San Francisco Giants Defeat Dodgers 2-1: Three Takeaways

In a game where there was a whole lot of urgency, the San Francisco Giants delivered. After calling up top position prospect, Christian Arroyo and starting him right away, the Giants signaled intent. Something needed to change.

The San Francisco Giants walked into AT&T park tied for their worst start in franchise history, and the Dodgers in town. There was a lot going on. The circus surrounding MadBum, and his first media appearance since the crash. Throw in the fact they DFA’d Chris Marrero, put Aaron Hill on the DL, and called up Drew Stubbs and Christian Arroyo, today was eventful.

The Giants got off to a good start, with the Giants moving the line after a Brandon Crawford double. Joe Panik got him home on a sac fly to make it 1-0. After that, Matt Cain took over.

Cain only gave up two hits over six innings, where he walked one and struck out three. He easily could’ve gone into the seventh, but was pulled from the game by Bruce Bochy and trainer, Dave Groeschner.

After that, Okert and Kontos made good work of the seventh inning. In the bottom half of the inning, Panik, Stubbs, and Pence provided the rally making it 2-0. That insurance run proved vital, as the Giants went on to win 2-1. Mark Melancon got the save and is now perfect in his save opps since opening day.

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A few take-aways from tonight’s game:

• Arroyo’s plate approach shows he’ll be just fine. He put together some really good at-bats today. And even though he didn’t get a hit, his plate approach, and patience was that of somebody well beyond his years. The 21 year old may have gone 0-4 in his first big-league game, but probably won’t be doing a whole lot of that over his major league career.

• Matt Cain is not the old Matt Cain, but he’s back. Cain is different now. He doesn’t get up to 94/95 on the radar gun. He doesn’t have swing and miss stuff much anymore. But he manages contact well, and that’s huge. His ability to get away from his “strikeout first” nature might have extended his career/time with the Giants. This was a move many criticized Tim Lincecum for not making towards the end of his tenure with the Giants. It’s also a move that saw Tim Hudson be a legit starting pitcher through his final seasons with the Giants. Cain probably won’t be striking out 10+ and getting close to perfect games much anymore. But if he keeps this up, he’s found a new way to be effective. All that matters is the scoreline, right?

• Buster. Ain’t. Havin’ It. Buster Posey won a gold glove for a reason in 2016. Tonight, he showed his pitch framing, and stellar defense to everyone who was watching. Gunning down a base-stealer to end the threat in the eighth was nice to see Posey do again. But when he threw out Justin Turner for being WAY too far off of second base, Buster just kinda “sonned” the Dodgers. While legitimate questions of what Turner’s brain activity was at the moment will be asked, Posey just made a brilliant decision, and executed to perfection. That’s what you expect out of your best player, game saving plays.

Next: Giants call up Arroyo

Tomorrow’s game will be same place, same time. This time, It’s Ty Blach vs. Clayton Kershaw. First pitch is at 7:15 pm PT, on NBCSBA and KNBR 680.