Series Preview #18: Diamondbacks @ Giants
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MLB vs FIFA.
To write a preview when you have not even one day between the previous series and the upcoming one, on a weekday, definitely adds to the time pressure. Luckily for me, the opponent for the next series is the San Francisco Giants. We saw them just a couple of days ago. That, in general, is no fun for a series preview, even less for a weekday series, but it definitely gives me a bit of stress relief: we saw them a couple of days ago, so there is no news there, and no one is going to read this preview anyhow, given the opponent and the weekday schedule.
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So, with your approval, I will keep this series preview short.
I was a bit surprised to see that San Francisco will host some soccer World Cup matches this summer, but it makes all sense, of course, because it is a major city.
My memories of the 1994 World Cup, that was organised in the USA, is limited to watching a weird shirt of Germany, seeing a country like Bolivia play, first time I saw the US soccer team and Alexi Lalas and getting up in the middle of the night to see The Netherlands struggle in their group, for example against Saudi Arabia. It wasn’t the best of performances of the Dutch, but the quarter finals against Brazil were a terrific match, with an, in The Netherlands, legendary commentary when we scored the equalizer after being down 2-0, but we lost anyhow. I still hate Bebeto and his swinging arms. Brazil had eliminated a fiery fighting US the round before. I am sure you join me in my everlasting hatred.
San Francisco got to see Brazil in 1994 four times, because they were the group head and had their fixed seat in the group phase in San Francisco. I did not remember that. This year, though, I am inclined to say that the Bay Area has not been spoiled with matches: Paraguay (twice), Qatar, Switzerland, Austria, Turkey, Algeria, Australia and Jordan (twice) will play a match at the 49ers stadium. Cheapest tickets can be bought from 200$ and up. Holy crap, that is a lot of money for watching some second/third category teams.
I am sure most people in San Francisco prefer to see Major League Baseball and why not the Arizona Diamondbacks.
After being tarred and feathered on their way out of Arizona, the San Francisco Giants received the Chicago White Sox. The White Sox are surprisingly playing around .500 this season and was therefore not a guaranteed redemption effort for the struggling Giants, but they came out on top.
On Friday evening the Giants had a catastrophic 4th inning and were then down 9-0, losing the match eventually with 9-4. On Saturday a 5th inning grand slam from Harrison Bader propelled the Giants to a 10-3 win. On Sunday it was Rafael Devers doing the same in the 5th inning and he launched the Giants to another win, 8-5.
Those 22 runs in 3 games might do wonders for that struggling offence. It certainly has boosted their confidence, so the Arizona pitching corps better be warned.
Matchups.
Game #1 Mon 05/25 2:05 PM MST, Merrill Kelly (ARI) vs Landen Roupp (SFG).
- Merrill Kelly. 7 GS, 41.0 IP, 4 W-3 L, 5.71 ERA, 5.62 FIP, 1.51 WHIP, 27/18 K/BB. $18,000,000.
- Landen Roupp. 10 GS, 55.0 IP, 5 W-4 L, 3.27 ERA, 2.59 FIP, 1.15 WHIP, 61/21 K/BB. $800,000.
Oh, in the end I do feel time pressure on me because why on earth are they playing the Monday game at 2PM????
Said Imstillhungry95 in his preview: Loupp has had a pretty decent season thus far. Through his first six starts in April, he only gave up more than three runs once. It was a seven run beat down against the Mets in his second start of the season. He had settled down fairly well, though, until the end of the month. Since the calendar has turned to May, he’s pitched three times, and he’s given up four runs twice. This could be a situation of catching a pitcher at the right time.
Well, Roupp went strong against the Diamondbacks and pitched 6 innings, giving up just 1 run. Unfortunately for him, so did Ryne Nelson go strong in that game and it came down to moments. In this case it was Ketel Marte who decided that Arizona was going to win.
Merrill went strong as well in his game against the Giants, giving up 3 runs in 6 innings, but enough for the win, and the sweep.
Game #2 Tue 05/26 6:45 PM MST, Eduardo Rodriguez (ARI) vs Tyler Mahle (SFG).
- Eduardo Rodriguez. 10 GS, 60.1 IP, 4 W-1 L, 2.24 ERA, 3.66 FIP, 1.19 WHIP, 43/23 K/BB. $21,000,000.
- Tyler Mahle. 10 GS, 51.2 IP, 1 W-6 L, 6.10 ERA, 4.73 FIP, 1.57 WHIP, 54/21 K/BB. $10,000,000.
Said Imstillhungry95 in his preview: That’s a stat line for Mahle that looks like it would fit right in with the Diamondbacks pitching staff. It’s been very much a coin flip for Mahle and the Giants as to what sort of performance he is going to put up. He’s started nine times. Three times, he has held his opponent scoreless. Once he gave up two runs. The other five starts? He’s given up five runs or more. Combine this with an offense that sporadically likes to beat up on pitchers, this could be a very beneficial matchup for the Diamondbacks.
Well, Mahle definitely tried but he gave up 6 runs in 5 innings in that matchup against Merrill Kelly, and was tagged with a loss. Said Tyler Mahle after the game: “It’s a bad one, I mean, five innings, six runs is never considered a good start. I don’t think anything was off, just made some bad pitches in some key situations and they capitalized on it. I’ve not given us a chance to win every day [I start]. So that really doesn’t help our record at all.”
Except for a couple of hiccups, E-Rod has been very good so far this season (knocking on every piece of wood I can find at my home). His latest performance was 7 strong innings at Coors Field, allowing 4 hits and a walk, without any damage. As a Diamondback, Eduardo Rodriguez has faced the Giants 4 times and got 1 win. That was last season, in September. 14 runs in 20 innings isn’t a great overall performance against San Francisco since wearing Sedona Red, so time to make a statement.
Game #3 Mon 05/27 12:45 PM MST, Michael Soroka (ARI) vs Trevor McDonald (SFG).
- Michael Soroka. 10 GS, 55.0 IP, 6 W-2 L, 3.27 ERA, 2.94 FIP, 1.26 WHIP, 57/14 K/BB. $7,000,000.
- Trevor McDonald. 4 GS, 22.2 IP, 2 W-1 L, 4.76 ERA, 3.43 FIP, 1.02 WHIP, 21/4 K/BB. $596,453.
Unfortunately the Diamondbacks couldn’t get Soroka a win despite going 6 strong innings, allowing just 1 run. That was already the third time where you’d say the Canadian should have gotten a win. Soroka has seen the Giants just 3 times in his career as a starting pitcher, the last time last year, when he gave up 3 runs in 6 innings and got the loss, as a Washington National.
Trevor McDonald was called up to the major leagues about a month ago after Logan Webb hit the IL. Webb is on his way back though and the biggest question is whether McDonald will stick in the rotation. He did well against Padres, Dodgers and Athletics, but his first non-West coast team knocked him around pretty hard: the White Sox scored 4 runs on him, after hitting two batters and issueing a walk, an anormality for a pitcher who can be proud of his command and control. McDonald was off and not helped by some defensive errors and Borucki allowing two inherited runners to score. Unless Webb makes a surprisingly fast comeback to the majors, it could be McDonald’s final outing in the rotation at the moment, though he has pitched better than his ERA might show.