Howdy,
Okay, 2 of 162 tonight.
Don’t worry, don’t worry, I won’t give a daily (it would be almost daily!) preview/comment/analysis/summary/update on every San Francisco Giants game for about the next six months, from now ’til November.
Though I’m sure most of you would like that, right? Go Giants!
Nevertheless, tonight is the second game of the 2017 season, and it’s important because the Giants are looking for Win 1, which is crazy, because as you may have read here two days ago, their Opening Day starting pitcher, Madison Bumgarner, pitched a fantastic game and blasted two home runs to help his own cause, as they say.
I’ve since heard that the whole Giants team for the entire 2016 season only hit one home run that came of the bat with a greater exit velocity than at least one — maybe both — of Bumgarner’s homers, which were like 114.5 and 114.1 miles per hour.
So the great-hitting pitcher MadBum added about 20 m.p.h. to the pitches with his bat.
All that to say, it was an amazing way to lose. Quite the accomplishment to blow that first game, after the lead they had and the heroics of the pitcher. But he didn’t pitch the whole game, and it got dicey when he came out and the lead was devolved to the Giants bullpen.
Dicey, then dissolved into demise.
Unfortunately, that’s a touchy scenario around here because last when was about the destructive disaster of a bullpen blowing a record amount of saves for a team in contention. There was a time — starting the second half of the season — last year when the Giants had the best record in baseball and were cruising, but they kept handing back victories.
Exchanged for defeats. Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory …
The bullpen is better this year — should be! Better be! But it melted down in Game 1. Even new, highly-paid closer, Mark Melancon, blew a one-run lead giving up two runs on four hits after Derek Law (who was great breath of fresh air last year in a bullpen that generally stunk) blew a one-run lead in the eighth inning.
Derek Law is supposed to nail down the eighth inning, settling in as a dominant setup man. The setup man for CLOSER MARK MELANCON.
Yesterday Melancon didn’t close, and Law only set the table for the Diamondbacks, leaving the other guys in a jam.
A jam, which, it should be noted, Ty Black and Hunter Strickland worked out of to keep the game tied. So there’s that.
The bullpen will be better …
And there’s another game tonight to prove it.
That’s the thing about baseball, there’s (pretty much) always another game the next day to turn it around.
My wife pretty much believes there’s always another game, because she’s convinced it’s always baseball season.
Photo credit: (https://www.pinterest.com/pin/411868328392408650/)
Isn’t it great? Game 2 of 162.
Go Giants!
—Billy
Reading. Writing. Living.
Word Count: 87,453 / On Pace: 93,500 / Year’s Goal: 200,000
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