Saturday, July 1, 2017

June full of Gloom for struggling Giants

Hoping to put the first two months of the season behind them, the San Francisco Giants cruised into the month of June with a blowout 10-0 road victory over the Phillies. Sadly, the post-game high fives and celebratory handshakes would be held to a minimum in June as well as the Giants followed up their 10-run shellacking in the city of Brotherly Love by dropping the next two games to the lowly Phillies who hadn't won a series in over a month. Though it doesn't get much worse than dropping a series to the worst team in all of baseball, it would be the beginning of another free-fall for Bruce Bochy's struggling ballclub.

After receiving a series-split in Milwaukee which saw each of the Giants and Brewers claim a pair of victories in their four-game set, the Giants would lose each of the next five series, including sweeps in three of those. Following a rare visit to AT&T Park by the first-place Minnesota Twins in which the Giants dropped the first two games of the series, San Francisco's offense would erupt for a season-high in hits (17) and runs (13) as they managed to salvage the series finale with a 13-8 victory. But any hopes of that being the starting point of something positive for the G-Men would go up in flames rather quickly as they were swept in back-to-back series by the Royals and Rockies. A trip to Atlanta would witness the Giants drop three of four before returning home where they were swept in three by the New York Mets, making it 12 losses in 13 games for the Giants. Just when all hope seemed to be lost, the Giants pulled a rabbit from their hat by stringing together not only their first winning-streak of the month, but also their first sweep of the season. Less than two weeks after being swept in Colorado, the Giants returned the favor by pulling out their brooms against the Rockies. In that series, the Giants bullpen would log 13 1/3 scoreless-innings, a far cry from anything we had seen this season up until then.
Following a day off, the Giants would hit the road for a series in Pittsburgh with the first of three games falling on the final day of June. Looking forward to turning the page to a new calendar month, the Giants made it four straight victories to close out June with a 13-5 drubbing of the Pirates. While the San Francisco offense would tie a season-high in runs, they would collect a new season-high in hits with 18, 10 of which coming from the top of the order as the first three batters (Span, Panik and Pence) combined to go 10-for-14 at the plate, along with seven RBIs and seven runs scored. The offensive outburst would be much appreciated by Johnny Cueto who started the game for the Giants and got off on the wrong foot, giving up his only 3 runs in the outing in the first inning. That aforementioned trio of Denard Span, Hunter Pence and Joe Panik would all finish the month of June swinging a hot stick, hitting well over .300 at the dish to help contribute to the Giants placing in the top 3 with the third best team batting average in all of June. And no one other than Andrew McCutchen (.411) of the Pirates would swing a hotter bat for the month than Span who was a scorching .374 at the plate in June. It would be a month of firsts for the Giants as a few players made franchise history and another made Major League history.

Adding to his red-hot month, Span also led the National League in hits for the month of June with 40 base knocks, becoming the first Giants player with a 40-hit June since Moises Alou in 2005. We would also see the first Korean player in Giants franchise history when third baseman Jae-Gyun Hwang made his Major League debut on June 28 against the Rockies. After turning down a big contract to play ball in his native South Korea to pursuit his dreams of playing in the Majors, Hwang turned some heads and showcased some power during Spring Training. That power would be witnessed immediately following his call-up from Triple-A Sacramento as he made quite the impression in his first game in a Giants uniform by connecting for a home run and driving in a pair of runs. At the age of 29 years and 335 days, he became the oldest Giants player to homer in his MLB debut since at least 1913, crushing a solo shot to left in his third at-bat. Giants pitchers would also get some love as starter Jeff Samardzija made the record books by becoming the first Major League pitcher since 1900 to record 50 or more strikeouts and 1 or fewer walks over a span of seven starts after compiling 10 K's and 0 walks in a win in Milwaukee. Not to be forgotten, an evening game in Denver on June 15 would witness the first 3-run homer of the season for the Giants, a forgotten art as the Giants finally shook off their reputation for only hitting solo dingers this year.
After giving us a glimpse of the future with the April call-up of 22-year old Christian Arroyo, the Giants' third baseman of the future was sent back down to the Minors after struggling mightily at the plate (.192 batting average). And soon after the demotion of Arroyo came the promotion of Austin Slater who has finally provided some decent production from the left field position for the Giants. Since being called up and making his Major League debut on June 2 in Philly, Slater has hit .338 in 23 games for the Giants, notching a pair of homers and 12 RBIs. With several failed experiments in left field already this year and the injury to Jarrett Parker who can't seem to produce in the Majors the same way he has in the Minors, the Giants just might have something in Slater if he can continue to produce. Despite finishing the month on a strong note with a 4-game winning-streak, their longest since winning five consecutive during the middle of May, the Giants compiled a record of 9-18 for the month of June and still sit in last place in the NL West at 31-51 on the season, 20-game below .500 for the first time since 2008. With less than two weeks until the All-Star break and baseball's trade deadline on the horizon, it'll be interesting to see just how long the Giants can ride this win-streak and just how busy they'll be in trade talks. While it's almost certain they'll be sellers this time around, there's no telling to what degree or who they'll field offers for.


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