By Morris Phillips
After another big win for the Giants, 8-4 at Milwaukee, you get a sense of how difficult it is to characterize the current state of the three-time World Champs.
Since May 12, the Giants have become an offensive machine. On that day in Houston, the Giants scored more than six runs for the first time in 2015 in an 8-1 win over the Astros. After failing to score more than six runs in any of their first 32 games, the Giants have done it seven times in the last 13–including Monday afternoon–and won each time.
The Giants aren’t a Big Orange Machine in reference to the hitting-crazy Reds of the mid 70’s, but the same old pitch-and-catch bunch that did so much damage in three of the last five post-seasons. They have the second-best record in one-run games (10-5) in the National League and a league-best eight shutout wins. All but one of those shutouts has come in the team’s magical month of May, in direct conflict with any contention that the club is driven by offense.
Given all the offense and stellar pitching so then what’s the real strength of the ball club? Who’s the key guy that’s driving all the recent success?
Well, they’re actually two guys, the only two Giants who appear on the various lists of National League statistical leaders: closer Santiago Casilla and shortstop Brandon Crawford. In his fourth, full season as a major leaguer, Crawford is having a breakout season, hitting .298, 50 points higher than any of his previous, season-ending batting averages. And Casilla has been quietly effective, among the league leaders in saves with 12 and greatly responsible for the Giants leading the league in save percentage (86.7%).
Given all those numbers and only two names, only one conclusion can be drawn: the Giants are a well-rounded team as the Brewers no doubt found out on Monday at Miller Park.
The Giants entered their holiday series with Milwaukee weary from a couple of tough losses and more than seven hours of weather delays in Denver over the weekend. And if that wasn’t enough, the Giants’ bullpen was shot–a regular occurrence for a team that’s been through Denver—and the team weary from arriving at their hotel at 1 a.m. and having to rise and shine for a Memorial Day matinee.
Then the Brewers had their own shenanigans going on with the opening, closing and then reopening of the Miller Park fan-like roof while the game was in progress. Probably orchestrated to throw the visitors off their game, if so it worked as the Giants trailed 4-1 in the fifth inning.
At that point, Tim Lincecum had allowed three homers, including one that almost was none, as a controversy developed in the first inning when Khris Davis’ opposite-field shot was appealed by the Giants, who felt the Brewers’ slugger failed to touch home plate on his trip around the bases.
The Giants’ appeal found favor with home plate umpire Will Little, who then ruled Davis out. But Milwaukee’s new manager, Craig Counsell, did good, demanding a video review, and winning it when the New York video review posse sided with Counsell and the Brewers, and against Little, who couldn’t have been any closer or had a better look at Davis’ foot.
In the third inning, Davis touched up Lincecum again, and this time gave home plate a stomp off the two-foot jump for a 2-0 Milwaukee lead.
Lincecum had allowed just one home run coming in—a highlight of his impressive pitching to start 2015—but he would allow three on Monday. In the fifth, Ryan Braun went tape-measure as his prodigious shot was measured at 474 feet, the fourth longest in the history of Miller Park.
With Lincecum allowing bombs and the Giants’ offense quiet with the exception of Nori Aoki, who would amass three hits including a solo shot, manager Bruce Bochy admitted afterwards that the tough travel had his club sleepwalking.
“It didn’t look good the way Lohse was throwing,” Bochy said. “You’ve got to keep going hard and see what happens.”
‘What happens’ happened for the Giants in the sixth as eight consecutive hitters reached base and the team scored seven times to go from three down to four up. Hunter Pence came up the capper, a two-run double off the left field wall that scored Gregor Blanco and Aoki. Two oddities took place in the Giants’ surge: Angel Pagan struck out twice in the inning, bookending the eight consecutive hitters that reached, and Brewers’ centerfielder Carlos Gomez committed a pair of damaging errors.
The Giants’ taxed bullpen was spelled by Jeremy Affeldt, who relieved Lincecum and got five outs. And then Hunter Strickland, recalled from AAA Sacramento, got the final seven outs without allowing a hit.
The win allowed the Giants to keep pace with the Dodgers, who won later at home over the Braves, 6-3. Los Angeles continues to lead the NL West by two games.
On Tuesday, the Giants have Madison Bumgarner on the mound in a matchup with Milwaukee’s Matt Garza, who’s enjoyed some success facing the Giants in his career. That one commences at 5:05pm PST.
