San Francisco Giants 3 Up, 3 Down: The Motor City
The San Francisco Giants entered Detroit having swept two series in a row but weren’t able to keep the momentum, losing two of three to the Tigers.
1 – Pence Producing Runs
Hunter Pence struggled for a long time through June, but he was back to being a run producer on the road trip. In Detroit, he drove in five runs over three games, including three RBI during Wednesday’s win. Pence also had an RBI in both Tuesday’s and Thursday’s games.
Overall on the trip, Pence drove in 10 runs, boosted heavily by a five-RBI day on Friday in Pittsburgh. That equals out to 28.6 percent of Pence’s total RBI on the season. The Giants could certainly use a hot Pence in the middle of their lineup again.
2 – Hwang at the Hot Corner
One of the big questions, maybe the biggest, regarding Korean third baseman Jae-gyun Hwang upon his major league call-up was his defense. Since coming up, Hwang has looked nothing short of spectacular at the hot corner. He made a few sparkling defensive plays, including this gem on Wednesday:
Hwang has flashed the leather and shown excellent range as well, solidifying himself in short time as a more-than-viable option at third base. Defense at the position hasn’t looked very good at times this season, and seeing Hwang come up with numerous great plays is a sight for sore eyes.
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3 – Dyson Cleaning Up
Sam Dyson‘s resurgence with the Giants has been one of the team’s best stories so far this year, and he continued to pitch well in his lone save chance on Wednesday. With the team holding a one-run lead, they turned to Dyson to hold on.
In his third save chance with the team, Dyson set the Tigers down in order to clinch their lone victory of the series. Dyson had three save chances on this road trip, and came through in all of them while allowing only one hit. For a look at some in-depth numbers relating to Dyson’s incredible improvement, check this out.