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Giants win fifth straight, but lose shutout streak, as MVPs dominate the night at AT&T Park

The Giants won the game. That's good! The Giants lost their shutout streak. That's bad. But they made A.J. Pierzynski look bad. That's good! I don't know how to pronounce Foltynewicz... that's bad. You can go now.

By Bryan Murphy
Pictured: Hunter Pence of the San Francisco Giants makes an invisible offering to the Shutout Gods.
Pictured: Hunter Pence of the San Francisco Giants makes an invisible offering to the Shutout Gods.
Lance Iversen-USA TODAY Sports

Tim Hudson threw an 89 mph crapball to Andrelton Simmons with one out in the top of the 3rd inning. Simmons put a funky swing on it that was more defensive than intentional, but struck the crapball for a hard single to left field. And so began the rally that ended the Giants' home shutout streak.

Bigger moments have ended smaller streaks, of course, and the Giants still managed to *tie* the scoreless innings record set by the 1948 New York Giants (39 innings). Can you imagine what life must've been like in New York back in 1948? A one bedroom apartment in Manhattan probably only cost $500,000 instead of $238 million. So, scoreless innings at home were probably cheaper to come by, right?

Eh, who knows? Oh wait, the stats tell it. The 1948 Giants were at the tail-end of a really C-average time late in the New York franchise's life. Willie Mays was still three years away. San Francisco a decade away. They finished 78-76 that season, good enough for 5th place. I'm just reading off the Baseball Reference page, but you can sit back and just imagine all the 78 mph fastballs and hacky half-swingers populating the rosters then. Oh, and the virulent racism of the day. Sure, I digress, but it's to PROVE A POINT.

The 2015 San Francisco Giants did something of note. Worthy of praise. Validated by history. And they did it with a rotation that was shaggy, questionable in quality. Like an SNL sketch. This is important because it's yet another bit in the scrapbook for this dynastic run of success. The Giants achieved an historic pitching feat after their window of dominant talent had closed. There's weirdness, there's luck, there's trolling, and then there's simply history.

★★★

Buster Posey has an MVP Award. He is very good at baseball.

Yes, yes. Steph Curry has an MVP Award as well. He is very good at attending baseball games.

Let us marvel at Steph Curry while we bask in Buster Posey's glowing warming glow though, okay? Buster Posey smacked the crud out of a ball for a home run and he timed a Jim Johnson junkball perfectly to yank a ground rule double to give him 3 RBI for the night. This on the night when the Giants recognized Bengie Molina and Bengie Molina's book, Molina: The Story of the Father Who Raised an Unlikely Baseball Dynasty.

Look again at that picture. Steph Curry's all, "We are laughing, Buster. Laughing and enjoying each other's company. We are the best at what we do and it is amusing."

Through all the historical distractions, book signings, pageantry, and the presence of Currys, Buster Posey made his mark. As MVPs do.

★★★

Who's the best player (non-pitcher) on a bad team these days? DON'T LOOK AT FANGRAPHS, JUST THINK ABOUT IT AND GUESS.

My rankings: 1. Giancarlo Stanton 2. Paul Goldschmidt 3. Josh Donaldson 4. Freddie Freeman

I'm saying Freddie Freeman is really danged good and he smacked the tarnation out of Santiago Casilla's fastball in the ninth inning. He hit it beyond the avocados.

Mike Foltynewicz's stuff is nasty. Not pour-all-condiments-into-a-cup-and-drink-it nasty, but, Baseball Nasty. His movement was a problem all night, save for a few instances: Buster Posey's first inning dinger and in the seventh inning when two wild-pitch strikeouts led to extra baserunners. But he's really good, and was throwing 96 mph late in the game.

Now, I've used Freddie Freeman and Mike Foltynewicz here to setup my thesis: Baseball managers should stop underestimating Brandon Crawford.

Walking a guy to get to Brandon Crawford is a recipe for disaster. Early enough in the season to look at the results and still err on the side of SAMPLE SIZE MIRAGE, but ill-advised to ignore completely his quality plate appearances. Brandon Crawford is determined, measured, and not hacking wildly. He has an approach at the plate and he's sticking to it. His continued improvement continues to be entertaining and emotionally satisfying, as all player progression viewing should be!

★★★

Willie Mays, Buster Posey, and Steph Curry were all in the same place tonight, meaning Joe Montana was the designated survivor.

★★★

Would be irresponsible of me to ignore Tim Hudson's game tonight. He pitched well. If it's his control that The Soulless Bastard of Time has decided to rob him of bit by bit, then so be it, because the stuff looks the same and the command checks out as "Positively Hudsonian", too.

Fifth straight win. It's not even June, of course, but a quick glance at the standings adds that little bit of... okay, no. It's June.

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