A win today and the Giants move to 19-21 on the road this season and sweep a 3-game road series for the first time since
They’ve, of course, done other things like sweep that 2-game series in Toronto or win two out of three in Baltimore and before that, right back here in Arizona, but a proper 3-game series sweep? Last June 29-July 1st in Arizona! It moved them to 45-40 and just 2.5 games back. They would, of course, go 18-49 the rest of the way — but still!
Today’s Diamondbacks lineup features the man who loves to get hit by baseballs, Mr. Tim Locastro, subject of the series preview and an excellent article on The Athletic by Zack Buchanan (subscription required).
He claims he has no idea why he gets hit by the baseball so much, but he does, and so do we. If/when Anderson tries to pitch inside, Locastro drops his left hip and turns into the pitch. He makes no effort to get out of the way.
Not a complaint! Just pointing it out. It’s hardly a mystery!
CF — Tim Locastro
2B — Ildemaro Vargas
LF — David Peralta
RF — Adam Jones
3B — Eduardo Escobar
1B — Christian Walker
SS — Nick Ahmed
C — Caleb Joseph
SP — Merrill Kelly
Meanwhile...
2B — Joe Panik
RF — Mike Yastrzemski
3B — Evan Longoria
1B — Brandon Belt
C — Stephen Vogt
CF — Kevin Pillar
LF — Alex Dickerson
SS — Brandon Crawford
SP — Shaun Anderson
As noted in this morning’s BP:
Alex Dickerson has nine RBIs, the most in history by a hitter in his first two games with #SFGiants. Previous two-game high was eight by John Bowker in 2008. #STATSLLC
— John Shea (@JohnSheaHey) June 23, 2019
A third day of steady Dick!’ing will be a huge surprise in the Farhan era. His “lottery ticket” plan has only worked in spurts, and typically now is the time when the strikeout monster rears its ugly head and consumes the player whole. Dickerson has never been a high strikeout dude, though, so maybe he plays the hero just one more day...