Bryce Harper after the sky fell on the Giants’ season, ending all their hopes at ever winning again
The Giants got swept by the Nationals and could be a whole 1.5 games back of the Dodgers by the end of the day. The black and orange have lost 5 of their last 6, and the Giants are lucky it’s July before the break so that they have time to figure out what the heck they need to do. Here’s what I think some big complaints will be following tonight’s game:
#1: We have a closer problem
The people are right: we have a problem with the title “closer” because it’s a very flawed concept that is based off of the need to get saves, which is a stupid stat in and of itself for reasons I’m not going to dive into here. I personally do not know whom Bochy thinks is his best reliever is, but I know who it is and he bailed the Giants out of the 7th, and threw up a 0 for the 8th inning.
Here are some stats between Romo and Casilla coming into today’s game to help me prove my point for why Sergio is better than Santiago:
Even if you hate sabermetrics, I know you can see a difference in ERA, and K/9.
For those wondering how these two do versus left-handed hitters. Romo has been platooned by Bochy, but it’s not like that’s Romo’s fault. He does just fine, as you can see in his wOBA against.
Keep in mind you may not want to use your best reliever in the 9th, as the game might call for it in the 7th, like it did tonight. Too bad we don’t have two Sergios though we could’ve used the second one in the 9th.
#2: We lost because of Brandon Crawford, and Brandon Belt should’ve had that
To put the game on Brandon Crawford, while understandable in the moment, is pretty unfair. Should Brandon Belt have had that extremely low throw by Crawford? Yes. Does that put the game on those two? No. This was as team of a loss as team losses get.
Pablo Sandoval was 0-for-2 in 2 opportunities with the bases loaded.
Brandon Belt and Joaquin Arias left Angel Pagan on 3rd with 0, and 1 outs, respectively in the 7th.
Matt Cain made a huge mistake to Ian Desmond by leaving one up when Buster wanted it down, which really re-started the Nats’ rally.
The Giants left 11 men on base.
Casilla made an error on a sacrifice bunt, and you never know how the game would’ve been different.
#3: We would’ve won if that play had been executed!
You don’t know that, and I don’t know that.
#4: Bochy lost that game for us.
For all Bochy does, I don’t think he lost this one for us. With Cain and his 6.2 IP done with, Bochy brought in Affeldt to play the percentages, no problem with that. Affeldt doesn’t get anyone, so instead of Penny, Bochy brings in Romo. Definitely no problem with that. In the 9th, Arias moves to 3rd, Crawford moves to Short, Nate goes to RF, I’m fine with that. Casilla in the 9th, for the whole 9th — with the mess Casilla got himself into, if Bochy wanted to get into a platoon game with Javier and Penny, that bullpen wouldn’t have lasted extra innings very long if they would have even made it, so I didn’t have a problem with that. My biggest problem was with his lineup having Christian 1st and Theriot 2nd, and it worked out tonight. This means it could become the lineup vs. LHP, which makes me a little sad.
In closing…
Some will disagree with the things I said and that’s fine. Remember, this is one game, and there’s 79 games left, and this team may look way different 30 days from now.
