Game Wrap 09-24-2010: Giants 2 Rockies 1

Timmy flirted with perfection until the Rockies found an chink in his armor in the 6'th inning, but Pat Burrell quickly picked him up with a 2 run blast in the 7'th. Meanwhile, Timmy ignited a firestorm by mouthing something about "juiced balls" when he didn't like one the ump gave him. More on that later. Key lines:

Pat Burrell- 1 for 3, HR(19). BA= .247. Burrell's 2 run blast was the difference in a heckuva pitching duel and it came just in the nick of time. I really thought the Giants were headed to another 1-0 defeat when the Rockies broke through in the 6'th.

Tim Lincecum- 8 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 0 BB, 9 K's. 7 perfect innings. Just 2 hits total, but both in 1 inning for the Rockies only run. Seth Smith led off the bottom of the 6'th with a soft liner to LF that went for a double. Timmy threw a pitch in the dirt to the next batter, Miguel Olivo. The ump threw him a new ball. Tim held it in his hand and gave it a funny look, then started to rub it up. Suddenly, he looked up at the ump, held up the ball and clearly said, "new ball!". The ump threw him a new one. Then, on the videotape, you can clearly lip read Tim saying "F*** this juiced ball B***S***." The Giants have not exactly hidden their belief that the Rockies have been playing games with the baseballs in Coors Field. There have been whisperings, and even an on-air mention by Jon Miller that they believe the Rockies keep two sets of balls, one in the humidor and one in the dry Colorado air. The ballboy works for the Rockies and no one but the Rockies monitors the humidor. The belief is that when the ump needs a new set of balls for the game, the Rockies choose humidor balls when the opposing team is up and air-dried balls when the Rockies are up. Timmy's mouthed words went viral on the internet and the Giants filed a formal complaint with MLB. As a result, MLB announced that they will forthwith independently monitor the game balls in Coors Field. Nobody seems to know for sure if the Giants really believe the Rockies were cheating, or if this is just another example of gamesmanship by Bruce Bochy, who is becoming known as quite the trickster himself, to get in the heads of the Rockies. If that is the case, it all may have backfired on the Giants, but that will have to wait until the wrap for Saturday's game.

Brian Wilson- 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, Save(45). ERA= 1.82. Wilson ties Robb Nen for #2 on the Giants all time single season Saves leaderboard behind Rod "Shooter" Beck's 48.

With the W, the Giants remained 0.5 games ahead of the pesky Padres who squeaked out anther 1 run win over the Cincinnati Reds 4-3. BTW, in that game, Aroldis Chapman of the Reds threw 25 pitches, all clocked at 100+ MPH including one pitch of 105.1 MPH, now officially the highest velocity pitch ever recorded! With the loss, the Rockies fell to 4.5 games behind the division leading Giants. In the Wild Card race, Atlanta lost to the Nats 8-3 to fall 0.5 games behind the Padres.

Barry Zito will try to keep the Giants amazing streak of allowing 3 runs or fewer going against Jason Hammel. We'll see if having humidor-stored baseballs guaranteed by MLB help keep the scoring down.