San Francisco Giants show late life, fall 5-3 to Cubs

San Francisco Giants lost 5-3, but sprinkled in the loss was rookie Ryder Jones‘ first MLB home run, and Carlos Moncrief blessed us all by showing off his arm again.

Matt Moore pitched six innings allowing five runs on eight hits, while striking out five.  The San Francisco Giants’ offense was quiet all night, but credit an in-form Jake Arrieta who was on his game.

The Giants started the bottom of the first with Joe Panik singling to get on.  He was then moved over to third by jarrett Parker’s ground-rule double.  Buster Posey and Pablo Sandoval would fail to score the runners.

Chicago would start scoring in the second inning as Jason Heyward singled to get on, then he was cashed in by Javier Baez‘ inside the park home run.  Baez was almost thrown out by Carlos Moncrief who threw a seed from Triple’s Alley to one hop the plate.

Moncrief’s throw was so impressive, he actually cause some relief for the fact the San Francisco Giants just gave up an inside the park home run.

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Starting off the third, the Cubs’ Jon Jay singles to start the inning, and is moved to second by Matt Moore’s wild pitch. Kris Bryant was then hit by a pitch as Moore’s erratic night continued.  Anthony Rizzo followed by hitting a sac fly to center, and Jay advanced to third as he should with Span defending.

Wilson Contreras then produced an RBI strikeout that pretty much sums up how this season is going for the San Francisco Giants, and the score was now 3-0.

Matt Moore pitched better at times, but it seems he can’t catch a break on any location miss even two inches off of the target.  He’s allowing a lot of hard contact, but on the flip side, he’s competing and eliminating the walks which is a plus.  Sometimes you live with the contact, he’s “making them earn it,” as they say.

In the top of the fifth, Jon Jay singled to lead off again, and was moved to second by Moore’s wild pitch.  Rizzo singled to right fielder Moncrief and scores Jay for a 4-0 lead.  Moore battled back and got Contreras to strikeout.

Ben Zobrist then drew a walk, and Albert Almora Jr followed it up by singling to center to score Rizzo and bring the score to 5-0.

San Francisco Giants’ offense finally woke up a tad, and was started from a similar source.  Pablo Sandoval doubled and was cashed in by Ryder Jones‘ first home run, bringing the score to 5-2.

In the bottom of the seventh, Denard Span reached second on Heyward’s fielding error, and the error became costly.  Joe Panik singled to center and Span scored easily bringing the score to 5-3 and knocking Jake Arrieta out of the game.

Arrieta went 6.1 innings, allowing two earned runs on nine hits while striking out five.

Matt Cain also threw three scoreless innings in relief, but the offense remained in check and the Chicago Cubs beat the San Francisco Giants by a 5-3 final.

Game Notes

• Carlos Moncrief has really impressed with his glove and more so with his arm.  According to some reports, he threw mid to high 90s coming out of high school so the defense is encouraging, but I’d love to see the kid get some consistent at bats to see if he can force his way into play.  The arm is no joke, and if he can hit for average he deserves to have a better shot.  Although Parker and his bat may have something to say about that.  He’s been on fire since his return from the DL.
• Matt Moore continues to get torched on minor location misses.  Although he was erratic with multiple wild pitches, hitting batters, he is keeping the walks to a minimum.  There was no speed gun on the telecast tonight, so I can’t comment on his velocity, but just from my eye I’d assume he was maybe throwing 90-91.  The ball did not have much life or zip coming out of his hand.  On the positive side, his curveball helped him make some big pitches to get him out of jams.  It’s going to be a very interesting offseason for Moore, who needs to figure out his mechanics and get back to the pitcher he was over the last few seasons prior to this one.

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