Jeff Samardzija pitched another dominant start, but the Giants offense went back to sleep against Tyler Chatwood. Key Lines:
Jeff Samardzija- 6 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 1 BB, 11 K's. ERA= 3.81. Shark was on fire again. In his last start, he used a knuckle curve he developed midseason as his out pitch. In this game it was a re-tooled splitter which Krukow explained was more of a true split-finger FB held farther out in the fingers than the previous version which was more of a forkball. Again from Krukow, the progression was forkball to circle change, which didn't work out at all, to the current splitter. So Shark, working with the Giants pitching coaches, completely retooled his repertoire including the addition of those 2 new pitches on the fly as the season progressed. Good stuff!
Steven Okert- 1.1 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K. ERA= 3.21. Okert seems to be climbing Bruce Bochy's depth chart. After Samardzija allowed a run on a leadoff double and single in the 7'th, Okert came in and retired the next 3 batters easily. He did allow singles to 2 of 3 LH batters he faced in the 8'th.
Will Smith- 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K's. ERA= 3.35. Smith continues to pitch well, although this was in more of a hold the line action than protecting a lead. The Giants still had a chance to win though. Gotta think Smith and Okert will be the lefties in the pen next year.
Tyler Chatwood(Rockies)- 8 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 9 K's, GO/AO= 8/2. ERA= 3.87. Chatwood was also dominant. In addition to the 9 K's, he erased leadoff walks in the 7'th and 8'th with GIDP's. Chatwood finishes the season with a 1.69 road split ERA with 8 Wins against just 1 loss. His home ERA in Coors Field was over 6. Hometown boy from Redlands East Valley HS. I think he was originally drafted by the Angels.
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With the Loss, the Giants dropped 1.5 games behind the winning Mets for the first Wild Card playoff spot. The Cardinals lost, so the Giants remain 1 game ahead of the Cardinals for the second WC berth.
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Johnny Cueto gets back on the mound for the series finale tonight facing Jon Gray who has 26 K's in his last 2 starts.