GIANTS POSTCAST: GETAWAY DAY BLUNDERS Doom Giants in Another Series Loss

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1:03Labor Day deals are on now at Lowe's, in store and online. Valetue99, Wassiplies last, selection varies by location. C-Lowe's.com for more details. Soil offer, excludes a lasken Hawaii. This is the Giants Postcast. You're instant game reaction for the San Francisco Giants, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network. Your team, every day. Yo, what's up everyone and welcome back to the Lockdown Giants Postcast. I'm your host Eric Triple E. Engle. Thanks for joining us today and for every Giants Postcast here on the Lockdown Sports Network. Today, the Giants dropped their 26th series of the season. They fell to the Pittsburgh Pirates 5-2 today at PNC Park. Offensively, the team struggled vitally. They mustered just two hits, only an infield single, and the other a pinch hit, double by Junghuli. Obviously, this last Luster offensive effort was nowhere near enough to make up for the

2:08multitude of walks and bad defensive plays that plagued the Giants in the field today. Up next, the Giants continue their road trip with a series against the New York Mets, starting tomorrow at City Field. We'll break it all down, but first I want to thank all of you for watching us on the Lockdown Giants YouTube channel. Please, please, please, if you aren't already subscribed to hit that subscribe button right now. Thanks also for tuning in on the Lockdown Giants Podcast feed. However, you're getting the show, we appreciate it. Make sure to check out the Lockdown Giants Daily Show for more in depth coverage. Today's episode is brought to you by Fandall. College football Saturdays are already packed with reasons to get excited. And this season, Fandall is giving fans even more ways to get in on every matchup. Join all the action at Fandall.com. We got to start with Blake Tidwell in this one. We'll get to the offense. And it seemed like without Rafi, kind of being the engine turning this thing, the straw that stirs the drink, the rest of this team just didn't have the juice today. And we'll get into all that Giants really struggling against lefties, but I want to start

3:11with Blake Tidwell. Mainly because yesterday's show, we didn't really get to talk about the pitching very much in yesterday's matchup. I want to make sure we get it in today. And I really do think that Blake Tidwell is a very interesting piece for this Giants team going forward. We don't really know how this guy's going to factor into the rotation next year. Is this a relief arm? Is this a guy who, you know, the Giants, I think, have an idea that this guy can be a starter? But does he really have the stuff to be a starting pitcher in this league? So let's talk about his day. Because as I've said, multiple times, we have talked about this almost every single Blake Tidwell start on the show. This guy profiles really well at like his stuff profiles really well. His sweeper, it's got a lot of movement. It's got a lot of bite to it. It's hard to track out of the hand. The fastball, it's live, but you know, past those two pitches, it's a lot of question marks. And the biggest issue for Tidwell, as you saw again today, the command, get five walks

4:11in today's start, did not throw nearly enough strikes, 95 pitches, 49 strikes. That's almost a 50-50 split, man. You got to be filling up the strikes on more than that, especially as a young pitcher. Your stuff is good. Like, Blake Tidwell's stuff is good. If he just throws it over the plate, hits his spots, I think he can be a pretty decent arm. I don't know if he can be a starting pitcher with just essentially two effective pitches. And really today did not look like that four-seamer was very effective for Tidwell. I mean, he just really did not get a ton of strikes with that pitch. I would have liked to see a higher strike percentage, 58% of the times he threw that ball. It was a strike, but I need the four-seamer to be a little bit higher than that 58%. The sweeper, only 52% of the time, it was a strike. The sinker, only 52% of the time, it was a strike. One weird thing about Tidwell's day today, threw that sinker more than any other pitch.

5:11Well, just as much as he threw it as the four-seam fastball, I guess. Both pitches he threw 31 times through the sweeper 27 times. The sinker isn't something that he normally throws that much. I mean, usually he's throwing the fastball, the four-seamer, almost twice as much as he's throwing the sinker on the season. He's only using the sinker 14.5% of the time and the four-seamer 31.2% of the time. So overall, he just didn't like that fastball today for some reason out there in Pittsburgh. He went to the sinker. Now, not a great decision, I don't think, by Tidwell today. I mean, the average exit Velo on the fastball was 97.5 miles now on the four-seamer, but no hits recorded often off of it. The sinker, average exit Velo, 91.5, so a little bit lower on the average exit Velo, seven bad ball events, three of them were hit hard, and two total hits off of those seven bad ball events. He was only getting the sinker over for a first pitch strike, three of the eight times that he threw it, which is just 38% of the time.

6:13It wasn't necessarily like the sinker was good today, so he went to that. It seemed like the four-seam was bad. So he went to the sinker, which didn't really play very well either. The sweeper, I mean, he only had the one bad ball and it went 103 miles an hour, and that wasn't very good. But ultimately, the way that this, that Blade Tidwell profiles his a pitcher, I don't know that he's got another pitch in the arsenal that's as good as the sweeper. The four-seam fastball is supposed to be pretty good, but on it, this is why you need a third pitch. I mean, this is why, as a starting pitcher, you need to have that third weapon to go to. If he's just a relief arm and the four-seam isn't working, it's just in a date almost sweepers, just sweepers, sweepers, sweepers, sweepers all day long, if that's the case. You're only out there for an ending or two. You're not going to face any of these batters more than once. You're probably only going to see a handful of pitches from you. So, hopefully, then don't figure out that sweeper in those three or four pitches. Hopefully, only that many that you'll see from Blade Tidwell.

7:16But based on the way he was unable to throw strikes today, it's more like a six or seven-pitch at bat. And you know, it's, you see enough of those, you're going to be able to catch the break on it and you're going to be able to drive that pitch if it's left up in the zone. The four-seam fastball just could not, it did not seem like he could locate it today. So lost three miles an hour on that four-seamer by the time we got to the fifth inning. That's a pretty big drop. I mean, to go from 94.5 to 91.6 with that same pitch, that's concerning, man. Like that 91 is not going to play with that four-seam fastball for Blade Tidwell. It's not like a tugboat whose, you know, fastball is low 90s, but it's got all that crazy movement and drop to it. That's not the same pitch that Blade Tidwell is working with here. So you see the importance for a starting pitcher to have the third pitch, right? Because if he's only got two and he's struggling with one of them, you can't really get through multiple innings with just one effective pitch, maybe one.

8:16Sure, maybe one inning. You might be able to do it. If you get the right matchups at the dish, if you're Blade Tidwell, you're facing a bunch of righties, hit them with all those sweepers and maybe you can get out of the jam. It just isn't something that you can do over five innings of work today. I'm really honestly surprised that Blade only gave up these two runs while walking five. So we do have to say, despite all of the command issues, he still struck out five, right? Like he's still dodging bats with these pitches, even when he can't command. So all of this is to say basically, Blade Tidwell still kind of in a nigma. This guy has a lot of potential. He could definitely be a starting pitcher for the Giants next season. He could also be a guy who completely has the bottom fallout and just can't find the strike zone. Like we've seen from a multitude of giant pitchers that we had high hopes for this season. Blade Tidwell is two biggest things over the offseason. Number one, command, command, command, command, get, command over all of your pitches.

9:16Be able to hit your corners, be able to throw at least that fastball in the sweeper, where you want to hit the edges with those things, command the outside corners of the strike zone, and you will be okay. If he can develop a third pitch that's actually viable, he can start to be a really effective starting pitcher if he combines that with better command. These are two big things that he's going to need to work on. I don't think that he accomplishes both of these in the offseason to the extent that he needs to in order to be a number two or number three guy on this starting pitcher staff. I think he's more going to be like a guy who kind of improves in both of those areas and is battling for the fourth or fifth spot in the starting rotation next season. That's what I see for Blade Tidwell. I hope he overachieves. I really, really, really do like the way that his sweeper profiles. He's a guy who obviously can stretch out. You can get up around 100 pitches. I need to see that Velo be a little bit more consistent once he's getting up around over 60 pitches on that fastball. A lot of stuff from Blade Tidwell to get into today.

10:17We still need to get into the happenings of today because, man, the giants, we've been putting it off the giants. That's a very fun game for them today at the dish and also equally not as fun in the field. The giants, some bad blenders, some subpar ball pin outings, just not what you really want to see and obviously the offense really inept today. We'll get into all those things and more next, you're on the Lockdown Giants Postcast. Today's show is brought to you by Amazon and a big thank you to our friends at Amazon for this limited break. This back to school season spent less on your kids with Amazon. We all know how crazy the back to school shopping experience can be. Starts with a few items on the list than suddenly you're shopping for supplies, clothes, lunch gear, tech, and about 10 other things you didn't see coming. It all adds up and fast. Like when your kid's definition of need for back to school shopping is a lot different than your definition of need.

11:18Somehow the list keeps getting longer every time you look at it. Explaining the need versus want can undram this time of year has just become an annual part of the process. Or when the teacher's supply list arrives and somehow every item feels completely reasonable on its own. But when you add everything together and realize just how much stuff one's kid needs for the school year, it can make your head spin. So remember, with Amazon's low back to school prices, just spend less on your kids because every dollar you don't spend on them is a dollar you haven't spent on them. Shop back to school at Amazon and spend less on your kids. Welcome back to the Lockdown Giants Postcast. I'm your host Eric Triple E. Engle and today the Giants drop one in Pittsburgh 5 to 2 to the Pittsburgh Pirates. So the Giants 26th series loss of the season and to give you guys a little more context, there's 17 and 26 and three in series by series this season at home. They actually have a winning record of by series 11, 10 and one.

12:19So you have one more home series than you have lost. And I think that that's, you know, you got to start with the home cooking, right? You got to figure out a way to bring that on the road. For the Giants this year, the road has been a very scary place. Six and 16 and two in series away from Oracle Park. You've lost 10 more series than you've won on the road. You're not going to be a good baseball team if you can't win games on the road. And if you're barely over 500 at home, that's just not going to work. It's not going to be a good way to win baseball games. And ultimately, it's not a good way to be a good baseball team. And ultimately, the Giants, you got to have more consistency, but not only on the road, but against left-handed pitchers because against righties this year, Giants 42 and 57 against lefties, 16 and 25. I mean, you win loss ratio against lefties is a lot worse than it is against righties. Like, yeah, they've lost the win lost difference, like the number of games that they've lost.

13:19The number of games that they've lost compared to the number of games that they've won, the difference between those two, it's relatively the same versus left versus righties. But the ratio, when you've only played like 40-ish games against lefties and you've lost 25, that's a very big number. So what's the issue? Why are the Giants so bad against left-handed pitching? Well, we can start with Raffi Devers. Because Devers this year against lefties has been, I mean, nothing short of awful. Against righties, we know he's been very good. He's battened 2.94 against right-handed pitching. He's got 27 home runs. He's got 54 extra base hits, 50 walks, an OPS, a hair under 1,000. That's awesome. You look at the lefties and it's the complete opposite. He's battened 1.76 against left-handed pitching. He's got five home runs, 17 ribbies, only 12 extra base hits, 15 walks in that OPS, 538. Horrible. Compared to what he's doing against right-handed pitching. Almost literally, if you're looking at the OPS number half of the production, almost half of the production

14:24that he's seeing against right-handed pitching. Raffi splits are always going to be a thing. You're always going to see him hit better against righties than against lefties. That's just who he is. But it's got to be better than this. The disparity cannot be this bad. I mean, you are talking like Jack Peterson levels here, as far as the disparity against lefties versus righties. And we all know that Jack did not play unless he had the good positive matchup at the dish. And I'm not saying that they should do that to Raffi. But when I'm looking at these stats against left-handed pitchers, I'm not entirely convinced that Raffi shouldn't be platooned in some of these instances. Maybe not a full platoon, but give him a day off every now and again. One, there's a lefty on the bump. Let's someone else get in there and try to rake. The giants, offensively, you certainly need to add somebody who can hit left-handed pitching in the offseason. That would be a big, big, big boost for this team. I'm not sure that that person exists and makes sense for the giants to go out and get. It's just a hole that you're going to have to figure out one way or another.

15:27And you're going to have to get a little creative, I think, with how you address this particular situation against left-handed pitching. Because you don't have the raw power numbers. You don't have the batting average numbers to just roll out there and say, let's do what we do and go to work against this guy in the mountain. Let's look for our pitches to hit and drive him somewhere. That's obviously not happening. You would love that to be the case. But for a lot of what the giants need to do, I think, against left-handed pitching, is try to manufacture some runs. You saw, obviously, today that the giants were only able to muster two hits in this game that had a lefty that started for the pirates. And while you did see a ton of arms out of the bullpen today, you had what, six different pitchers for the pirates. The giants were completely unable to do anything. I mean, you managed to scratch those two runs across in that six thinning. And it gave you maybe like a small bit of hope, maybe up until that cavernot at bat. And it just seemed like that was that was kind of the end of the of what we had going on there.

16:28But when cavernos struck out, when you had runners at second and third, and a chance to do a little bit more damage, Nate Furman did get a productive out, productive ground out to score another run after Junghu Lee's double score to run earlier in the evening. So you scratch two across the board, which when you only have two hits, I do have to say two runs is not, you know, the gunna win you a lot of ball games. But I am a little bit encouraged by seeing the giants. Obviously, they weren't hitting the ball today. So what they do, they tried to work some more walks. And it wasn't, I would have liked to see them draw a little bit more compared to, you know, what the, what the offense was doing, hitting wise, but five walks. It's more than this team has been doing on average per game this season. And you combine those five walks with those two hits that's seven base runners. That's not where you want it to be, but it's also not horrible, right? We've seen a lot of games this year where the giants have had two or three hits and like one walk. And that is pretty damn bad. Like I don't know how you managed to get any runs in that scenario. But the giants here were unable to hit today,

17:30still found a way to scratch a couple runs across the board. You saw some steals. You saw some some, some, some just, you saw some things where the giants were trying to find creative ways to get guys in the scoring position. You saw it like a lot of different productive outs and situations where the giants were trying to scratch and claw runs across the board rather than just trying to smack the ball over the fence. And I think that's a big deal for this team. You got to get creative in the way that you manufacture runs, especially against left-handed pitching. And hopefully the giants have some pieces that can do that going forward. I mean, we've talked about guys like Jonah Cox, guys like, guys like Turner Hill. I really like these two specifically. Drew Gilbert has also been, he had, he's cooled off a little bit lately, but he was going through a little bit of a hot street there. And another guy who I think could be a guy who affects winning on the margins for this team going forward. So if Raffee's not going and Bryce isn't going, obviously this lineup is going to struggle right now.

18:30Rafi and the River Cats, it's got to be Raffee as the frontman, right? Like Raffee and the River, no one's showing up just to see the River Cats. We're going to, we're showing up to see Raffee and the River Cats. And when you don't have the frontman out there for the band, you're going to see it's just not going to be the same thing. So for the Giants today, their frontman Raffee Devers, 0 for 4, 3Ks, not really what you want to see, but hey, you can't hit 500 for the whole season. And we know Raffee's been on an absolute tarot lately. We also know that he can't really hit lefties this season. So I expect Raffee to bounce back the very next time he faces a right-handed pitcher. So I'm not super concerned about Raffee's day today. And I'm not really super concerned about the rest of this offense as well right now. I think that the young group that we've seen, like this lineup that we've seen is, it's different every day, but we see a lot of the same faces, a lot of the same names out there. Excuse me. And we, I think that ultimately we've seen from this group, this current group of Giants that they're scrappy.

19:32They're going to put some balls in play. They're going to make some things happen. And I expect that to continue for the rest of the season. This last of the pirates is a bummer. Pirates also not a half bad team this year, man. 69 and 72. I would be pretty stoked if the Giants were 69 and 72 compared to where they're at now. 58 and 83 for your San Francisco Giants on the season. Don't get me wrong. I would not be happy with a 500 season that would still be, I think, disappointing for what you expected from this team to start the season. I'd be a hell of a lot happier, though, than this team be in 20 damn games under 500. So take that for what it's worth. The Giants next up, travel to New York, base the Mets. And, man, this is a, it's going to be an interesting series because these are two teams that have underperformed a lot this season in the Mets. I mean, maybe the only other team whose expectations and reality are more skewed than the Giants this year. Because, wow, that Mets team was supposed to be, I mean, a favorite in the National League East.

20:33And maybe it seemed to compete against the Tontures in the playoffs. I mean, at least we didn't think that that was going to be the case for the Giants. I mean, Mets fans have got to be, I mean, some of the most just abused fans in all of baseball this season. So we can share in our misery, commiserate with the Mets fans. And, you know, we can, we can hope that the Giants can maybe win a series against another team that's been down and out this season. Up next is they take on the Mets in a three game series at City Field. So all the time we got for you guys today here on the Locked-On Giants Postcast. Giants lose today five to two, drop their 26th series of the season. Get away, day blues, man. It's just not what you want to see from this team. They've been not very good in rubber matches, especially in the second half of the season. Hopefully this is something they can turn around next year. So all the time we got for you guys today here on the Locked-On Giants Postcast. I'm your host, Eric Tripple. Eat, Engle. We'll see you next time. Peace.

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