feast or Famine Guy

The first and third games made me queasy. Some Zito crackers settled my stomach last night, but another gut-wrenching Lincecum start with the division possibly on the line loomed large. But I knew that middle game could be a classic. Vogelsong versus an anemic lineup and Clayton Kershaw leading Giants hitters like lambs to the slaughter. 160 minutes of bliss.

And so it was. Vogelsong allowed no Dodger past second base. He did it by mixing his movement with all of his pitches and inducing ground balls and weak popups. Or as the Dodgers call them, at-bats.

A quick glance at Vogey’s peripherals this season has him outperforming his xFIP by over two whole runs. But before anyone points out the low-K rate and high LOB% as the culprits for potential regression, I’d like to point out that this is the same pitcher who outperformed his xFIP by an entire run in 2011. New Vogelsong doesn’t care about advanced metrics. I’d like to think he learned this from Matt Cain. They can talk about it at the All-Star game while Keith Olberman cuddles with pitching wins.

Now there is no way that, for the duration of his career, Ryan Vogelsong shits on advanced metrics to the tune of two runs of expected versus actual ERA. But one run? One and a half? Why not? Anecdotal evidence tells me that Ryan Vogelsong can pitch with men on base. When innings start to get ugly, his confidence and composure allow him to lock in and get out of innings unscathed. Matt Cain shits on metrics by inducing lazy fly balls. Ryan Vogelsong does it with grit. At least that’s what my big brown eyes tell me. And the numbers back it up by failing to back it up.

Brandon Watch 2012:

Crawford:

Belt: I don’t expect a young hitter getting his first uninterrupted playing time to rake a guy like Clayton Kershaw. But hey, a double. An extra-base hit against the Giant Killer after two 0-fers? Major exp points for Baby Giraffe, even if his batting average went down a tic.

Stats of the Day:

8: Times the Giants have shutout opponents

2: Consecutive times the Giants have shutout the Dodgers

1: Games back in the division