Too Early For A Clever Title, GG

It's early!  M gets in a quick recap of back to back Giants wins before moving on to today's game and the pitching matchup.  Since there will be no pod tomorrow he touches on that game and then reminds us the Dodgers are next up.  He fits a Safe Bet of the Day™ in there somewhere and even pulls a Nostradamus and gives out one for tomorrow, even though the lines aren't out yet.  

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:32

Good morning and welcome back into the pod. It is Saturday morning, April 18th, a very early Saturday morning because I'm trying to get this done before I leave out of town. I said yesterday how nice it was to record after a Giants win, but it is even nicer to record after back-to-back Giants wins. So that was really good to see that. It looked so good even early on. It was nice to not have to sweat that one so much. I had a few questions going into that game. I wasn't sure if our starters were going to be able to do well against that lineup, and Webb ended up going six. Wasn't sure how our pin was going to do, still unsure about them. They ended up out pitching the Nats pin two runs to one. Wasn't sure if our hitting was going to come around versus this rotation, and they scored 10 runs, so that was nice to see. When I saw the lineup, I really liked it. I thought the fact that we had Gilbert, Lee, and Ramos, an outfield that actually got some hits and did well. So feel bad for Bader because he's looking like he might be out when he comes back. It was good to see the Giants get home runs. They have had so few, three home runs, and in the second they got two guys on base and then a three-run home from Ramos. And that's the way you need to do it. That's how you score runs. It was so good to see them play that kind of game. I had the feeling at first that maybe the Nats had been just playing over their heads offensively, but then by the end of the game, I thought maybe not. They did score five runs and looked pretty good at the plate. It was good to see the safe bet of the day hit in the fourth inning. Nice not to have to sweat that. Made me wonder is this closer to the real Giants? Because they just look good at the plate finally, like we thought they would. Certainly good for their confidence going forward. And that will then take us into today's game. We have a one o'clock start time today. A little bit different, I guess, because of the Saturday. And it is Adrian Hauser for the Giants and Cade Savali for the Nats. Now, Savali, he's 27-year-old righty. He was a first-round pick back in 2020, but then he had a series of injuries that kept him out from 2022 to 2025. He finally came back last year for 10 games at the end of the year. Didn't pitch great 4.25 ERA. They were hoping for better because they have had high hopes for him for a while. Now, according to the Nats, he had an excellent spring training and actually got himself the opening day nod because of that. So coming into the season, he was going to be their number one guy. He does have premium stuff, upper 90s velocity, but he's had a lot of trouble throwing strikes, a lot of walks, and not enough strikeouts. In that first start that he had as the opener, he only went three and two-thirds, only gave up two earned runs, but for some reason only went three and two-thirds. And then after that, he had an excellent start. One run and six innings, and then a decent start, run, one run in two and four point two innings. So he looked pretty good after those three starts and kind of improving. But then his last start, oh man, he only went one and a third, gave up four earned runs, three hits and three walks. The first inning was good, but that second inning only got one out. That's he gave up three walks and a couple hits, four and runs just in the one-third of an inning. So he had a really bad outing his last one. But I don't know if you can put much stock in that. It was the aberration for this year for him so far. So I'm not really quite sure what Savali we're gonna get. He's been up and down this year for them. For the Giants, it's Adrian Hauser, and we've seen him a little bit. His ERA is 506, which doesn't look that good, but his field independent pitching is 3.67. So he's really been unlucky. He's been better than expected, and I thought he's looked better out there than what the results are showing. Now he does face a tough lineup, and given what they did yesterday, I'm not quite sure how he's gonna do, but I think he's gonna do better than people think. My prediction for the game is I think it's gonna be close through the first five. I I think the Giants will get to Savali a little more than expected. Maybe we'll get one more than expected off of him, and I think Hauser will be able to keep a slightly overproducing Nats offense, maybe to one less than expected. So I'm expecting it to be a close game through five, and I think then the Giants will get them late. That's my guess for the game, how the game's gonna go. So, with that, that's gonna take me quickly to today's safe set of the day. And like I said, there are it's so early right now, there just aren't any lines out. All I have is the money line, the run line, and the over-under. And the Giants money line came out at minus 110. The over-under is nine and a half, which seems a little high. I almost lean toward the under, but boy, it's we're given both offenses right now, they're that's just a tough one to pick. So I'm gonna make the official play the Giants money line at minus 110, because like I said, I only have a couple picks here. The strikeouts, the uh K's, all that kind of stuff. Those numbers aren't out yet. It's too early. So, out of those two choices, I'll go with the Giants money line, minus 110. I think we have a good chance to win this game. I think we'll keep it close, like I said, through five, and then we can get them in the bullpen. Their bullpen is not good, ours has been better than we've expected. So, even though they have Savali on the mound and books, and everybody's expecting him to outpitch Hauser, I could see it not being the case and the Giants staying close. So that's what I have for today's game for tomorrow. It is a very early 10:35 a.m. game, because it's a getaway game. And there won't be a podcast because I won't be here. I'm gonna be out of town. But I can tell you, my man Ray is on the mound. You know how much I love my Robbie Ray, and he has been good this year. He has thrown a lot of pitches the last two games, so that is a little bit of a worry, but he is facing Miles Michaelis, who has not been good. He's got an 11.49 ERA. Although his last two outings were better, he brought it down from a 14.4-6 ERA. So maybe that ERA number is just highly inflated because of that first. He had a really bad first outing. But still, he has not been good the last couple years, and they have been starting the games with an opener and then bringing him in for three or four innings, so that might be the case for this game, also. Now, obviously, there are no numbers out for that one, but I can tell you, I'm guessing that the money line is probably gonna be in the Giants' favor because of Ray versus Michaelis. I would go with the Giants money line, but I'm thinking if the number is bad, we might have to jump over to the run line, just given the matchup. And I'm probably leaning toward maybe the overkind. I think it's gonna be a mirror game of yesterday's game because with Ray and Root being similar and Michaelis being similar to Lattell, I could see it being another Giants win, maybe going over again. But I really like the Giants at tomorrow's game. That's why I'm willing to take the run line if the money line is not a good number. After that, so we'll make that the official play for tomorrow's game will be the Giants run line, but I don't have any numbers, and I'm just guessing that it's gonna be the one we'll have to choose. Then it is a travel day on Monday for the Giants. They're coming back to San Francisco because we have the Dodgers on Tuesday. So we will be back on Tuesday with recaps of today's game and tomorrow's game. Hopefully, I'll have a good update on the safe bet of the day record, and then we will look at this Dodgers Giants series and the matchups that are coming up. And I see already the second game, it's supposed to be Roop versus Otani. So that should be a dandy right there. So with that, have a great weekend. Say extra safe, doubly safe, and go giants today and go giants tomorrow.