San Francisco Giants 3 Up, 3 Down: Get the Brooms Out
The San Francisco Giants just keep rolling, picking up their fifth consecutive series win as they swept an opponent for the first time this season. Here’s 3 Up, 3 Down from their series with the Atlanta Braves.
3 UP
1 – Up and Down the Lineup
The Giants had huge offensive performances from just about every player that took a swing this weekend. Brandon Crawford has rediscovered his swing, and he had a huge series in Atlanta. His averaged went up by 46 points, while his slugging percentage jumped by 78 points. Andrew McCutchen is also reversing an unfortunate first month, as he raised his average by 25 points in Atlanta, and his .379 on-base percentage is second among qualified Giants.
Elsewhere, Brandon Belt reached base six times (his .422 OBP is sixth in the NL). Buster Posey had five hits and three RBI in the first two games of the series, and his backup Nick Hundley drove in the go-ahead run on Sunday. Gregor Blanco set the tone for the entire series with a two-run triple in the second inning on Friday. Evan Longoria collected his 1,500th career hit on Saturday after hitting another home run on Friday.
The most surprising contributions came from new second baseman Alen Hanson. The third-year big leaguer and former top-100 prospect had two hits in each game during the series, including three doubles and a home run. He drove in five runs and scored three times, frustrating the Braves with his athleticism and risk-taking style on the basepaths.
2 – The Rotation
The Giants are in the early stages of a long stretch without an off-day, and the starting rotation did their best to give the bullpen a break. Chris Stratton gave up two runs in the first inning on Friday, but settled in and gave up just one run over the next five innings, putting a terrible start last Saturday behind him.
Ty Blach used a huge lead to pitch deep into the game, throwing 7.2 innings for the longest start by a Giant so far this season. He allowed just one earned run, lowering his ERA to a very respectable 3.60. Andrew Suarez couldn’t quite match the innings on Sunday, but gave the team 5.1 strong innings, allowing just one unearned run while pitching through a ton of traffic. He induced three groundball double plays for the second start in a row, and earned his first win as a big leaguer for his efforts.
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San Francisco needed that type of length from their starters. They are three games into a stretch of 17 games in 17 days, and the next stop on their road trip is Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia. That’s a park that is historically quite hitter friendly, and the kind of place where short starts are not uncommon.
3 – Get the Brooms Out
The Giants came into Atlanta facing a red-hot Atlanta team. With their young, budding stars Ozzie Albies and Ronald Acuña Jr. mixing with the veteran lineup, Atlanta had won five games in a row and seven out of eight to come into the series 19-11. They were a first place team with a ridiculous +57 run differential.
But the Giants were as hot as they’ve been in almost two seasons, and they handled the youngsters on the other side of the field. They opened the series with a five-run win, and followed up with a nine-run victory. The last game was tight at the end, but the Giants came away with their first sweep of the season.
San Francisco now sits four games over .500 at 19-15, and are just a half-game out of the wildcard race. They’ve won five consecutive series, and have even gotten their run differential back to positive territory. They were -26 after the doubleheader-opening loss last Saturday, but have outscored their opponents by 27 runs while winning six of the seven games since.