Giants Head To L.A. A Day Early, Leave Physical Appearance In San Diego

Marco Scutaro and Joaquin Arias: The forbidden romance

The Giants won 2 out of 3 in the series which should be perfectly acceptable. I accepted before the game that they would lose this game and prepared myself for the consequences of wasting 3 hours of a Sunday watching a game which featured the San Diego Padres. Padres gonna Padre.

This was about as Padres a ball game as they get. A dink here, a dunk there, and after 7 hours it was 6-1 Padres in the 6^th inning. Long tedious baseball, followed by the Padres doing something funny, followed by more long tedious baseball. The 2012 Padres are the reason baseball is boring. The 2012 Padres are jealous of rocks. It was like playing against the 2008 Giants, like I was watching a bunch of Jose Castillo’s offensively dominate the 2012 Giants pitching. The first 5 innings of this game were as long as the entire Cardinals-Pirates game. The next time someone tells you baseball is boring, it is because the only game that person has ever watched is this Giants Padres game, and then you will understand.

Everth Cabrera, Will Venable and Cameron Maybin combinded to go 10 for 14 with a HR and a double. Here are their respective AVG/OBP/SLG slash lines: .236/.316/.331, .244/.318/.416, and .244/.311/.287. Defensively those three players are Gold Glove caliber and then some. Offensively they are pretty awful. Cameron Maybin had the most hits out of all three of them (4), and he boast the rare OBP>SLG line that so many fail to accomplish. Yes, it was not a good day to be affiliated with the Giants, or to be affiliated with watching a team play the Padres.

*****

Ryan Vogelsong is in a funk. Don’t ask me how I know, stuff just comes to me. He only allowed 3 runs today, but threw 96 pitches in 3 innings, while allowing 9 baserunners. It’s way to early to press the panic button, but I don’t think it’s taboo to mention his .261 BABIP before tonight’s game and his 5^th highest LOB% in baseball (80.8%). I’ve been hammering those stats a lot, but again, dude isn’t a strikeout pitcher (although he had 7 K’s through 3 today) and eventually the baserunners he has been leaving on base are going to get home because balls hit in play aren’t always going to find gloves.

It’s completely valid to expect this kind of regression from Vogelsong, which is nothing to be alarmed at. Vogelsong has pitched out of this world through most of 2012, a run Matt Cain and Tim Lincecum have never been on. It wasn’t going to last forever. Vogelsong is still a great pitcher and 2 starts should not change that fact. I’ll give credit to the Padres for fouling off pitches all day, not allowing Vogelsong to get into a rhythm. While you were reading this Everth Cabrera hit another foul ball. He hits a lot of fouls:

Everth Cabrera at the zoo

Bird Keeper: This here on my shoulder is a beautiful fowl

Everth Cabrera: /hits fowl with baseball bat

Brid Keeper: ….

Everth Cabrera: I hit fowls for a living.

It was definitely an unusual start for Vogelsong, as I said 7 of the 9 outs he recorded were strike outs. He certainly did not lack for stuff, but the Padres were feisty today. However we’ve seen over the course of the season, many of those foul balls are hit in play in most of his starts. I’m not concerned, although it’s worth noting the obvious point that if Vogelsong can’t snap out of it, the Giants playoff hopes are all but dashed.

*****

Jose Mijaras was pitched 1 2/3 innings, allowing 5 base runners and 3 runs. I think we all assumed when Mijaras came over he would be a situational lefty to loosen Jeremy Affeldt’s work where he can be more of a late inning pitcher. He would be a pudgy Javier Lopez. He’s been that, but also served as something of an innings eater for when the starter implode. Javier Lopez would never be left in a game for 2 innings, which is what Bochy was hoping to get out of Mijaras today. His splits are pretty well defined: vs lefties .572 OPS against, vs. righties .801 OPS. If it’s not a lefty, don’t use him, or it’ll be more performances like today.

*****

How the Giants scored their only run: Dropped pop up by Will Venable, wild pitch, fly ball to semi-shallow center. This is how you score runs in the major league baseball. 

*****

Beat L.A.