With Madison Bumgarner facing James McDonald, this seemed like a game the Giants ought to win. They didn't disappoint, taking the first of a 3 game set against The Hated Ones. Key lines:
Andres Torres- 1 for 4, 2B, BB. Torres scored a run, but could have cost the Giants this game by forgetting how many outs there were running from first on a flyball that was clearly going to be caught with the bases loaded and 1 out. Fortunately, the Giants go credit for the insurance run before Torres was doubled off 1B. Torre tried to argue that he had passed Rent on the basepath, but to no avail. This is the second time in 3 games a Giant has forgotten how many outs there were.
Buster Posey- 1 for 4, BB. Posey drove in the first run in the 3'rd inning after a bitterly disappointing second inning where the Giants had the bases loaded with no outs and came up empty. He then scored the second run ahead of Panda's double. Buster and Panda! Sounds like a pretty good name for a kid's show on TV, huh? Let's hope their show is a long running one for the Giants.
Pablo Sandoval- 2 for 5, 2B. Panda is looking more and more confident at the plate. His double to left-center was a line drive that just kept going and going threading the needle between Kemp and Carroll in CF and LF respectively.
Travis Ishikawa- 1 for 2, 2 BB. Unfortunately, his lone out was a K with the bases loaded and no outs in the 2'nd inning. He partially made up for that by singling ahead of Nate's 2 run dinger in the 4'th.
Nate Schierholtz- 1 for 4, HR(3). Nate hit a weak pop up to 2B with the bases loaded and one out in the second but made up for it with his 2 run dinger in the 4'th.
Madison Bumgarner- 5.2 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 3 K's. ERA= 2.41. Loved the way Bum handled the Dodgers in this one. No fear! The only concern is he started losing velocity as early as the 4'th inning and by the 6'th it was dropping with each pitch and he was clearly running on fumes. I think Bumgarner has a great future, but I wouldn't count on him finishing out the season as a member of the starting rotation. He might need to work out of the pen as the season wears on. Remember he wore down late last year too. Don't go trading away starting pitchers just yet, Sabes.
Brian Wilson- 1 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 K's, Save(26). ERA=1.98. Wilson always has to give me a heart attack before he closes it out, but I have a sneaking suspicion he walked Ethier on purpose just so he could blow Casey Blake away on 3 straight pitches. Grab some pine, meat....and a few other things too!!!
Attendance- 45, 056. This was the official attendance. At no time did there appear to be more than 25,000 people in the stands from the TV pans.
The Padres were idle, so the Giants move to 4 games behind the leaders into second place as the Rockies lost a see-saw battle with the Florida Marlins 9-8 to fall 4.5 games off the pace. With the loss, the Dodgers fell 6 games behind. Arizona trounced the Mets 13-2 and improve their last place standing to 20 games behind the Pads.
Tim Lincecum and Clayton Kershaw provide a marquee matchup tomorrow night.
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quick follow up on cuzzi...noticed that you said you hadnt heard of him...but he has been around for awhile....he worked the alds last season, and made a terrible call, calling a fair ball foul..which cost the twins a win against the yanks
ReplyDeletehe apparently was once fired as an milb ump...so im not sure how he ever made it to the bigs
buzz is, the mlb office run by frank robinson is going over the tapes of the game right as we speak
another bad call by an ump tonite....even though panda had a brain fart by not throwing to first for the out, the run never should have scored....this stuff is becoming an almost daily occurrence and something has to be done
in regards the 13 man staff and the 4 man bench...it would be workable...but bochy has to stop using the double switch...if he isnt, then if burrell plays, he has gotta stay in till at least the 7th...cant afford the double and then the defensive switches
i really liked tonites lineup....i hope that it doesnt change for at least the rest of the series...but i know that bochy loves his vets
i do think the entire team needs a few more sessions with bam bam and maybe a shrink to deal with their issues of hitting with men on base
i know that a couple of days ago, they were all taking reps at bunting...maybe some time in the catges with situational hitting will help
all in all....im liking these guys alot more than the version we were given to start the season
dont know if they can make the post...but at least they are fun to watch
one other thing...it is so nice to watch the bums org implode
ReplyDeletei feel bad for colletti...because of the divorce, he cant make any moves...and the bums desperately need pitching
and ya...it also seemed to me that wilson went out of his way to set up the ninth for blake
why knock him down, when you can k him with the bases juiced
I'll guess that we'll see some sort of L-R lineup platoon system for awhile. Tonight's lineup will likely be similar to what we saw Sunday against Johan except Posey will be catching. Nate and Travis will be on the bench. Huff will probably be in the lineup as the only LH batter, although he could go all righty with Uribe at 3B and Panda at first with Rent and Sanchez up the middle and an OF of Burrell, Gamer and Torres.
ReplyDeleteIt's maybe getting a bit too cute with the lineup, but it does have a certain appeal.
Say, DrB, Lou Piniella is retiring. He would have been the Giants skipper had he chose us instead of Chicago. I wonder, do you think he's regretting it now? And do you think he would have been better for us than Bochy?
ReplyDeleteMadBum went to off speed quite abit in the 4th and 5th innings. He seemed to me like he was having trouble with his fastball and had to depend on his off speeds. MadBum is a condition freak but I wonder if he over conditions himself to the point it causes his to tire out. I hope it is just a matter of location. Wellemeyer is coming soon and I don't look forward to losing MadBum.
ReplyDeleteI am not a Lou Piniella fan. I think Bochy is a better manager.
ReplyDeleteThanks DrB, I don't really know much about Piniella other than he was a bigger name manager.
ReplyDeleteAbout MadBum's conditioning, according to his thoughts after last season, he said that his lost velocity was due to him throwing so much in between starts.