CLINCH WATCH 2021 – Old Friends Shine – 9/10/2021

Captain Belt Leads The Way

The Giants rolled over the Cubs 6-1 yesterday, led by newly self-coronated captain Brandon Belt.  Belt felt like the team needed a leader, so he put a tape C on his uniform like a dime store Charley Conway.  It seems to have worked, as Belt doubled and came around to score in the sixth, then hit a two run homer in the seventh.  He also reached on a walk.

It’s not surprising that the Giants are putting the hurt down on the Cubs.  The Cubs threw a combined no-hitter against the Dodgers in June (which I was in the Ravine for, what a day), then went on an historic 13 game losing streak.  That streak absolutely forced the front office to rethink their trade deadline moves. The Northern Chicago team had all but a fire sale, signaling they might be switching into rebuild mode.  

The moves made them…less of a challenge for other teams.  Former Dodger Joc Pederson went to the Braves, and Kris Bryant went to the Giants.  Bryant had a rather quiet night at the plate in his return to Wrigley, 0-3 at the plate with 2 strikeouts and only reaching on a walk in the eighth.  

Despite Bryant’s less than triumphant return, the Giants won 6-1 and improve their record to 91-50.

Rox Wallop Philies

The Rockies played eight shutout innings against the Phillies in Citizens Bank Park.Story, Cron, and Díaz all homered, Daza and Hilliard doubled.  Right hander Germán Márquez pitched a hell of a game.  He did give up six hits, but only gave up one walk and put up zeroes for all six of his innings.  He also helped his own cause, singling in Bryce Harper for his seventh RBI on the year.

Dodger starters better keep an eye on Márquez if they want to bring the pitching Silver Slugger to LA.

Rockies improve to 65-77.

Urías Puts Up Seven Scoreless 

Gotta say this game?  Pretty chill.  Like, it wasn’t perfect by far, but it wasn’t very stressful and boy have we needed some games like that.

Of course, part of that chillness probably owes to Tim Neverett on the call with Orel.  The start of football season signals not only Twitter’s futile quest to make me care about handegg, but the sniping of Joe Davis by Fox to call games.  Like I’m glad for Joe Davis to get all the national calls he deserves, but it only highlights the fact that he will likely be stolen for a national desk job in the near future.  He totally deserves it, of course, and never hearing  BAAAACK ATTHE WAAAAALLL ever again might be worth it but…

Well, let’s not borrow trouble before that comes.  And maybe hope that the Dodgers will like, I dunno, try a woman in the seat maybe?  

Of course you can’t talk last night’s game without talking about Chris Taylor’s EXCELLENT glove work in centerfield.  He flashed the leather several times, proving that sno cones are always good ballpark fare.  Hopefully this will give Cody a little time to make the right adjustments to get his shit in order.  I say, lovingly.

One sad note from the game.  Padres shortstop Jake Cronenworth was hit in the hand with a pitch from Julio Urías, fracturing his finger.  You never want to see a player leave a game because of injury, but especially not a hot hitter.  The Padres have beaten the Giants four times this year.  We needs them to maybe do that a few more times before the end of the season.  It’ll be harder to do with the CronZone sidelined.

Arizona Diamondbacks Still A Team

Former Giant Mason Saund-errr Madison Bumgarner took a loss in a close 5-4 game against the Seattle Mariners in T-Mobile Park.  

The real story here is Casey Sadler, former Dodger who has been on one hell of a baseball journey.  Sadler was drafted by the Pirates in 2010 and has since played for the Dodgers, Cubs, Rays, and finally the Mariners.  All of those moves have come in the past three seasons.

In addition to being a most excellent #girldad, he’s just, like, a super nice guy.  He also has a .90 ERA on the season in 30 IP.  Sadler only pitched .1 innings last night, but struck out his man to end the inning.  He’s been excellent in spots like that for the Mariners and I’m so happy to see it.

D-backs record sinks to 45-96, for a .319 win percentage.  Can’t blame the hometown DJ for this one.