San Francisco Giants 3 Up, 3 Down: Stealing a Series from Cleveland
1 – Moore’s Mental Mistake
Even though Moore pitched much better on Monday, he still managed to shoot himself in the foot. With the Giants holding a 3-1 lead in the fifth inning, Moore coaxed a comebacker from Bradley Zimmer that should have easily ended the frame. Instead, Moore’s underhanded toss sailed way over first baseman’s Jae-gyun Hwang‘s head, allowing a run to score and another to score on Francisco Lindor‘s single that followed.
Moore’s outing overall was encouraging, but there was still that one mistake that cost him dearly. It is, at least, something to build off going forward, which he and the team didn’t have the last few outings before Monday.
2 – Miscues
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Besides Moore’s error, a Hwang error at first base on Monday cost the Giants another run that ended up being the deciding factor. The team also had to fight through some defensive mistakes on Wednesday as well. In the seventh inning, Kelby Tomlinson forgot how many outs there were while making a rare start in left field. After catching a deep flyball for the second out, Tomlinson began to jog in as if the inning were over. That allowed a runner to move to third, and George Kontos had to work a little harder to keep the score where it was.
Earlier in the game, a Gorkys Hernandez throw was close to gunning down a runner at home. He made a strong throw, but just up the first base line, and it allowed the run to score and two runners to advance a base. The single that followed drove in two, and it looked like that would be the difference before the team’s late rally.
3 – Belt Going Cold
Brandon Belt was swinging a hot stick before a wrist injury sidelined him for a couple days, but his bat has cooled off again. Belt was hitting .313/.389/.639 with eight doubles, two triples, and five home runs in the 22 games prior to getting hurt, but struggled in two games back against Cleveland. On Tuesday, he struck out in all three official at-bats, and went 0-2 with another strikeout on Wednesday.
Next: Giants: Just Say No to Sandoval
The good news is that Belt is still finding his way on base. He worked three walks over the two days, and scored the first run of Wednesday’s late rally. A #Belted would be pretty cool to see soon, though.