The Giants won an exciting see-saw battle that, while maybe not a must win, came awfully close. Key lines:
Andres Torres- 2 for 3, 2B(37), BB, 2 SB(23). BA= .290. Scored one of the 3 runs in the first inning, and every run was needed. Oh, and those 2 SB sure helped my Savvy Vets fantasy team!
Aubrey Huff- 2 for 4. BA= .302.
Pat Burrell- 2 for 4, HR(10), OF Assist. BA= .261. Where would this team be without Pat Burrell? He drove in 3 of the 5 runs tonight with a 2 run single in the first inning and a solo HR in the bottom of the 8'th that proved to be the game winner. Burrell has run hot and cold throughout his career, but he's definitely hot right now.
Pablo Sandoval- 2 for 4, 2B. BA= .270. 5 hits in 2 nights. The double was smoked to right-center and hopped the low fence just to the left of the 421 foot sign, otherwise it probably would have been a triple.
Aaron Rowand- 1 for 4, HR(10). BA= .247. A relatively rare contribution from The Gamer.
Barry Zito- 6.1 IP, 10 H, 4 R, 1 BB, 4 K's. Not Zito at his best, but it was just good enough to keep the Giants in the game.
Sergio Romo- 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K's. ERA= 2.11. Amazing that this guy can consistently throw strikes with pitches that get that kind of movement. Love watching this guy pitch.
Brian Wilson- 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K's, Save(33). ERA= 2.15. Is it just me, or does Buster handle Wilson noticeably better than Molina did? I think he gives him a much better target on the outside corner(I always thought it looked like Molina was setting up OUTSIDE the strike zone. Posey appears to set up right on the black part of the plate and Wilson hits his glove). I also loved Buster calling for the high heat on 0-2 to the last batter Starlin Castro.
With the W, the Giants keep pace 2.5 games back of the NL West leading San Diego Padres who topped the Pirates 8-5 The Dodgers were shut out by Roy Oswalt and the Phillies 2-0 to fall back into 4'th place, 8 games back. The Rockies beat the Mets 6-2 to stay 7.5 games behind the Pads. The D'Backs got 4 consecutive HR's to top the BrewCrew 8-2 and stayed 21.5 games behnd. In the Wild Card race, the Cincinnati lost again to the Cards 6-1 to fall a game back of the Giants while the Phillies kept pace also at 1 game back by beating the Dodgers.
Matt Cain goes for the series win against Randy Wells in an afternoon game that the Giants should win tomorrow.
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One of the things I love about going to a minor league game is that you can easily get a pair of tickets right behind home plate. There is nothing like watching the pitches from this spot as they are thrown to the catcher. I still have a hard time telling exactly what is going on... I cant say like Kruk "that was an offspeed slider just outside of the strike zone"... How the heck can he tell that from where he is sitting???
ReplyDeleteThe reason I am saying this is, how can you tell that Posey is handling Wilson better than Molina strike zone wise? Its not that I dont believe you can see that, and its obvious that his stats have changed for the better since the transition... How can you tell where Posey is setting up on the plate? Just out of curiosity.
ah heck. I guess thats sort of an unanswerable question that I posted above.
ReplyDeletePosey has done a great job stat wise so far behind the plate.
I usually watch on TV. The camera is usually set up from CF and is focused on the home plate area with the pitcher in the foreground. From that angle you can really see where the catcher is setting up and framing the pitch. If you watch long enough and listen to Kruk's commentary, you also learn to pick out what type of pitch is being thrown. For instance, Sergio Romo's frisbee slider has almost supernatural movement on it. It's just amazing to see how that pitch moves and how he is able to control it, despite all the movement. Anyway, I don't know if what I'm seeing is real, which is why I asked the question, but it does look to me like Buster gives Brian Wilson a target that leads to more strikes on the outside corner.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I love Romo too, don't know why so many people were down on him earlier in the season.
ReplyDeleteZito just had one of those games where the baseball gods had the balls falling in. So at least he kept us close in the game.
Check out stats here: http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/split.cgi?n1=wilsobr01&year=2010&t=p#catch
Wilson has pitched much better with Posey than he did with Molina, you can see that his strikeout rate is elevated, walks are lower, so K/BB is higher, and the batting line is much lower as well.
Romo had a pretty high profile-horrible 2 or 3 weeks in the beginning of the season, so I can understand the level of frustration with him.
ReplyDeletebut yea, he is a stud who could probably close for many teams.