World Series Game 4

[yct]

Bottom of the first inning, with nobody out, man on first and third, Kent and Santiago were not able to drive in even 1 lousy run?! Any sacrifice fly would do. Give me a break...

Then again, bottom of the third inning, with nobody out, man on 2nd and third, Kent and Santiago failed to drive in a single run?! Exact replay of the 1st inning. WTF are those two doing?

I think the Giants would've won by plenty if those two could hit better. Also, they need someone better to hit behine Bonds, as Santiago often fails to deliver.

[andyfox]

Dusty was asked about that at the press conference. He correctly pointed out that anyone batting behind Bonds is going to be under tremendous pressure to come through since Bonds will be intentionally walked so much.

I favor batting Kent behind Bonds. He's not swinging the bat real well right now, but he's a helluva hitter. They started to win when they switched to the current set-up (Kent batting in front of Bonds) and there's no question Kent gets good pitches to hit in front of him. But Bonds has the highest OBP of anyone. I would want my next best hitter hitting behind him, giving that guy the most RBI opportunities.

Interesting stat: The year he hit 61 home runs, Roger Maris received zero intentional walks. Reason: there was a better hitter batting behind him.

[Ryan_21]

I have to agree with Kent, he is not hitting at all, but I disagree on Santiago, he has came through and drove in runs in all 4 games I beleive. Sure he's not crushing the ball and is no Barry Bonds but he is getting the job done IMO.

Ryan_21

[Uston]

After each inning ending double play, I had the same thought: How the hell is this team in the freaking WS when my Red Sox couldn't even make the playoffs?

As for Santiago, I think Rob Neyer said it best...

Anyway, Santiago -- remember when he was everybody's darling? -- killed the inning with yet another double play. Just goes to show (again) that anybody can have a big week or two. But the longer you play, the greater the chance he'll hit like he's supposed to. And Santiago's supposed to hit like a 37-year-old catcher with a 720 career OPS.

[yct]

I think another reason that they shouldn't put Santiago behine Bonds is that Santiago tends to hit ground balls, and Bonds is not a fast runner, and that creates many double play opportunities for the opponent.

[andyfox]

I don't think the speed of Bonds, or lack thereof (and he still runs pretty well) causes the double plays, rather it's the lack of speed of Santiago. But I think Kent would hit into a lot of double plays behind Bonds too. Maybe even more than Santiago as Kent tend to hit the ball harder. (A lot harder tonight!)

Anyway, the Giants will probably win the World Series now so they're doing pretty well without our advice anyway.

[yct]

LOL. True, with an Angel like hitting performance tonight, I guess they don't need any of our advice. My guess is that they'll go to game seven, and Giants probably has slight edge in the last game as Jason Schmidt will become available again (may not start, but probably will come in as a reliever).