Harrison debuts, Giants lose

PHI 4  SF 3

I can’t pin this one on closer Camilo Doval even though he gets tagged with the loss. The Giants lineup just can’t score enough runs to support their pitchers. And Doval has been heroically good; perhaps he’s just fatigued or is over-exposed. You can’t expect the bullpen to keep shouldering the load all season long. They’ve kept the team’s head above water most of the year. Kap & Co. deserve a lot of credit for getting the team to this place with only two starters, a disappearing offense, and a boatload of rookies.

Speaking of rookies, Kyle Harrison’s debut has been hyped and over-hyped. He can’t “save the season” fer chrissakes, nor can he do anything except be Kyle Fecking Harrison. Today he gave up a two-run homer to Bryce Harper, a former phenom himself, and there is no shame in that. He also whiffed five guys in 3-1/3, that’s half of the ten outs he got. The young southpaw threw 65 pitches and hit one batter and walked one batter, yielding five hits and two runs. What’s weird is that he dominated the Phillies right-handed hitters but had trouble with the lefties! Regardless, welcome to The Show, kid! Just be yourself and keep throwing strikes!

I’m pretty excited that they finally called him up. He’s not going to move the needle a whole lot because even in the best-case scenario he’ll get six starts (maybe seven) with 36 games to play. He’ll be limited with pitch counts and whatnot so the most important thing is that he gets some seasoning and tackles his command issues. That will get him in proper shape for 2023.

The getaway game is 1:05 PT tomorrow. Alex Cobb is listed as the starter.

Go Giants!

–M.C.

p.s. Tonight was Game 126 which is 7/9 of the season, the completion of the seventh seasonal inning. You can see that the Giants have really hit a wall in the second half. Here is the breakdown:

1st inning: 6-12

2nd inning: 10-8

3rd inning: 12-6

4th inning: 12-6

5th inning: 9-9

6th inning: 10-8

7th inning: 6-12

That’s 65-61 (.516), tied now with Arizona for second-place in the NL West.