Games 11 and 12 - Cubs and Dodgers

Game 11 with the Cubs was a game for the ages.  The Giants played a tough 5 innings with the Cubs just to watch a close game go to a blow-out as the Cubs scored 7 in the final inning.  Dejected, heads hanging, our boys skulked off of the field to the bench for their last at bat.  Dave, Shawn and I reminded them of the comeback victories we'd had earlier in the year, but despite our best efforts they weren't buying it.  Then a miraculous thing happened with two outs; an 8-run rally. 

The game with the Cubs had been well played up until the 6 th inning.  Our pitching led by strong efforts from Ben, Ethan, Savion and Nic kept the game close with a hot-hitting Cubs team who recorded 14 hits.  We improved over our last game with the Cubs by issuing only 9 walks instead of 20 and striking them out 9 times!  That made a huge difference.  While we threw the ball around a little bit too much, we played decent defense recording 9 put-outs, including a caught-stealing from both Ben and Joe behind the plate and some sweet D from our infielders Trevor and Easton. 

Offensively this was the type of explosion our team is capable of.  19 runs is a lot of scoring and just enough to take the decision in this game.  Multiple hit games came throughout the order from Trevor, Nic, Ben, Ethan, Savion and RJ.  As a team we had 14 hits and drew 11 walks.  This included some real disciplined at bats in a chaotic last inning.  Our boys performed extremely well under pressure in the bottom of the 6th inning as we mounted our 2-out charge.  Some key hits by Trevor, Nic, Ben and Savion and clutch at-bats from the rest of the order allowed us to rally past the Cubs in the last inning.  Ethan's steal of home for the game winner took a lot of guts and shows what a winner this kid really is. It took me 2 hours to exhale after this game.  Our told our kids to remember how bad they felt after the top of the 6th and remember how they were able to come back despite the large deficit.

Game 12 was not as dramatic nor as fulfilling in the end.  Our offensive explosion against the Cubs seemed to have robbed of any offensive production in this game.  That coupled with the excellent, and I mean excellent defense from the Dodgers put the Giants on the short side of this contest.

This was not our best defensive effort of the year.  We continued some poor decision making with the baseball that led to too many extra bases for the Dodgers.  We need to know when to hold on to the baseball versus when to take a shot at a baserunner.  We also need to improve our outfield play by catching some balls and blocking those that we cannot get to.  Trevor pitched well in this game finding his groove after a tough 1st inning.  Roberto came in and held the game together with some nice relief pitching.  We probably could have won this game had we supported our pitchers with better defense and more scoring.

As I mentioned our offense kind of shutdown in this game.  We managed to score 6 runs, but left several opportunities to score on the bases.  Ben and Trevor had awesome 3 for 3 performances against some of the best pitching in the league.  We actually had good contact all game, but too many balls were hit straight at Dodger players and when they had the opportunity, the Dodgers did well making the outs.  We still have one more left against the Team and our coaches are busy mixing up the magic formula that will win for us. 

Go Giants