Monday’s Lineups and Pre-Gamer: Giants Finally Face Puig

Maybe the Giants just needed to get away from home and get to a place where they could just breathe easier. Instead they’re in Los Angeles. However, there are returns to speak of! Happy returns that involve Pablo Sandoval! He’s back!

Jun 5, 2013; San Francisco, CA, USA; San Francisco Giants third baseman

(48) hits a single against the Toronto Blue Jays during the fourth inning at AT

Aaaaaaaaand Belt’s batting eight what is even going on here. Last seven days Brandon Belt is has a .342 wOBA so it’s not like he hasn’t been productive, but you know the saying: “When Belt bats eight, the Giants win.” In games Belt has batted eighth, the Giants are 5-2.

That would be fun if he did that again. This is how Madison Bumgarner‘s pitches have done for him over the course of his season. His sinker stands out, yes, but that pitch hasn’t been thrown that often, unlike the four-seamer and the slider. His curve has a low batting average against, but is certainly doing its job. This, I would say, is pretty acceptable: He will face these guys:

Jerry Hairston and his .307 OBP and .287 wOBA must be batting fifth because he is batting right-handed. Fun fact: each of the six-seven-eight hitters have a higher OBP, SLG, and wOBA than Hairston does. Thanks, Don Mattingly, for helping the Giants! However, the rookie Yasiel Puig is still in there waiting to go all out. Now, as we look at Hyun-jin Ryu‘s outcomes for pitches, it’s no surprise that his changeup is performing quite well, but we knew it was a better than average pitch. The slider seems to also be doing some work for him, but he really uses that fastball a lot. Other notes for today:

Melissa wrote her thoughts on the calling up of George Kontos and Jean Machi being sent down here, though I will say the calling up of Kontos had to happen some time, and now just happens to be that time. May the Giants have reacted to Machi’s poor outings with the Giants and Kontos’ stronger outings with the Grizzlies? Perhaps. Also, for tomorrow, this seems relevant:

Michael Kickham back with the team, which should be a lock for him pitching tomorrow against Stephen Fife.

So basically, Brandon Crawford‘s OK. That’s good to hear as he plays through the pain in his fingers.

7:10PM PST start time scheduled for this wonderful rivalry. As long as you can listen to Kruk & Kuip or the legendary Vin Scully, if you can choose between the two, you can do no wrong in listening to a well-called game.