The Giants swept the Nationals in commanding fashion, blowing up innings with crooked numbers, using 13 pitchers and achieving a 67% strike rate as a staff. They were 15/30 with RISP for the series and Joc Pederson showed power and contact. It was a series that started with Gabe Kapler using a ‘bullpen game,’ and middled and ended with Giants aggressively trying to tack on runs with a lead.
Giants 5, Nationals 2
Alex Wood was good. Effective for five innings, he struck out five, gave up four hits, two walks and two earned runs. The ‘pen picked it up from there and very encouragingly Dominic Leone had a solid outing to hold the sixth and Jon Brebbia did the same to hold the seventh. Tyler Rogers took the eighth and Camilo Doval closed it out for his third save of the young season. The offense came from Joc Pederson, Wilmer Flores, Darin Ruf and Brandon Crawford.
Giants 12, Nationals 3
This was a solid, complete-team performance behind the ace, Logan Webb, on a day when the guys lost Mike Yastrzemski to a positive Covid-19 test. Darin Ruf played left and young Luis Gonzalez took center. Kap moved Joc to right and put him in Yaz’s lead off spot and it paid off.
Joc Pederson hit two big-flies! Love that his bat is heating up – he’s our Kris Bryant replacement and so far, so good. Today Joc was three-for-four: Homer, Sac fly, Double and Homer, for three RBIs. He’s had four homers on this road trip, filling the void of Brandon Belt’s short slump.
Webb went six and two-thirds, giving up three runs on seven hits with six Ks and a walk. Tyler Rogers took the eighth for his sixth hold.
The Giants offense exploded again, this time in their last inning, carving out six insurance runs off the Nats Steve Cishek in the ninth. Jake McGee and Zack Littell were both available for the bottom of the final frame despite all the arms Kapler used this past week. Kap’s decision to call for a “bullpen game” in game one, relying on Webb to go long, was tested, but it was sound. In a non-save situation, Zach Littell closed out the Nats in order. Boom.
The G-men batted fully around in the ninth, including the pinch runner. Cishek hit two batters. It was vicious … which leads us to discuss our new philosophy under Gabe Kapler:
Standard Operating Aggressiveness
For the second time this season, Gabe Kapler and the staff offended an opponent by being aggressive on the basepaths in a game, treading upon the unwritten rule that you shouldn’t pile runs on a team when you have a big lead. Here’s how AP reported it:
“With two outs in the top of the ninth on Friday night and San Francisco ahead 7-1, the Giants’ Thairo Estrada took off on an 0-1 pitch and Brandon Crawford blooped a single over Washington shortstop Alcides Escobar, who grabbed the ball and threw out Estrada at the plate.
“Heading off the field, Escobar walked over to the third-base line and began yelling into the Giants’ dugout. He was soon joined by Victor Robles. Manager Dave Martinez and a group of Nationals came onto the field and Martinez guided Escobar off. The Giants remained in their dugout, and the incident didn’t escalate further as San Francisco beat Washington 7-1. “They did some things that we felt like (were) uncalled for,” Martinez said. “But you guys can ask Gabe Kapler about that.”
They did. And Kapler replied:
“We scored seven runs in an inning tonight. With Josh Bell and Juan Soto and Nelson Cruz in the middle of their lineup, we know they’re capable of scoring seven runs in an inning as well,” Kapler said. “It’s definitely not about running up the score. We felt like we’re respecting our opponents and we’re gonna respect our opponents at every turn. This is about using every tool at our disposal to compete.”
Here at GBC we 100% support Gabe Kapler’s reasoning on this. It is a sane, sensible philosophy that seeks to establish a standard operating procedure – independent of the score – of aggressiveness in the minds of the players.
I call it Standard Operating Aggressiveness.
Back on April 12th, in a game against the Padres at home, Kapler had Steven Duggar try to steal second base in the second inning with a nine run lead and then, with the score 10 -1 in the sixth, Kap greenlit Mauricio Dubon to bunt for a base hit. The Padres were enraged.
Asked about it, Kapler replied: “Our goal is not exclusively to win one game in a series. It’s to try to win the entire series. Sometimes, that means trying to get a little deeper into the opposition’s ‘pen. I understand that many teams don’t love that strategy. And I get why.
“It’s something that we talked about as a club before the season … We were comfortable going forward with that strategy. It’s not to be disrespectful in any way. It’s because we feel very cool and strategic. It’s the best way to win a series. When I say cool, I mean calm. We’re not emotional about it. We’re not trying to hurt anybody.“
Kapler met with reporters the next day to elaborate:
“Everybody is competing on a Major League Baseball field. It doesn’t make any sense how one part of the field stops competing and the other part of the field keeps competing. I can’t think of a reason why that makes sense.
“The pitcher on the mound is trying to get you out, the batter at the plate stops competing with all the tools at his disposal? I’ve never quite understood it, I don’t understand it now and I don’t think that the best way to play this game is to take away any of your tools to be successful on a Major League Baseball field.
“What’s the threshold? One team thinks it’s eight runs in the sixth inning. Another team thinks just keep going after it as long as you’re early in the game. But there’s no real cut off point.
“What we’ve always said as a club, and what we’ll maintain is if we don’t want a team to bunt, we will defend the bunt. If we don’t want a team to steal, we will defend the steal. If we don’t want a team to swing 3-0 late in the game, we’ll throw a ball. We have so much control on our side, we don’t have to worry about what other teams decide to do or decide not to do.”
Way to go, Kap. Giants Baseball Corner approves a Standard Operating Aggressiveness.
The Giants have gone seven of ten and won three of four series on the road with two sweeps. The guys travel to Milwaukee for a one gamer against the Brewers tomorrow to round out the road trip. By a spin of the rotation wheel, they find themselves landed on facing the NL Cy Young Award winner from last year, Milwaukee Brewers right-hander Corbin Burnes, who won the 2021 award in a highly contested vote.
Way to go Giants! Wrap it up in Milwaukee with a win and we’ll see you back home soon.
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.