Finally! The Giants win a game they probably had no right to win overcoming a pair of 3 run homer's. Gamer came through with a clutch 9'th inning HR for the tie and then Bochy outmanaged Fredi Gonzalez in extra innings for the Giants win. Of course, it helped that Bochy had a far better bullpen to work with, but why on earth would you have your RHP intentionally walk Bengie Molina then let him pitch to Aubrey Huff when you have a LHP warming up in the bullpen? Key lines:
Aaron Rowand- 3 for 5, HR(2), BB. BA= .327. As above, Rowand was a true gamer hitting a clutch HR in the top of the 9'th to tie the game and turn it into a battle of the bullpens.
Mark DeRosa- 0 for 5. BA= .200. I guess you have to let DeRosa try to play his way out of it, but man, he sure is a black hole in the lineup right now! Have to wonder if the wrist is bothering him.
Pablo Sandoval- 2 for 6, 2B. BA= .337. Ho-hum line for Panda except that his double down the LF line in the top of the 12'th gave the Giants runners at 2'nd and 3'rd and set the stage for completion of the winning rally.
Aubrey Huff- 2 for 5, 2B, BB. BA= .278. Huff made the Marlins pay for intentionally walking Molina. Not saying it was wrong to walk Molina, although I wouldn't have in that situation, but Gonzalez totally mismanged his pitchers at that point losing the game for the Marlins.
Juan Uribe- 2 for 5. BA= .295. Uribe continues to be one of the more valuable players on this team. Does he play good enough D at short to take over for Rent after Sanchez comes back?
Nate Schierholtz- 2 for 5, 2B, HBP, SB(2). BA= .350. Nate continues to do a lot of things for this team. That he's doing it out of the 8'th hole is amazing. Literally took one off the helmet for the team in the 12'th. On an earlier pitch, it looked like he was trying to get hit, but wasn't quite able to lean his shoulder into the pitch.
Matt Downs- 2 for 6. BA= .364. On second thought, can we just trade Freddy Sanchez? Just kidding. We'll likely need Freddy Sanchez later in the season, but it's frustrating to think that he's going to take PT away from Uribe and Downs.
Tim LIncecum- 7 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 1 BB, 13 K's. ERA= 1.70. Timmy was dominating except on one pitch to Hanley Ramirez. If only the Giants could/would have traded Jason Schmidt for Hanley way back when.....
Sergio Romo- 1 IP, 2 H, 3 R, 1 BB, 2 K's. ERA= 3.55. Romo may be on thin ice in the setup role.
Brian Wilson- 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K. ERA= 1.93. Good to see Wilson hang tough after the trauma against the Phils and the subsequent muscle tweak.
Dan Runzler- 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K's. ERA= 2.25. Runzler was dominant. Right now, I might have more faith in him than Affeldt.
Guillermo Mota- 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K. ERA= 0.87. A successful dumpster dive. If Mota keeps pitching like this, and his stuff looks great, he will play a huge role this season.
In addition to mismanaging his shaky bullpen in the 12'th, Fredi Gonzalez looked like this game was the last place on Earth he wanted to be pretty much the whole time I was watching, which was from the 8'th inning on. Again, this is where I think Bochy deserves some praise. He at least looks like he's enjoying his job and that filters down to the players' attitude.
I'll add an Around the League segment later. A very nice win for the Giants to begin what has historically been a very difficult road trip.
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Baggs has article that while DeRosa has no pain, he still has weakness plus is trying to get out of bad habits he got into playing with the injury last year. He's probably pressing and over-thinking things too.
ReplyDeleteI like his attitude in general, I think he'll get over the hump sooner than later.
Uribe has been nice but he's like a tottering Jenga tower, I'm just waiting for it to fall apart. He was just horrible offensively in a hitter's park with ChiSox for many years, so I expect him to revert, though there is the possibility that perhaps he slid through things those years and got himself straightened out after he got humbled the past two off-seasons.
Nate actually hit 7th today, ahead of Downs, but I know what you mean. As his take down of China's catcher in the Olympics showed, he's a man's man, and he gets a lot of HBP through the years by taking one for the team. It was probably his way of making up for his lack of walking too. Not quite a modern Ron Hunt, but I think you know what I mean.
Yeah, Downs is a nice problem to have. The offense was always there, but the big question has been the defense. I haven't heard anything bad so far on the radio when he plays, so maybe he can be average?
I still believe in Romo, he's just having a bad stretch, a few more oh-fers and he'll be fine again.
Yeah, I like Runzler a lot too, what a great bullpen we have with Wilson, Runzler, Romo, and Affeldt.
Then Moto has been much better than expected from what he had done in prior years. The Giants must have saw what he was doing wrong and fixed it for him, because once upon a time, he was dealing like this for the Dodgers.
Great win for the Giants offense! And great start to the road trip, yes indeedy!
This was Rowand's second game after coming off the DL, and yet his performance tonight looked like he was never on the DL!
ReplyDeleteI also have to give credit to Torres with his 1 out single that started the 12th inning rally. That got the Marlin's pitcher worked up by making him think about Torres's speed and how to pitch to Sandoval. I hope that his experience as the lead off hitter when Rowand was gone will continue to stick with him. It sure paid off today when he came in as a defensive switch and got it all started in the 12th inning.
I agree with what you said about Romo. I like how he can put a lot of movement in the ball when he pitches. Hopefully he will regain his rhythm soon.
Great bullpen and great offensive support in the 12th lead to a nice victory to start the road trip. Although Timmy didn't get the win, he didn't get the loss either. I'd much rather see a no decision than a 4-1 record for him right now. He is given another chance to go 5-0!
On a side note, I am curious on how the Giants infield setup will be like when Freddy Sanchez gets back. What do you guys think about that?
i would still have liked rowand to have had at least one rehab game in the minors...would have helped his timing that first game, but its nice to see that it only took one game for him to be back 100 percent...maybe the rest was good for him
ReplyDeletei dont blame romo....i dont get some of bengie's pitch calling today....calling for a high fast ball against a high fast ball pitcher?
saying that, if he cant turn it around soon, i can see them trying out runzler...nice to have options
i dont want freddy back...keep him in rehab till july....i hate to think that they will send downs back...i like that kid, and he made a nifty play in the field today too.
i just keep thinking what nate could be doing if he was given a full season last year in right....he is hitting balls hard now
and doc, if you were a marlin...would you really wanna be out there? look at that crowd...i cant believe that they think just by building a real stadium that the people will flock to games....dont care if its joe robbie, timmy was pitching today
Wow! Keep the comments coming folks!
ReplyDeleteOne of the big jobs of a manager is to keep wanting to be out there even when things are bleak. In my opinion, that's what made Roger Craig a great manager for the Giants way more than all of his hit-and-runs, pitchouts, throws to first and all that. I think most of that was for show to give the appearance of being "in the game". What Craig brought to the Giants that made the most difference was "humm baby" and "don't get your dauber down."