Tim Lincecum dominated the Padres for 7 innings while Buster Posey and the offense gave him plenty of support against Mat Latos, a heretofore nemesis as the Giants once again moved into a tie for first place in the NL West with the Pads. The elation was tempered by word that the Giants have lost Andres Torres for most, if not all, the remainder of the season to an appendectomy. Key lines:
Aubrey Huff- 3 for 5. BA= .294. With the first two spots in the batting order going 0 for 10, Huff Daddy needed to get on base and he did just that, scoring ahead of Buster's two run blast in the first inning and again on a SF by Jose Guillen in the 3'rd inning.
Buster Posey- 2 for 4, HR(13), BB. BA= .324. Buster took out his frustration with the pitch calling from Saturday with a two-run blast in the first inning which proved to be the only margin the Giants needed in this one. He also helped set up the Giants 3'rd run of the game by advancing Aubrey Huff to 3B on a single in the 3'rd. Huff then scored on Guillen's SF.
Juan Uribe- 2 for 4, 2B. BA= .251. Uribe helped set up a couple of insurance runs in the 4'th by doubling with Pablo Sandoval on first base after a walk to set up a runners on 2'nd and 3'rd with no outs situation for Tim Lincecum.
Tim Lincecum- 1 for 2, BB. BA= .111. Tim Lincecum has helped himself with the bat a number of times in his career. Here, he gave himself a couple of insurance runs by singling to drive in Sandoval and Uribe from 3B and 2B respectively.
Aaron Rowand- 0 for 5. BA= .231. Andres Torres has been struggling lately, but even at that, he can't be as bad as Aaron Rowand against RH pitchers. I'm not against Gamer playing against LHP's in Torres' absence, but the Giants have to find another alternative against RHP's. Cody Ross? Nate Schierholtz? Eugenio Velez? Darren Ford anyone? Almost any option has to be better than Rowand who is practically an automatic out againsts RHP's at this stage. The Giants didn't need any offense from the leadoff spot today, but they will in the future and Rowand isn't going to give it, at least vs RHP's.
A big win for the Giants as they leave Petco tied for first place with the Padres as opposed to a 2 game deficit had they lost this one. The Colorado Rockies continued their charge with a 4-2 win over the hapless D'Backs to stay 1.5 games behind the Giants, but that means they are just 1.5 games out of first place now too! The Atlanta Braves lost to the Cards 7-3 to drop out of a first place tie with the Phillies, who blanked the Mets 3-0 behind Roy Oswalt, in the NL East. The Braves lead the Giants and Padres by 1 game in the Wild Card race.
The Giants now have a day off before Barry Zito takes on the Dodgers in AT&T park on Tuesday, 9-14-2010. Meanwhile, the Padres travel to Colorado to take on the surging Rockies in a series that starts tomorrow.
Looking ahead, the Giants have 12 of their last 18 games at home with four 3-game series' against the Dodgers, Brewers, D'Backs and the finale against the Padres. Their 6 road games consist of 3 each against the Cubs and Rockies.
The Padres have 20 games left and play 13 on the road with 3 games each against the Rockies, Dodgers and Giants and 4 against the Cardinals while playing 3 at home against the Reds and 4 against the Cubbies. The respective schedules would seem to favor the Giants over the Padres the rest of the way. Momentum also works in the Giants favor here.
The Rockies have 19 games left, with 9 at home with 3 each against the Padres, Giants and Dodgers and 10 on the road with 3 each against the Dodgers and D'Backs and a 4 game finale against the Cardinals. Again, the remaining schedule would seem to slightly favor the Giants vs the Rockies except that the Rockies are so darn hot right now the schedule looks to be of little comfort to Giants fans.
As for the Wild Card, Atlanta has 18 games left with 9 at home and 9 on the road. The home games are 3 each vs the Nats, Marlins and the season finale against the Phillies. The road games are 3 each against the Mets, Phillies and Nats. Note that 6 of their remaining 18 games are against the Phillies.
The Giants probably need to win every series between now and the end of the season, including the one in Colorado in order to hold of the Rockies, and even that might not be enough! It would seem that the Giants have at least an even chance of overtaking the Braves for the Wild Card if necessary.
Go Giants!!
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rowand is done...if not for his career, at least for the season...his first at bat was pathetic...the rest were worse...one cannot be in the bigs and be incapable of hitting the fast ball.
ReplyDeleteif the giants insist on putting guillen and burrell out in the field, then who is ever manning center must be able to guard the gaps...rowand cannot...i would alternate between ross and nate and pray that either or both get hot at the plate.
freddy was pulled after the 7th because his knee is falling apart...thank you brian sabean
i know that the rox have been terrible on the road this season, but i will not be surprised if they overtake both the giants and the friars and win the division...they are like great marathon runners...holding back till the final mile
It seems like Sabean didn't do his due diligence on Freddy Sanchez' health, but when he has been healthy, Freddy has been an asset to the team. It's a relatively short contract that won't cripple the team like the Zito/Rowand contracts might be. I still believe Sabean has the team headed in the right direction, so I'm not going to rag on him about Freddy Sanchez even if he might have been able to find a healthier option.
ReplyDeleteFrom what I remember, it takes a while for the knee surgery to fully heal and that he won't be fully healed until next season.
ReplyDeleteHard for me to complain about a league average offensive 2B who plays good to great defense. And we got a number of different options should anything happen further, so we should be OK should he be out long, but it sounds like he'll be back today. No worse than signing a player who then start having physical problems like hamstring pulls and such, an MLB season is so long anyway.