SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS NOTES:
GRACIAS MÉXICO: The Giants continue their five-game road trip south of the border this afternoon with the final game of the two-game series with San Diego…these games are considered Padres home games so SF will only make one visit to the city of San Diego in 2023…that visit comes Aug. 31- Sept. 3.
BLITZKRIEG BOP: SF’s pitching allowed six homers in yesterday’s loss, tied for the most in a single-game in the SFera (1985-pres.)…it was the seventh time its happened and first time since August 16, 2019 at Arizona (11 innings)…the last time they did so in a 9-inning game was September 9, 2017 at Chicago-AL…the 11 combined homers between both teams are the most in a 9-inning game involving the Giants in the SF-era…the Giants had two games where the teams combined to hit 10 homers (April 30, 1961 at Milwaukee and July 2, 2002 at Colorado).
SEE SOMETHIN’ NEW EVERY DAY, RIGHT?: According to Stats, LLC, yesterday’s game was the first time in MLB history where there were four separate instances of two-or-more consecutive homers in the same game.
THAT WAS…ODD: For just the second time since 1901, the Giants lost a game where they scored 11 or more runs and homered at least five times…the only other time it’s happened was August 22, 2009 fittingly at Colorado’s Coors Field… SF lost that game 14-11 with the five homers coming from Nate Schierholtz, Ryan Garko (2), Aaron Rowand and Pablo Sandoval.
DIALING LONG DISTANCE: IF Brandon Crawford’s homer yesterday went an estimated distance of 482’…the homer is tied for the second-longest in MLB this season with one hit by Jarred Kelenic at Chicago on April 12…NYY’s Giancarlo Stanton has the longest homer of the year with his 485′ shot off RHP Ross Stripling on April 2…the homer is the furthest of Crawford’s career in the Statcast-era (since 2015) and the furthest by any Giant in that Statcast-era.
ÉL DE BEJUMA: IF Thairo Estrada matched a career-high yesterday with four hits (second time in his career) to raise his average to .350…Estrada has been worth the most fWAR of any Giant in the early going this season (1.4)…entering play today, Estrada ranks among the Major League leaders in average (.350, 4th), hits (35, T-6th) and stolen bases (8, T-9th)…his .938 OPS is tied with LaMonte Wade Jr. for best on the team.
COBB VS. THE ELEMENTS: After yesterday’s home run derby, it will be RHP Alex Cobb’s turn to try and pitch the Giants to a series split and keep the ball in the ballpark…since 2021, no one in the Majors has a lower home runs per 9.0 innings pitched ratio than Cobb (min. 250.0 innings pitched)…his 0.53 HR/9ip ratio is lowest just ahead of teammate Logan Webb (0.64), HOU’s Framber Valdez (0.65), PHI’s Ranger Suárez
(0.65) and ATL’s Max Fried (0.65).
WATCH IT FLY: San Diego hitters lead MLB with a 42.5% fly ball rate, but only 12.1% of their fly balls are home runs (15th)… SF batters are ninth with a 39.1% fly ball rate, and third with 17.8% of their fly balls going out of the park.
HOME RUN DERBY: The Giants are one of three teams this season with at least nine players having three or more homers in March/April, TB and LAD being the others (Stats, LLC)…the three teams are among six in MLB history to achieve the feat. MLB, Most Players with 3+ HR in March/April – All-Time (Stats, LLC)
Team Year Players Cardinals 2000 12
Rays 2023 10
Brewers 2019 10
Team Year Players Giants 2023 9
Dodgers 2023 9
Blue Jays 2018 9
KEEP IT LOW: Giants pitchers have the highest home run per fly ball percentage in MLB (19.0%), but a silver lining is that they have been excellent at keeping the ball on the ground, with an MLB-leading 49.8% ground ball rate…the Padres have allowed 14.3% of their fly balls to leave the yard (seventh), with a 45.7% ground ball rate.
CRAWFISH JACOS: SF IF Brandon Crawford and OF Joc Pederson have long been enemies of the Padres…among active players vs. San Diego, Crawford has seven triples (second-most), 76 RBI (fifth) and 15 home runs (tied for 11th)…Pederson has 20 home runs (sixth) and 53 RBI (ninth).
WALK IN THE PARK: IF/OF LaMonte Wade Jr. is first in the Majors with a career-best 22.2% walk rate…his previous career-best was 15.9% in a 26-game spell with Minnesota in 2019…Wade has a .438 on-base percentage (fourth in MLB), and a career-best .938 OPS (tied for 15th).
LOOK, I’M WOODY, HOWDY, HOWDY HOWDY: Following today’s game the Giants make their way to Houston for their only series against the defending World Series Champion Astros…SF last played in Houston during the pandemic-shortened 2020 season with no fans in attendance.
TODAY’S STARTER – ALEX COBB RHP #38
2023 RECORD: 1-1, 1.91 ERA
WITH THE GIANTS: Is in his 12th Major League season and his second with the Giants…he’s in his second year of a two-year contract (with a third-year team option) with the Giants that he signed on November 30, 2021.
LAST OUTING: Threw his second career shutout on April 24 in the Giants 4-0 victory over the Cardinals…he allowed six hits and one walk with four strikeouts over his 9.0 innings of work…his 9.0 innings pitched marked the most he’d thrown in a game since August 18, 2018 at Cleveland (also 9.0ip) and his 109 pitches were the most he’s thrown in a single game since July 17, 2021 vs. Seattle (109).
OLDER AND WISER: Cobb’s previous shutout came over 10 years ago, according to Elias, the 10 years, 244 days that separated his shutouts marked the third-longest span between a pitcher’s first and second career shutouts since 1900…he became the first pitcher in MLB history to throw a shutout before turning 25 years old (August 23, 2012, with the Rays) and after turning 35 years old, but have no shutouts in between (Stats, LLC)….at 35 years, 199 days old, he became the oldest Giant to throw a shutout since Mark Gardner did so on August 14, 1998 vs. the Florida Marlins at 36 years and 166 days old.
(DON’T) WALK THIS WAY: Cobb has walked just four hitters through his first five starts of the season (28.1ip)…his 3.4% walk rate (four walks/119 batters faced) is the third lowest walk rate in the National League…in fact, Giants starters have the three lowest walk rates in the National League: Anthony DeSclafani (2.6%), Logan Webb (3.4%) and Alex Cobb.
VS. SAN DIEGO: Is slated to face the Padres in game two in México City…it marks his fifth career start against San Diego…posted a 1-1 record with a 3.60 ERA (6er, 15.0ip) over three starts against the Padres last season…struck out 24 Padre batters over his 15.0 innings in 2022 (14.40 SO/9).
RISP MANAGEMENT: Opponents are hitting .306 (22-for-72) off him with five extra-base hits with no one on base…however, he’s holding opponents to a .143 average (4-for-28) with runners in scoring position…last season, he allowed a .295 average with RISP.
LACK OF SUPPORT: Dating back to May of last season, Cobb has received two-or-less runs of support in 21 of his last 31 outings
IN THE YARD: Since the start of 2021 no pitcher in the Major Leagues has done a better job of keeping the ball in the ballpark that Cobb…his 0.53 HR/9ip ratio since the start of ‘21 is best in the Majors (min. 250.0ip) ahead of teammate Logan Webb (0.64), HOU’s Framber Valdez (0.65), PHI’s Ranger Súarez (0.65) and ATL’s Max Fried (0.65)…looking at the metric a different way, Cobb has allowed the fewest homers of any pitcher in the Majors (min. 250.0ip) since the start of 2021 as he’s allowed only 16.
SAN DIEGO PADRES NOTES:
No release available.
