The Padres looked a little better than the Giants in every aspect of the game and a lot better at batting. All weekend, their starting pitching was better, their batting was much better, their relievers were better, their fielding was better and their base-running was better.
The first two games were close,(Giants 7, Padres 8 and Giants 1, Padres 2) but the Padres never seemed threatened. Even when they blew the lead Friday night twice it didn’t feel like they couldn’t come back. They have a stacked, confident line-up that damaged Tyler Rodgers and Camilo Doval, among the best of our ‘pen, for two runs each, as required. The Padres bats started game three on Sunday smoking hot.
Alex Wood had six Padres in scoring position in the first two innings Sunday but limited the damage to two runs. Manny Machado doubled, scored and walked. Austin Nola doubled. Jake Cronenworth had a sac fly RBI. Padres 2, Giants 0.
Wood was uneven. The Pads jumped on his sinker and the slider, but he struck out three to keep his start in check. Alex remained uneven to start the third. Wood gave up a single to Eric Hosmer, but then struck out Will Myers. He then induced a pop-up foul out by Luke Voit and a fly out to center by Ha-Seong Kim to end the top of the inning
Meanwhile, MacKenzie Gore cruised through the first two innings, giving up just one hit that he erased with a double-play. He struck out Wilmer Flores in the first and Joey Bart and Luis Gonzalez to close out the third.
Alex Wood walked Nola and then gave up a single to Jose Azocar to start the fourth with two on and nobody out, again. sigh. He fell behind Cronenworth 2-0, but battled it back to a 2-2 count before giving up a massive splash hit foul ball, followed by a hard hit single to right that scored Nola and sent Azocar to third. Wood left in the fourth with nobody out, three earned runs in, and runners in the corners for whom he was responsible. Padres 3, Giants 0.
Manny Machado then doubled in Wood’s other two earned runs off John Brebbia, when Darin Ruf dived for his fast-sinking liner to left and missed. The ball trickled under his outstretched glove allowing Cronenworth to score from first as Manny took second with nobody out. Padres 5, Giants 0.
Brebbia got Jurickson Profar to ground out to third, but then a Hosmer grounder up the first base line was mishandled by Wilmer Flores, who just couldn’t get ahold of it securely as he stumbled down the line and past the bag. The error allowed Machado to take third. Will Myers than smashed a ground rule double that bounced over the cars to left to bring them in and give Brebbia two earned runs of his own.
Brebbia then walked Voit and had a mound visit from pitching coach Andrew Bailey which perhaps helped him pop-up Kim to the infield for the second out and struck out Nola to finally end the top of the fourth, an ugly experience. Padres 7, Giants 0.
Darin Ruf walked and Mike Yastrzemski doubled to give the Giants runners on second and third with no outs. They only managed to plate one run off a Wilmer Flores sacrifice fly. Padres 7, Giants 1.
Zach Littell came in to pitch the fifth and picked up two quick outs, but then Manny Machado hit a two-out triple to deep right-center and Profar doubled him home. Machado was three for three with two doubles and a triple, with two rbi and having scored three runs. Littell got Hosmer to ground out for the last out, Padres 8, Giants 1.
Thairo Estrada singled and got to second on a wild pitch to start the bottom of the fifth, but the Giants stranded him. MacKenzie Gore struck out Joc Pederson to end the inning. The Padres kept up the hit parade in the sixth. Myers singled, Voit singled on another ball that was tantilizingly close to Darin Ruf’s outstretched glove. Kim doubled to deep left scoring Myers. Azocar sacrificed Voit in on a grounder. Padres 10, Giants 1.
MacKenzie Gore threw a three-up, three-down sixth to end his day. Gore had six strikeouts and gave up just three hits and a run on 90 pitches through six. He was brilliant. Manny Machado doubled again in the seventh. He was four for four with three doubles and a triple. sick. He had an extra base hit off every pitcher in the game to that point. Mauricio Llovera managed to keep him from reaching home.
Craig Stammen threw a perfect scoreless seventh for the Padres on ten pitches. Then Luis Gonzalez pitched for the Giants again and he had a perfect, scoreless eighth on just five pitches, none of which exceeded 50 mph! Giants right fielder Luis Gonzalez has now pitched two and a third innings in relief and given up just one hit.
The last time Luis pitched he turned around and hit a homer (off Albert Pujols) in the next inning and today after pitching in the top half of the eighth, he had base hit to lead off the bottom of the frame. Luis likes batting after pitching. Drin Ruf drew another walk. Unfortunately the Giants stranded them both, as newest Giants catcher Mike Papierski struck out swinging to end the inning.
Luis Gonzalez went back out for the ninth, and again, throwing no pitches that exceeded 50mph, he got an out and gave up a deep double to Cronenwrth and induced two ground outs. Gonzalez went two innings and gave up just one hit. His fastest pitch was 50 mph. Both the games in which Luis Gonzalez pitched were laughers in which the Giants were down by nine runs. But it begs the question why are we in this situation?
Steven Wilson came in for the Padres and got the save three-up, three-down on eleven pitches.
Final: Padres 10, Giants 1
Swept by the Pads at home, this was an ugly series. We got beat in a gut-wrencher, in a pitching duel and finally in a blow-out. The San Diego Padres are better than the San Francisco Giants right now and it isn’t that close. It doesn’t get easier – the Mets come to town next. I will be there Wednesday for the day game.
Rest up Giants, lick your wounds and shake it off.
Stay Up, Swan, Mind Your Delivery and Work with Staff on Maintenance to Avoid Blisters and Muscle Pulls
Alex “Swan” Cobb is 34 years old and has been in the majors since 2011, when he started for the Tampa Bay Rays, who had drafted him five years earlier. However he missed all of the ’15, ’16 and most of the ’19 season. He did play the full 60-game Irregular Season of ’20. (Details of his career to date continue below).
Swan opened this season with an excellent start for the Giants then endured an adductor strain in New York against the Mets, that made him basically worthless against the Nats. I was worried that we had a 34-year-old, injury-prone guy that we’ve paid $20 million for two years. But he was good in that close loss against the Cardinals in St. Louis and he was very good right in front of my eyes against the Rockies.
What happened yesterday in Colorado to Alex Cobb was a shame, because despite being very good for five innings, the sixth at altitude ballooned his ERA. I found it cool that Gabe Kapler said promptly after the game that it was on him, that he “probably should have” pulled Swan a few batters sooner. I am glad Cobb got the win and that he acknowledged Kap being a player’s coach, and protecting his guys. Giants 10, Rockies 7.
At this point, I trust Alex Cobb about as much as I do Alex Wood – the Alexes are excellent twice through the order and can give you five, but the leash should be shorter starting with the third time through the order. Actually, that phrase “short leash,” doesn’t suffice in our system – the point is, like everything with Kapler/Zaidi-ball, if they can go six, or even seven because of match-up or skill set that day, cool, but we are prepared to use our greater flexibility with the bullpen earlier in starts by the Alexes.
The bigger concern is keeping Swan out there. Cobb has been beset by injuries, yet his strike rate, skill set and will to win remain intact. Here’s a summary of the path our newest starter has taken:
Early in the 2013 season, his best statistically, Alex Cobb was drilled in the head by a comeback line drive and taken off the field on a stretcher with a concussion. He not only returned to play in that same season, he went 8 – 3 over 15 starts and played in two postseason games. He earned a win for the Rays in the American League Wild Card game over the Cleveland Indians, and started game three of the American League Division Series against the Boston Red Sox.
He went a respectable 10 – 9 over 27 starts for Tampa Bay in 2014 with a 2.87 ERA, but when he was supposed to be the Opening Day pitcher for the Rays in 2015, he couldn’t because he had tendinitis. Then it was revealed he had a partial UCL tear, and finally that he would undergo Tommy John surgery – which effectively took him out of all of 2015 and most of the 2016 campaign.
In 2017 Alex Cobb carried his heaviest load, going 12 – 10 over 29 starts with a 3.66 ERA. He had changed his mechanics and appeared back from TJ, with a skill set intact. The Rays parted ways with Cobb as he signed a lucrative four-year deal with the Baltimore Orioles in 2018, but he went just 5 – 15 in 28 starts with a 4.90 ERA. I am wont to blame the Orioles organization, not Cobb. Late in September, he ended the season on the injured list with an aggravated blister.
In March, 2019, still with the Orioles, Cobb again missed what was to be his Opening Day start. A week later, he was placed on the 10-day disabled list with a right groin strain to start the season, then on the disabled list for a third time on April 28 with a lumbar strain. He was transferred to the 60-day disabled list in May, and in June, it was revealed Cobb needed to undergo hip surgery, and he was ruled out for the rest of the season. He did return for the Orioles in the Irregular Season (2020) making 10 starts in the 60-game, Covid-shortened tourney, and going 2 – 5, with a 4.30 ERA.
The 2021 season found Alex Cobb with the Los Angeles Angels seeking a new start on the west coast, after he was traded to the Angels for second baseman Jahmai Jones. (The Orioles also agreed to pay over half of the remaining $15 million on Cobb’s salary). Cobb had stints on the injured list for blisters and right wrist inflammation, but he went 8 – 3 over 18 starts, with a 3.76 ERA.
As a San Francisco Giant, Alex Cobb is currently 3 – 1 over six starts with a deceptively high 5.61 ERA. He has 32 strikeouts over 25.2 innings and a 1.519 WHIP.