Here is the weekend series against the 18-12 Rays:
• Friday, 4:10, Robbie Ray (2-3, 2.70) vs. LHP Shane McClanahan (2-2, 3.91)
• Saturday, 3:10, Landen Roupp (5-1, 2.55) vs. TBD
• Sunday, 10:40, Tyler Mahle (1-4, 5.87) vs. LHP Steven Matz (4-1, 4.31)
The Giants have posted those names, so they have decided not to deal with the required push-back in rotation stemming from Webb going a day after the rainout until Monday. Roster Resource thinks the Saturday game will be pitched by RHP Jesse Scholtens (2-1, 3.20).
Kevin Cash, manager since 2014 (an infinite lifetime in MLB), uses this roster:
✽ 1B Jonathan Aranda (25), 2B Richie Palacios (5), SS Taylor Walls (4), 3B Junior Caminero (15)
✽ RF Jake Fraley (4), CF Cedric Mullins (8), LF Chandler Simpson (6)
✽ C Nick Fortes (8), DH Yandy Diaz (20)
✽ bench: C Hunter Feduccia, IF Ben Williamson, OF Jonny DeLuca, OF/IF Ryan Vilade
✽ rotation: Drew Rasmussen (2-1, 2.64), McClanahan, Scholtens, Matz, Nick Martinez (2-1, 1.70)
✽ closer Bryan Baker, set ups Griffin Jax and Ian Seymour
No former Giants on the roster. Gavin Lux (shoulder impingement) is out on a rehab assignment, hopefully they won’t activate him, so that we don’t have to look at him.
For a brief moment yesterday, when Jung Hoo Lee drove in a go-ahead run late in the game, it looked like we could give him the Picture of the Post he fully earned during the Miami series. Instead the team dropped the second game of the double header like the first one, so the Picture of the Post is two turkey vultures, seen at the park I pick up trash at. More on them in a second.
The vultures are of course a metaphor for fan disease circling the 13-18 Giants, who sit in last place, after going 4-6 over their last ten. They’ve just been swept by a Phillies team that had fired its manager after a horrid April! Tampa will be a challenge, with pitching and hitting close to the league average. As to the latter, {BA, runs, HR} are {0.250, 137, 27} compared to MLB average {0.243, 141, 33} and the Giants’ {0.247, 104, 19}. 104 and 19 are league worst, and the Giants’ 66 walks is a staggering ways from the 29th team’s 81 (Snakes). The Giants hitting explains everything about their record. The Rays are also right on league average at pitching, with a staff ERA of 4.08 compared to all MLB at 4.17. The Giants have a staff ERA of 3.96. Somehow, Kevin Cash has his team outperforming their numbers, as their record of 18-12 seems formidable.
Now, a kind word or two about turkey vultures. These guys are nature’s clean up crew, and are well designed to carry out their job. They soar in “kettles” of up to ten birds in updrafts, sail around with keen eyes looking for dead critters to eat, and have various adaptations to survive eating not-so-healthy meals. Perhaps best not to go into those! When I sent the picture above to my sister, she replied with the news that Chuck, a vulture who lives in the small zoo she and I visit in her city’s downtown just had his 32nd birthday. Vultures in the wild live up to about 15 years, but in captivity may get to around 50. And Chuck, of course, is just a nickname – the bird’s formal name is Upchuck. Explaining that would get us too close to the aforementioned ‘various adaptations’! They are actually pretty cool birds.
