The thought of the Giants offense facing Roy Halladay was almost comical in a gallows humor sort of way. Something funny happened on the way to the Cy Young Award for "Doc" Halladay, though. Somehow, the Giants hitters weren't completely overmatched, and they had a kid with durty stuff of his own going. The result was a very unlikely 5-1 win for the Giants and what must be a huge confidence booster for their own young ace in the making. Key lines:
Edgar Renteria- 2 for 4. BA= .288. Rent had really been struggling. Unlikely game to come out of it, but welcome anyway.
Pablo Sandoval- 2 for 4, 2B. BA= .365. Pablo looked like he was trying to hit everything out of the park in the first week or two. Since then, he's been swinging for base hits and his average is soaring.
Mark DeRosa- 1 for 3, BB. BA= .241. DeRosa has veteran savvy and it paid off tonight.
Eli Whiteside- 2 for 3, HR(2). BA= .353. How unlikely was it for Eli Whiteside to have this kind of game tonight? I especially got a kick out of the HR which hit the foul LF foul pole flush on the pipe part about a foot above the level of the wall. It just bounced straight back and down on the foul line. Maybe we can start calling the LF foul pole in AT&T Eli's pole?
Jonathan Sanchez- 5 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 5 BB, 6 K's. ERA= 1.85. He may have only gone 5 IP, but I give him all the credit in the world. Going against the NL Champions, a pitcher who was starting to be looked upon as unbeatable in the NL, nobody would have blamed Sanchez for his first weak effort of the year, especially coming off a bitterly disappointing loss of a game in which he gave up just one hit. He hung tough despite all the walks and kept the mighty Phillies hitters at bay long enough for the Giants to build on their lead and let the bullpen take over. Sanchez threw 107 pitches in the game. This has to be a huge confidence booster for Durty Sanchez, doesn't it?
Guillermo Mota- 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K's. ERA= 0.00. Great offseason pickup so far.
Sergio Romo- 2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K's. ERA= 0.93. The HR to Manny Ramirez is but a distant memory. Romo had filthy stuff. The Phils never came close to anything resembling a hit.
Aroung the League: The Giants win coupled with a Padres 10-1 drubbing at the hands of the Florida Marlins puts them in a tie for first place in the NL West at 11-8. Arizona made 5 runs in the first 2 innings stand up for a 5-3 win over the Rockies to drop the Rocks to 10-10 and bringing the D'Backs to 9-10. The Dodgers were rained out in NY so stay at 8-10 and in the NL West cellar.
Looking Ahead: The Giants face a pair of LHP's, which they are shorthanded against, to finish off the series with Philadelphia. Todd Wellemeyer goes tomorrow with Timmy getting a chance to put some distance between himself and Roy Halladay in the Cy Young race in game 3.
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ahh... the puns that could be had with "Eli's pole." had me laughing. but you are right on with DeRosa's single. Liked him try to leg out that second base too. even though he was out it was still a smart play. Nice to see Lincecum and now Sanchez really battle out there when they don't have their best stuff. Shows some maturation on Sanchez's behalf. The bullpen was lights out tonight too
ReplyDeleteProbably the funniest exchange between announcers on TV I've heard in awhile occured in the opening game between the Yanks and BoSox. Posada hit a HR off the RF foul pole in Boston, AKA "Pesky's Pole". Jon Miller goes something like this: "....and it hits Pesky's Pole for a HR!" Then, after some more commentary, they show a replay and Millers says, "it hits off Johnny Pesky's pole!" Joe Morgan: "They call that Pesky's pole here?" Miller: "Well yes, that's why I called it that!" LOL!
ReplyDeleteYeah, DrB, I agree that this should be a confidence booster for Sanchez. Last year's no-hitter helped him to believe that he could be that good, but yesterday's effort showed him that even when he don't have everything, he could even keep the best offense in the NL at bay for 5 innings. Should be a huge confidence booster.
ReplyDeleteDoesn't this season so far remind you of the Giants of the 70's and 80's? It used to kill me back then, they would beat all the good teams but when it came time to play the lousy teams, they would end up losing to them, like we did getting swept by the Padres. Though I have to admit the Padres aren't that bad (just not that good either), they were the team I was worried about as a dark horse candidate because they had a nice crop of young prospects coming up plus some more waiting in the minors, like Jaff Decker and others.
I was kind of out of the loop with the Giants in the the 70's and early 80's, but yes, I see some similarities. I do think their current pitching is far better than anything they had during that era though.
ReplyDeleteYes, the pitching is much, much better than what they had back then, I was just comparing the tendency to show up big against the good teams but then letting down and losing to the lousy teams.
ReplyDeleteFrankly, I don't think the Giants have had pitching like this since perhaps the Christy Mathewson era and at least since John McGraw was manager and Carl Hubbell was screwing around (I was not around back then :^). Other than Marichial and Perry, was there any really good pitcher over the past 80 years since Carl Hubbell? Montefusco was good, but not Lincecum good, and we have a full rotation once Bumgarner is ready.