Its my birthday today, and what a wonderful present from Matt Cain and the Giants, who blanked the Dodgers and swept the 3 game series to keep the Giants hot hand rolling into August. Cain and Kershaw were locked in an old fashioned pitching duel until the bottom of the 7'th when Edgar Renteria tripled in the only 2 runs scored in the game. Cain gets the Dodger monkey off his back for his first win against them in his career. How hard is that to believe? Key lines:
Pat Burrell- 1 for 3, 2B. BA= .244. How great must if feel for Burrell, who grew up listening to Giants broadcasts and has now been picked off the scrap heap, to be making two huge contributions to sweeping the Dodgers in the middle of a pennant race.
Aaron Rowand- 1 for 2, 2 BB, SB(4). BA= .252. Gamer's IBB ahead of Rent set up the game winning hit.
Edgar Renteria- 1 for 3, 3B, BB. BA= .284. Rent has had some big hits this year, but none bigger than this one! Way to help get the monkey off Cainer's back, Rent!!
Matt Cain- 7.2 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 7 K's. ERA= 2.98. Cain is pitching as well as I've ever seen him right now. The fastball maybe isn't quite as electric as when he first came up, but it's still plenty lethal and he is a complete pitcher now.
Javier Lopez- 0.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K. This was a get-your-feet-wet appearance. He was brought in to face Pods with 2 outs and a runner on first. The new guy got the job done with a comebacker. His K/BB is not too exciting, but he also is a dominant groundball specialist with a GO/AO's regularly >2.
Brian Wilson- 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K's, Save(31). ERA= 2.28. I have to admit to some apprehension about bringing Wilson in such a close game after his last two outings and the back spasms, but maybe he just needed a couple of days off to rejuvinate the ol' arm. This one was a comparative breeze.
Everybody in the NL West except the Dodgers won today. The Padres edged the Marlins 5-4 to maintain their 1.5 game lead over the Giants. Colorado topped the Cubbies 8-7 to stay 7 games back of the Pads and also move into sole possession of 3'rd place and the Dodgers dropped to 8 games behind. The D'Backs crushed the Mets 14-1 to remain 23 games off the pace. Both Cincinnati and Philadelphia won today so the Giants remain 2 and 3.5 games ahead in the Wild Card race respectively.
The Giants have well deserved day off before starting a road trip in Colorado, the scene of perhaps their lowest point in the season after their 14 inning loss just a few weeks ago. Seems like forever now, doesn't it? Jonathan Sanchez will start the series off against Aaron Cook. Coors Field is always a big challenge. The Giants winning ways will be tested.
Brian Wilson-
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A belated Happy Birthday to you, sir! Thanks for keeping up with the major and minor league Giants for us. I read your recaps each morning; I vastly prefer them to Steve's over at MCC.
ReplyDeleteBest wishes. And GO GIANTS!
Happy Birthday DrB! Hope you got what you hoped for! At least Cain knew what you wanted and delivered. :^)
ReplyDeleteKeep up the good work!
Hey guys! Steve over at mccoveychronicles.com is a good guy and knows his stuff about the minors. I don't see myself being in competition with him. That said, it is most gratifying to know that there are Giants fans who appreciate reading my thoughts on Giants baseball and visit here on a daily basis. I will continue to do my best not to let you down. As the minor league season enters it's final month, I'm finding it harder and harder to think of new and interesting things to comment on as most of the patterns and story lines have already been pretty well established. I'll do my best, though. Thanks again, everybody!
ReplyDeleteYes, Steve is a good guy and he knows his minor leagues too. I have "worked" with him before, putting together collaborative prospect analysis pieces (he, Grant, myself, and others discussed our thoughts on prospects pre-season) and you cannot find a nicer guy, I think, who knows his stuff about Giants prospects.
ReplyDeleteThere is enough information about the minors that people can have different and differing opinions, and enough uncertainty that getting these different opinions can be useful.
Personally, I prefer to come here because it is good information by a nice guy, without all the illogical whining and complaining about Giants/Sabean/Bochy. The Giants aren't perfect but if you want perfection, you're in the wrong sport. If you want winning, well, the Giants have been doing that since August 2008 when Pablo and Ishikawa were called up.