Game Wrap 04-09-2010: Giants 5 Braves 4

If the Giants ultimately prove to be a team of destiny, they will likely point to this game as the sacred omen and Edgar Renteria as the prophet who led the way. Early on, this game had loss written all over it as Jonathan Sanchez was his maddeningly inconsistent self and Tim Hudson was dealing nothing but groundball outs. As the game unfolded though, the familiar formula of tight pitching and timely, timely hitting took over and the Giants outlasted the Braves 5-4 in 13 innings. Key lines:

Aaron Rowand- 2 for 6. Rowand was having a bad game until he beat out a single to deep short with 2 outs and Juan Uribe scoring the winning run from 3B in the bottom of the 13'th inning.

Edgar Renteria- 3 for 5, 2B, HR(1). BA= .688. Game tying 2 run HR in the bottom of the ninth. Who says there is no such thing as clutch?

Eugenio Velez- 1 for 2, 2B. Velez came home ahead of Renteria's HR that tied the game in the bottom of the 9'th.

Jonathan Sanchez- 4.1 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 2 BB, 6 K's. Typical Sanchez performance, breathtaking stuff, but makes you want the throw something through the TV with his inconsistency.

Brandon Medders- 1.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K's. Encouraging outing for Medders. The Giants will need him.

Guillermo Mota- 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K. The Giants will need him too.

Dan Runzler- 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 1 K. Worked his way out of a jam partly of his doing with only 1 inherited runner scoring. Hopefully a growing experience.

Brian Wilson- 1.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 2 K's. This is what I love about Wilson. He is willing and able to go more than 1 inning and does it in non-save situations to help the team win. Just when you thought he couldn't look any goofier, he shows up in white shoes that looked like they had black soles and red laces.

Sergio Romo- 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K. More on Romo later.

Jeremy Affeldt- 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K. Affeldt was shaky. Thankfully he did not need to go another inning.

Braves:

Jason Heyward- O for 5, BB, 4 K's. I love Jason Heyward as a player, but I'm not sure I'm OK with the J-Hey Kid nickname.

All in all, 4 Giants relievers logged more than 1 IP. That extra effort, even before the game went to extra innings is what enabled this win. Good managing job by Bochy. I don't think you can get any more out of a pitching staff than that. Great execution by the relievers too!

Fangraphs had an interesting piece on Romo today in an entry entitled I, Claudia's From the Notebooks. I think those of us who see him pitch regularly already knew this, but it seems from Pitchfx data, that Romo has some pretty extreme movement on his pitches. He gets 10" of glove-side movement relative to a league average of 2.5" on the slider while at the same time producing 8" of arm side movement on the 4-seam fastball compared to a 6" league average. That he can produce this kind of movement and still maintain enough control to keep the walks down is truly remarkable. Sergio Romo was one of my favorite prospects coming up and now he's one of my favorite players on the MLB team too.

Todd Wellemeyer tries to keep it going tomorrow. It would seem that if he gets in trouble early, he's just going to have to stay out there and take a pounding. Hopefully he gets a lot of contact outs, keeps his pitch count down and goes 7.