Bumgarner made his case Saturday by striking out 10 batters in six innings while allowing just two runs to improve to 14-8 with a 2.51 ERA on the season. 16-29 in the second half. “And we plan on being there. So it’s a playoff-type of matchup”.
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Left-hander Will Smith finished the eighth and started the ninth to face Anthony Rizzo, who had entered as the No.9 hitter on a double switch.
“He’s been throwing the ball well”, manager Bruce Bochy said. “Heart of the order up, man on second, it’s a different game”. Coghlan will likely garner more starts in the outfield before the year is out, as Joe Maddon auditions end-of-the-roster players for the playoffs. Rizzo was trying to be aggressive, of course you’d rather he had not, but he did.
I thought it was quite odd that Jorge Soler was scratched from the original lineup with what was reported as an “ingrown toenail,” yet a few hours later was healthy enough to bat for TLS in the fifth and stay in the game for an inning in left field. He would have been in scoring position with one out and Kris Bryant due up.
Carrasco (10-7) had the 10th double-digit strikeout game of his career and the third this season.
“I will say we hit some balls right at them, too”.
Jake Arrieta pitched well in a losing effort against the Giants on Saturday afternoon, allowing three runs (two earned) on four hits over his six innings of work. Chicago totaled seven hits and three walks with Arrieta and Javier Baez driving in runs while Baez and Ben Zobrist scored.
“It’s not very common with our group of guys”, Arrieta said. Join Da Windy City as we break down the events from Sunday’s game in the comments section below. “I always talk about increments of five and I remember back when we were just talking about five [games above.500]”.
Since July, the Tigers’ rotation has played off of a collective 3.43 ERA, good for second-lowest among major league clubs. TLS is a decent second baseman, but doesn’t really have the arm for third base, and it showed in that first-inning error. It cost him in the first inning when acting third baseman Tommy La Stella airmailed a throw to first after fielding Pence’s chopper, enabling Angel Pagan to score the game’s first run.
Eduardo Nunez drove in a run on a single in the fourth for a 2-0 Giants lead. “I had an opportunity to stop, it was in the fourth, to prevent some things from happening”. Starting Lester in up to two games in a best-of-five scenario makes all the sense in the world considering not much separates him and the righty starters on the team anyway. For the second consecutive day, they registered three hits in a one-run loss to baseball’s best team.
The Giants’ Cory Gearrin struck out Russell looking on a questionable call with a runner on second to end the 10th. Tall and slow to the plate, he’s had 45 runners steal with him on the mound – the most against any pitcher since Hideo Nomo in 2001, ESPN Stats & Info said.
In the sixth inning, Crawford singled, stole second and then swiped third with no one covering before he scored on Arrieta’s wild pitch to put the Giants ahead 3-1 in the sixth.
Blaine Boyer (2-3) pitched a scoreless fifth to pick up the win. Hunter Strickland entered and escaped the inning, but not before Bryant hit a line single up the middle on a 99.6 miles per hour fastball and Zobrist drew a walk to load the bases.
Trea Turner led off the game with a single, stole two bases and scored on Harper’s sacrifice fly. But Matt Szczur struck out, ending the inning.
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The Cubs left the bases loaded in the seventh when Russell flew out with two outs. He slid head-first to try to beat reliever Sergio Romo’s feet-first sliding tag of first base. “I just got frozen, just bad base-running play on my part”. “We just lined out. It would have been pretty cool, but glad we got the win instead”.
