San Francisco Giants: Blach Steals Show in Giants’ Best Win of the Year
The San Francisco Giants enjoyed their best offensive performance of the season, but it was Ty Blach who stole the show in a 10-0 victory.
The San Francisco Giants put on their best offensive performance of the season on Friday, taking advantage of a beleaguered Philadelphia Phillies’ pitching staff. They put together a season-high 10 runs while banging out 15 hits and working 10 walks. It all came in support of young starter Ty Blach, who pitched a beauty to open the roadtrip.
Blach pitched the best game of his young career, which is no small feat for him. In only his 10th start, Blach pitched beyond seven innings for the seventh time, and allowed three runs or less for the ninth time. He went well beyond those standards, however. Blach earned his first Buster Hug by throwing a nine-inning shutout, his first career complete game and shutout.
Before Blach’s mastery of the Phillies’ lineup, Giants’ pitchers had thrown just one complete game. In his second start of the season, Madison Bumgarner went the distance in a 2-1 loss against the San Diego Padres. Blach’s effort wasn’t only the Giants’ first individual shutout of the season, it was the first team shutout of the season. They were one of three teams left in the big leagues that had not shut out their opposition, alongside the Phillies and the Detroit Tigers.
Blach’s shutout was the 11th in the big leagues this season, and it may be one of the stranger ones. He allowed seven hits, all singles, the highest total in a shutout this season. He also struck out just four batters, the second-lowest total in a shutout this season behind Masahiro Tanaka, who struck out three in nine innings.
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Even with a slightly-high hit total, Blach was in complete control the entire way. The Phillies put a runner in scoring position only once, when they were able to piece together a pair of hits in the second inning. Blach had his groundball pitches working all night, and most of the hits he allowed were on groundballs that found holes. He recorded 17 outs on the ground, including getting a pair of double plays, and didn’t walk anyone to keep his pitch count in check and give him a shot at the ninth inning.
Blach threw a career-high 112 pitches, 77 of which came in for strikes. It was his third 100-plus pitch outing in his last four starts. Blach only got into three three-ball counts in 32 batters faced.
That doesn’t even take into account Blach’s unusual day as a hitter, either. He took a walk in each of his first three plate appearances, becoming the first pitcher to draw three walks in a game since the Colorado Rockies’ Aaron Cook did so in October 1st, 2009. He was the first Giants’ pitcher since Ray Sadecki in 1969 to have a three-walk day. Blach then would strike out in his last three plate appearances of the day, giving him a double hat trick. According to Andrew Baggarly, Blach is the third player in big league history to have a double hat trick (three walks, three strikeouts) in a nine-inning game, joining Jack Clark (1987) and Rob Deer (1991).
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Blach also scored two runs, playing a big part of the Giants’ best offensive output of the season. Denard Span collected five hits for the first time as a Giant, scoring three runs and driving in another. Eduardo Nunez had three hits, a wak, and three runs batted in. Brandon Belt and Brandon Crawford both drove in two runs. Joe Panik had two hits and an RBI, while Orlando Calixte picked up a hit and two walks. Austin Slater, making his major league debut, had his first major league hit and RBI in the sixth inning.