San Francisco Giants

First Series Win of 2018





rd loss of the year on Saturday giving up 4 runs over 6 innings with the big fly coming off the bat of Pujols in the bottom of the 6th to put them up 2. The Giants tried to rally late in the game but could only get 1 across making the final 3-4 in the Angels favor. Posey was scratched due to back stiffness but returned to the lineup on Sunday. Brandon Belt is absolutely on fire with 4 HR in the last 4 games. He and Longoria both homered on Sunday giving Longoria 4 and Belt 5 on the season. Today we will touch on both of these hitters and the spark they have provided over the last week before touching on the match up against the Nationals. The Giants got their first series win as they fight to get back to .500 ball. Following a good start from The Shark and another gem by Cueto they take it 2-1 in LA against the Angels. Derek Holland picked up his 3loss of the year on Saturday giving up 4 runs over 6 innings with the big fly coming off the bat of Pujols in the bottom of the 6to put them up 2. The Giants tried to rally late in the game but could only get 1 across making the final 3-4 in the Angels favor. Posey was scratched due to back stiffness but returned to the lineup on Sunday. Brandon Belt is absolutely on fire with 4 HR in the last 4 games. He and Longoria both homered on Sunday giving Longoria 4 and Belt 5 on the season. Today we will touch on both of these hitters and the spark they have provided over the last week before touching on the match up against the Nationals.





After the first 10 games he was hitting just .132 with one home run and 2 RBI’s. The last 10 games he is 14-39 (.359) with 3 HR and 7 RBI’s. He has 7 2B’s on the season ranking 3rd in the Majors. Overall this year he is hitting .243 which isn’t bad after the very slow start. The scary stat for Longoria is the amount of strikeouts. This season in 74 AB’s he has 23 K’s. The Giants stuck out a whopping 17 times on Saturday. If we can put the ball in play more it will find a hole eventually. The amount of strikeouts we have explains why we are last in batting average with RISP. If we improve the amount of outs that are put in play we can improve our average with RISP. Evan Longoria had a ROUGH start to the season. He started the season 1-19 with his first hit being a two run home run at home vs Seattle.After the first 10 games he was hitting just .132 with one home run and 2 RBI’s. The last 10 games he is 14-39 (.359) with 3 HR and 7 RBI’s. He has 7 2B’s on the season ranking 3in the Majors. Overall this year he is hitting .243 which isn’t bad after the very slow start. The scary stat for Longoria is the amount of strikeouts. This season in 74 AB’s he has 23 K’s. The Giants stuck out a whopping 17 times on Saturday. If we can put the ball in play more it will find a hole eventually. The amount of strikeouts we have explains why we are last in batting average with RISP. If we improve the amount of outs that are put in play we can improve our average with RISP.





Brandon Belt hit his first home run of the Season in the same 2 game series as Longoria vs Seattle. Until April 18th he had just the one home run. He got a day of rest on Friday with Buster on 1B but every other day since the 18th he has gone deep. Not only is he hitting the ball hard but he is clearly seeing the ball very well right now. He broke the record for the most pitches in an at bat on Sunday with a 21 pitch at bat by fouling off 16 two strike pitches in an almost 13 minute at bat. The previous record was 20 set by Ricky Gutierrez and Bartolo Colon on June 26, 1998. This at bat helped lead to a 49 pitch inning for Barria, the Angels starter. In that game alone Belt saw a total of 39 pitches in the game with a 8 pitch at bat in the 3rd, a 9 pitch at bat (which he hit a HR) in the 5th, and a single on the first pitch he saw in the 7th. Belt is sitting at .288 in 59 AB’s with 5 HR and 10 RBI at this point in the season. He also has a total of 19 K’s which again is a stat we need to get down.





Today we see Gio Gonzalez vs Chris Stratton. Stratton is only 1-1 while the Giants are 3-1 in his starts. Stratton has kept opposing batters to a .179 AVG which is 9th in the NL and has maintained an ERA of 2.22 which is 12th in the NL. He was dominant in his last start and looks to keep it up today at home. The Nationals come in with a 10-12 record and Gio Gonzalez has started out hot. In 12 career starts vs the Giants he has a 3.06 ERA. He comes into this game with 4 starts under his belt, a 2-1 record, a 2.49 ERA and 25 K’s. Buster Posey has faced him 18 times and has a .333 average with 1 home run. I don’t know if we will see Mac Williamson today with it being a lefty on the bump but we will see once the lineups are announced. I’d expect to see Hernandez get the start in LF today for the matchup at the plate. So far this year Hernandez is hitting .357 against lefties while only .200 against righties. The Giants are 3 games below .500 without Madbum. Cueto is pitching better than anyone else at the moment and Stratton is posting good numbers as well. With the recent support from the bats let’s see if we can continue to turn Quality Starts into Wins.





-Patrick Hart