Fact: San Francisco Giants lefty Madison Bumgarner gave up five earned runs to the Los Angeles Dodgers on Tuesday, his highest total of the 2016 season.
Bleacher Report will be bringing sports fans the most interesting and engaging Cold Hard Fact of the day, presented by Coors Light.
Source: B/R Insights
Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com
The Los Angeles Dodgers (69-55) maintained their spot atop the National League West division standings Monday with an 18-9 drubbing of the Cincinnati Reds.
On Tuesday, the Dodgers will open a key three-game home series with the San Francisco Giants (68-56) and go for their third straight win, as the division lead will be on the line and both teams are listed at -110 (bet $110 to win $100) at sportsbooks monitored by Odds Shark.
The Giants will be going for their third consecutive victory in the series after winning the last two games between the teams at home in the middle of June. They are 6-4 in 10 meetings so far this season and will be looking to snap a two-game skid overall with ace Madison Bumgarner (12-7, 2.25 ERA) on the mound.
Bumgarner has won two in a row following a stretch in which he went five starts without a win, going 0-3 with four of them coming on the road. He is 5-4 away from home with a 2.85 ERA, more than a run higher than his ERA at AT&T Park this year, and 0-1 in two outings versus Los Angeles with a 4.09 ERA.
The Dodgers will counter with Kenta Maeda (12-7, 3.29) and have won in each of the past five games he has started. Maeda has earned victories in four of them, allowing two runs four times and walking just three batters while striking out 26 in 28.2 innings.
Maeda has a losing record at home, though, at 4-5 despite a solid 3.33 ERA but beat San Francisco on April 17, giving up one run and four hits in seven innings of a 3-1 win.
Those bettors looking for a totals play in the series opener might want to look at the under, which has cashed in four of the previous five meetings along with eight of 12, according to the Odds Shark MLB Database.
There have been five runs or less scored in three of the last four games, including a 3-1 victory for Los Angeles in the most recent one at Chavez Ravine on April 17. The under is also 4-1 in the past five meetings played at Dodger Stadium dating back to last year.
Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com
The San Francisco Giants (66-54) will try to end a four-game losing streak behind ace Madison Bumgarner (11-7, 2.11 ERA) when they host the New York Mets (60-60) on Thursday.
The Giants are listed as -160 betting favorites (bet $160 to win $100) at sportsbooks monitored by Odds Shark against the Mets, who will lean on ace Jacob deGrom (7-5, 2.30 ERA) to get them back on track.
Bumgarner ended a five-start winless streak last time out against the Baltimore Orioles on Saturday, pitching seven scoreless innings and allowing just three hits with three walks and eight strikeouts in a 6-2 victory.
The 27-year-old southpaw had not earned his previous win since before the MLB All-Star break, even though he gave up two runs or less three times in those five games, getting two runs of support or less four times.
For New York, the chances of a repeat run to the postseason look bleaker with each game, as the team is coming off a 13-5 road loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks on Wednesday. The Mets lost two of three at Arizona to fall back down to the .500 mark.
The good news is that they have won in the last three games deGrom has started, along with seven of the past nine. He is 4-1 during that stretch but owns a 2-3 mark away from home with a 2.83 ERA in nine starts and opponents hitting .268 against him.
The lanky righty has already beaten San Francisco once this season, surrendering no earned runs in six innings of a 6-5 home victory back on April 30.
Bumgarner has also defeated the Mets this year, throwing six scoreless frames in a 6-1 road win on May 1 with three walks and seven strikeouts. However, that is only one of two times the Giants have won in the past seven meetings following a 9-1 run in the series dating back to 2014, according to the Odds Shark MLB Database.
The over also cashed in the first three meetings between the teams this season in New York after going under in the previous three, all of which took place in San Francisco.
Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com
San Francisco Giants catcher Buster Posey was removed from the lineup on Sunday with a back injury. It is unclear when he will be able to return.
Continue for updates.
The Giants announced Posey would not play against the Baltimore Orioles on Sunday due to back tightness.
Durability has been a key part of Posey’s game, as the backstop has played in at least 147 contests in each of the last four years, so this is a concerning setback. He also dealt with an irritated nerve in his thumb earlier in the season.
Fans can look at Posey’s lengthy list of accomplishments to realize how important he is for the Giants. He was the 2010 National League Rookie of the Year and 2012 National League MVP, helping lead the Giants to three World Series titles in his career.
Posey turned heads in 2012 when he won the National League MVP award behind a .336 batting average, 24 home runs and 103 RBI, but the 29-year-old is still a prime producer.
The Giants are World Series contenders again this year largely because of Posey’s presence behind the plate. He helps manage their excellent starting rotation and is one of the team’s key offensive cogs at the plate.
Losing him for significant time would be a difficult blow for the Giants heading into the playoffs.
Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com
The San Francisco Giants outlasted the Miami Marlins in a 14-inning marathon Monday, 8-7, and shortstop Brandon Crawford made headlines in the win.
According to SportsCenter, Crawford’s seven hits were the most in an MLB game since 1975 and tied the National League record. Rennie Stennett of the Pittsburgh Pirates was the last to reach the mark.
The Cauldron shared a table illustrating Crawford’s place in history:
Crawford finished the game 7-for-8 with two RBI, a run and a stolen base. He was a home run short of the cycle but fittingly drove in the game-winning run in the top of the 14th with a single to center field. The hit scored Brandon Belt, although Crawford was thrown out while trying to take second base on the throw.
The Giants appeared to be on their way to a loss at Marlins Park when they trailed 5-1 through six innings, but they poured in five runs in the top of the seventh. Crawford singled and scored during the rally. Before knocking in the winning run, he played the role of late-game hero with a game-tying RBI in the eighth after Miami had taken the lead.
The Giants had some fun on Twitter with Crawford’s historic day:
“It doesn’t happen very often that you get eight at-bats in a game,” Crawford said, per MLB.com’s Patrick Pinak. “I figured [seven hits] probably didn’t happen a whole lot. You don’t think about stuff like that when you’re playing.”
The 2015 All-Star, Gold Glover and Silver Slugger was slashing .265/.334/.422 with 10 home runs coming into the game.
According to ESPN.com, Crawford hit .208 in his first 24 at-bats in August. He was dialed in during the victory over the Marlins, though, which was a much-needed one for a Giants squad that was a disappointing 6-15 since the All-Star break before the win.
San Francisco is one game ahead of the archrival Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League West and could use an extended hot streak from Crawford as it attempts to snap out of its recent downslide and reach the postseason.
Monday’s contest was a dramatic step in the right direction.
Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com
The San Francisco Giants were without manager Bruce Bochy for Monday night’s game against the Miami Marlins because of an illness, per Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle, but he is ready to return.
Jon Heyman of Today’s Knuckleball noted that Bochy has been released from the hospital, is feeling better and will manage on Tuesday night.
According to Schulman, the Giants didn’t give a reason for Bochy’s hospitalization on Monday other than that he was “feeling ill.” Schulman noted on Monday that the manager was “expected to rejoin the team Tuesday after being held overnight for observation” at the University of Miami Hospital.
Bochy was admitted to the hospital on Monday morning, although it wasn’t “immediately clear if this had anything to do with a February 2015 heart procedure in which Bochy had two stents inserted,” per Schulman.
The Giants kicked off a three-game series in Miami on Monday, and bench coach Ron Wotus assumed manager duties for Bochy in the contest. The Giants won Monday’s game 8-7 in 14 innings.
Bochy has been with the Giants since the 2007 season and sports an 814-755 record with the club. The 1996 National League Manager of the Year helmed the San Diego Padres from 1995-2006 before joining the Giants.
Bochy has led the Giants to three World Series titles during his tenure in San Francisco (2010, 2012 and 2014) and has the team well-positioned to challenge for another crown this year when he returns. The Giants are 63-48 and sit a game ahead of the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League West.
However, the division leaders are also in the midst of a slump and are a mere 7-15 since the All-Star break.
Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com
To baseball fans east of the Mississippi River, San Francisco is a place where luck strikes in even years and baseballs splash into McCovey Cove.
It isn’t until October that the San Francisco Giants crash sports pages around the country. So it’s not surprising that their aggressive trade-deadline moves went unheralded. Organizations such as the Chicago Cubs and Texas Rangers, both aggressive buyers, and even the New York Yankees, deadline sellers, received more attention.
But consider this notice—for those in the eastern part of the country or those westward who are mired in NFL training camp battles—that the trades the Giants made in the week leading up to Monday’s non-waiver deadline will help them edge the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL West race.
On July 28, San Francisco acquired Eduardo Nunez—a player capable of moving all over the diamond—from the Minnesota Twins. Then on Monday, as the deadline neared, the Giants acquired left-handed reliever Will Smith from the Milwaukee Brewers and left-handed starting pitcher Matt Moore from the Tampa Bay Rays.
Nunez is hitting .290/.321/.430 and adds another bat to an offense that ranks in the top half of MLB in most relevant offensive categories, but is most notably fourth in on-base percentage (.333). Adding Nunez allowed the Giants to deal Matt Duffy, who is on the disabled list, in the Matt Moore deal.
Adding left-handers to the pitching staff, though, should give the Giants the edge over the second-place Dodgers.
San Francisco and Los Angeles play nine more times this season, including the final series of the regular season, a three-game set at AT&T Park.
Since no series will be more important in deciding the NL West crown, the Giants had to make sure they’d match up well in those games.
The Dodgers’ two best hitters this season in terms of batting average, shortstop Corey Seager and first baseman Adrian Gonzalez, both hit lefty. The difference in their performance against right- and left-handed pitchers is staggering.
Seager is hitting .328/.387/.551 against righties but only .256/.302/.462 against lefties. Gonzalez is batting .293/.376/.428 against righties but .247/.311/.330 against lefties.
Gonzalez is hitting .293 against the Giants this season with four doubles and six RBI in 10 games.
Until the trade deadline, Madison Bumgarner was the only left-handed pitcher in the San Francisco rotation, and Javier Lopez was the only left-hander in the bullpen.
Both San Francisco pitching additions were vital, as teams look to play more situational ball in the final months of a division race. When Moore starts, it prevents opponents from stacking their lineups with left-handed hitting. Every opposing manager knew San Francisco’s staff was largely right-handed, which gave opposing left-handed hitters an advantage even after manager Bruce Bochy pulled a righty starter.
Smith allows Bochy a late-inning southpaw that gives the Giants an advantage against most left-handed bats. Though Smith has been uncharacteristically bad against left-handed hitting this season, he has been solid in those match ups throughout his career. In Smith’s career, he has limited left-handed hitters to a .254 average.
And the moves will not only help the Giants when they play the Dodgers, but they will also enjoy more lefty-lefty matchups across the board.
Of course, as all contenders do at the trade deadline, the Dodgers made moves, too.
But while the Giants seemingly boosted a contending team, it appeared as if Los Angeles tried to slap gauze on a bleeding roster.
The Dodgers have been without ace Clayton Kershaw, who has been on the disabled list since June 28 with what the team called a “mild disc herniation,” per Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times. Until the injury, he had been by far baseball’s best pitcher, boasting a 1.79 ERA, 1.65 FIP and 0.727 WHIP, per FanGraphs. In 16 starts this season, Kershaw had issued only nine walks.
The team announced Wednesday that it placed Kershaw on the 60-day disabled list, a procedural move that nonetheless spurs more speculation that he will not return in 2016. Andy McCullough of the Los Angeles Times shares the sentiment.
In anticipation of Kershaw’s continued absence, the club acquired left-handed starter Rich Hill from the Oakland A’s on Monday. Though Hill, 36, is enjoying a comeback season with a 2.25 ERA in 14 starts, he is hardly a replacement for Kershaw.
The three-time Cy Young Award winner made it through at least seven innings in all but two of his starts this season. He went six innings in those two outings, including his most recent effort against the Pittsburgh Pirates on June 26.
L.A. can’t expect any replacement to be that consistent, which means the bullpen will be taxed more entering the final months of the season. There is a lot of pressure on Hill not only to stay healthy, but to continue to pitch at a high level.
The same deal that brought Hill to Los Angeles included outfielder Josh Reddick. He hit .296/.368/.449 with the A’s. His trade was a result of another disappointing season from Yasiel Puig.
The latest episode in the ongoing soap opera with Puig saw the team officially demote him to Triple-A on Wednesday, and Reddick is an improvement over Puig’s .260/.320/.386 slash line.
But Reddick also bats lefty and hits .167/.247/.167 against southpaw pitching. So while the move may help Los Angeles, San Francisco’s transactions appear to counteract his addition.
On one hand, the Dodgers made their moves to play catch-up. They wanted to get back to where they were in June with a healthy Kershaw and Puig hitting .333/.371/.455.
On the other hand, the Giants gained a springboard from their trades.
With San Francisco’s recent organizational success, baseball fans might assume they’ll see the Giants when the postseason rolls around. But know that when they’re playing in October this year, moves of the past week will be what got them there.
Seth Gruen is a national baseball columnist for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter @SethGruen.
Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com
The Tampa Bay Rays agreed to trade starting pitcher Matt Moore to the San Francisco Giants Monday ahead of the trade deadline.
The Giants announced they traded third baseman Matt Duffy, shortstop Lucius Fox and pitcher Michael Santos to Tampa Bay in exchange for Moore, after Joel Sherman of the New York Post first reported the deal.
Moore emerged as one of the most promising young starters in baseball during the 2013 season when he went 17-4 with a 3.29 ERA and 143 strikeouts in 150.1 innings. Injuries ended up derailing his ascension toward ace status, though.
The left-hander underwent Tommy John surgery after just two starts in 2014. While he completed the recovery process in time for the second half of last season, he didn’t look anywhere close to normal, as he posted a 5.43 ERA and 1.54 WHIP in 12 starts.
He’s shown signs of improvement so far during the current campaign. He’s still not all the way back to the level he achieved before the injury, but his strikeout rate is up (7. K/9) and his walk rate (2.8 BB/9) is down compared to last year (6.6 K/9 and 3.3 BB/9). Those are usually hallmarks of a pitcher who is rounding back into form.
The 27-year-old lefty said he was starting to find a rhythm again after his first outing of the second half, per Gary Shelton of the SaintPetersBlog.
“I just feel like I’m pitching to my capabilities,” Moore said. “Being able to string together back-to-back innings where we retired three in a row, I think that’s something to hang my hat on most these days, just being able to get some quick innings, keep my pitch count on track.”
His record from the early years of his career makes him an intriguing pickup. That’s especially true because FanGraphs notes his pitch speeds are right in line with what they were during his breakout 2013 season. It just comes down to getting his execution back.
The need for the Giants to bolster the starting rotation is clear. San Francisco has a strong trio of Madison Bumgarner, Johnny Cueto and Jeff Samardzija, but Jake Peavy and Matt Cain are major question marks. Swapping Moore for Peavy or Cain will be a major upgrade.
More importantly, Moore is a longer-term asset for the pitching staff. Bumgarner is the only starting pitcher under 30. Tyler Beede and Phil Bickford are San Francisco’s two best young arms, but neither is close to hitting the majors—Beede has made 18 starts for the team’s Double-A affiliate.
Moore adds nice value for the Giants beyond 2016. According to Spotrac, he has three team options through 2019 that total $7 million, $9 million and $10 million. That gives San Francisco more flexibility with the staff.
Ultimately, if you consider the type of package it would have taken to acquire Moore three years ago, this trade is a reasonable investment. There is no guarantee he’ll ever showcase that type of form again, but he’s flashed enough promising signs for the Giants to take a chance on him.
Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com
The Milwaukee Brewers parted ways with one of their top bullpen arms Monday, as they traded Will Smith to the San Francisco Giants for Phil Bickford and Andrew Susac.
The Giants announced the trade after Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports first reported the deal.
Since spending the first two months of the season on the disabled list with a knee injury, Smith has been steady in relief, posting a 3.68 ERA, 22 strikeouts and a 1.23 WHIP in 22 innings pitched.
The 27-year-old lefty has spent parts of three seasons with the Brew Crew after two years as a member of the Kansas City Royals, and he has developed into a dominant force out of the pen.
Smith came into his own last season when he posted a 2.70 ERA and struck out a career-high 91 batters in 63.1 innings. He was also a workhorse in 2014, appearing in a National League-high 78 games.
While the Georgia native boasts an electric arm, he became an obvious trade candidate for the Brewers since they are building for the future. With Smith set to receive a raise in arbitration during the offseason, getting something in return for him and saving money was a logical maneuver for a Milwaukee team that is loading up for the future.
As the Royals have proved in each of the past two seasons, having a strong bullpen is a big key to making a deep run in the playoffs and winning a World Series championship.
Kansas City used the triumvirate of Wade Davis, Kelvin Herrera and Greg Holland to do precisely that, and the Giants took a page out of that book by bolstering their pen with the addition of Smith.
Smith may not be a make-or-break player in terms of winning a championship by himself, but when added to an already strong team overall, he provides an element that could be valuable near the back end of the bullpen.
San Francisco hasn’t gotten much production out of its lefty relievers so far this season, as Javier Lopez is struggling with a 3.93 ERA over 18.1 innings. Smith stands to fill the role of the No. 1 left-hander out of the Giants bullpen down the stretch.
Perhaps the one downside with Smith is that he doesn’t have much experience in high-pressure situations since he has never appeared in the playoffs. However, if he continues to perform like he has thus far in 2016, he may be one of the best under-the-radar additions in Major League Baseball prior to the deadline.
Follow @MikeChiari on Twitter.
Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com
The San Francisco Giants announced Thursday they acquired infielder Eduardo Nunez from the Minnesota Twins in return for minor league pitcher Adalberto Mejia.
Entering Friday’s slate of games, Nunez is batting .296 with 12 home runs, 47 RBI and a league-leading 27 stolen bases.
The 2016 American League All-Star spoke with MLB.com’s Rhett Bollinger about leaving the team with which he’s spent the past two-plus seasons:
The 29-year-old has been enjoying his best year in the major leagues and was one of the only bright spots on a Twins team that is one of the worst in the big leagues.
His 110 hits led the team, and his 12 home runs were tied for third behind Brian Dozier and Miguel Sano, respectively. Nunez has experienced a major jump in the power department, as he had never hit more than five home runs in a season since coming up with the New York Yankees in 2010.
He collected one of his homers in an unconventional way:
Nunez will hit his third year of arbitration after the campaign ends, per Spotrac. He’s set himself up for a nice payday, after earning the first All-Star appearance of his career this season.
Now on his way to San Francisco, Nunez is joining a contender that enters Friday with a 2.0-game lead over the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League West. That’s a major change compared to playing on a last-place Twins team that improved to 38-63 after Thursday’s win over the Baltimore Orioles.
This acquisition addresses a big problem the Giants have been dealing with for over a month. They have been without starting third baseman Matt Duffy since June 19 because of a strained Achilles, which has forced the team to use a platoon of Conor Gillaspie and Ramiro Pena in his place.
Nunez will likely slot into the starting third base role until Duffy returns. According to John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle, Duffy will begin playing minor league rehab games Saturday.
The Giants will be able to take advantage of Nunez’s versatility and play him all over the infield when Duffy returns.
But to get him, San Francisco had to part with its seventh-best minor league prospect in Mejia, per MLB.com.
Twins interim general manager Rob Antony told Bollinger that six teams were interested in Nunez, adding that Minnesota was looking for “close-to-MLB-ready pitching.”
Mejia is 7-3 with a 2.81 ERA in 18 starts between Double-A and Triple-A this season, as he’s rebounded from a 50-game suspension in 2015 for testing positive for a banned stimulant.
MLB stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com.
Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com