Sunday’s Lineups and Pre-Gamer as Cain Looks to Give Giants the Split

A relieving 2-1 victory over the Marlins yesterday afternoon gives Matt Cain and the Giants a chance to split the four-game series to two-a-piece today with the Marlins, whom had bested the Giants almost ten times in a row. Giants pitchers this series have all turned in acceptable performances and now it’s Cain turn to give the Champs a chance to win. Here’s what Marlins manager Mike Redmond has written down on his lineup card:

Despite four homers since coming back on the 10th of this month, Giancarlo Stanton hasn’t teed off yet against the Giants and has gone a weak 2-for-14 in this series thus far. Meanwhile, #2 hitter Ed Lucas has enjoyed his time at AT&T, going 5-for-10, including his first career homer yesterday off Barry Zito to give the Marlins their only run of the game.

Jun 22, 2013; San Francisco, CA, USA; Miami Marlins infielder

(59) reacts after hitting a home run against the San Francisco Giants in the first inning at AT

If Nathan Eovaldi sounds like a familiar name and not from the Marlins, then you’ll probably remember how he was one of the pieces in the trade that brought Hanley Ramirez to the Dodgers last season. He has only pitched in one game this year, so that’s why the count on all of his pitches are so low. He still got his share of whiffs in his game against the Diamondbacks where he went six innings and only allowed four baserunners, including one big fly. Mr. Eovaldi will be facing this lineup which brings back Andres Torres:

You’ve heard it on the broadcast lately, how Gregor Blanco has been so great recently. He’s one of twenty-four players with over a .400 OBP in the month of June and has a higher wOBA this month than guys like Giancarlo Stanton and David Ortiz. His fWAR in the last 14 days of 1.0 is tied for second with David Wright and Mike Trout, so his production during that timespan for the team is around that level, which is pretty cool. Getting back to The Horse, I gave you Eovaldi’s pitch outcomes, and here’s Cain’s for the year: Every pitch is a ball more often than a strike except for the curveball, and only by a little bit. This chart really gives you a good idea of what is being thrown most often — the fastball-slider combo being important for Cainer, with the change and the curve constantly making an appearance. As much as his slider was talked about last season, it’s interesting that in his pitch values his slider has the highest value of all his pitches, with his fastball having a horribly low value. Other pitchers whose fastball value is that low are Jonathan Sanchez, Matt Magill, and Jason Marquis. Definitely a stat I want to learn more about as I look to improve my knowledge on advanced stats.

Other notes on Giants happenings starting with Angel Pagan:

This was expected, so we’ll see how that goes. As for the Pablo Sandoval rehab:

All’s well in Camp Panda, and even though video may have looked like he may still look pretty fluffy, management hasn’t showcased any worries or concerns.

Final game of the series begins today at 1:05PM PST. After the game the Giants will fly down to Los Angeles, where they’ll begin a ten game road trip and a three-game set with the Dodgers on Monday. After LA, they’ll have a day off, then head off to Colorado for the weekend, then go to Cincinnati for four.