Whew! That was anxiety provoking! The Giants methdically built a 6-2 lead behind their improved offense and a good pitching effort by Tim Lincecum only to nearly lose it all to a furious Dodger rally in the top of the 9'th inning that just fell short. Key lines:
Andres Torres- 2 for 4, SB(19). BA= .286. Every run counted in this game and Torres did his job as a leadoff hitter.
Aubrey Huff- 3 for 4, 2B, HR(20). BA= .313. Another strong game by Huff who is the first Giant of the season to 20 dingers. He's in a neck-and-neck with Torres for team MVP.
Juan Uribe- 1 for 3, HR(15). BA= .259. Uribe's bat seems to be coming back to life which bodes really well, if anyone remembers his performance in the last 2 months last year.
Tim Lincecum- 7 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 BB, 9 K's. ERA= 3.10. In addition to sporting a new windup, Timmy, for the second game in a row, showed a definite determination to establish the fastball and pitch off it. That may have led to some early contact and the two runs by the Dodgers, but in the long run it paid off, like it did his last time out.
Jonathan Sanchez- 0.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, HBP. With runners at the corners, lefty hitters Ethier and Loney coming up and Brian Wilson obviously unavailable, Bochy turned to Sanchez. Durty gave up a run on a WP, but got the essential out by striking our Ethier. Striking out Loney too would have been preferable to hitting him, but that may have served a purpose too. At least their were two outs making Chris Ray's job of getting the final out a whole lot easier. This situation illustrates why the Giants had to trade for a LOOGY.
Casey Blake- 0 for 3, 2 HBP. Doesn't it seem like ever since Timmy hit Matt Kemp last week in LA, there have been an awful lot of HBP's between these two teams? Heck, while we're at it, how about ever since Padilla hit Gamer? Does anyone think it merely coincidence that Blake was the one who got dinged TWICE in this game? As for Durty hitting Loney, I seriously doubt THAT was on purpose, but at this point, I don't think it matters. It's just real nice to see the Dodgers being the ones who are letting it all get to them. There is definitely a HBP war going on between these two teams. So far, the Giants are the ones who are in control!
With the W, the Giants climbed to 2.5 games out of first place as the NL West leading San Diego Padres lost to the Marlins 4-2. The Dodger remained 7 games out, but fell to 4.5 games behind the Giants. Yeah!!! Colorado Rockies crushed the Cubbies with a 12 run inning and a 17-2 win to stay 8 games off the pace in 4'th place. Last place Arizona out hit the Mets 9-6 to move up to 23 games behind the leaders. Cincinnati lost to ATL 6-4 to fall 2 games behind the Giants in the Wild Card race, while the Phillies and Roy Oswalt lost to the Nats 8-1 to fall 2.5 games off the Wild Card pace.
Barry Zito takes the mound for game 2 of the series against Chad Billingsley who goes on 3 days rest due to Kershaw's start being pushed back because of the suspension for hitting Rowand down in LA. Man, Padilla's beaning of Gamer just keeps coming back to haunt the Hated Ones, doesn't it?
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