Jonathan Sanchez shook off early wildness to dominate the middle innings. He ended up with a Quality Start and a Win as the Giants took a huge step toward the NL West Division Championship. Key lines:
Andres Torres- 1 for 5, 3B. BA= .268. Only 1 hit, but he made it count as triple in the 3'rd inning turned into the Giants first run of the game with a Mike Fontenot RBI single. Torres made some nice plays in the OF too.
Mike Fontenot- 1 for 3, BB. BA= .286. 2B is in good hands with Fontenot, at least against RHP's.
Pat Burrell- 2 for 4. BA- .250. RBI single in the 7'th to drive in Fontenot was a nice insurance run.
Juan Uribe- 2 for 4, 2B, HR(23). BA= .248. The jazz hands were out as Uribe drove one deep into the LF bleachers for the tying run.
Pablo Sandoval- 2 for 3, 2B, BB. BA= .266. Pablo looked like the Panda out there again. The double was a just-miss HR that rebounded high off the wall in right-center, a HR in most parks.
Nate Schierholtz- 1 for 2. BA= .247. A pinch-hit RBI single for the go-ahead run in the 6'th inning. How clutch is that? Way to go, Nate! Nate seems to have moved ahead of Travis on the pinch-hitting depth chart.
Jonathan Sanchez- 6 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 4 BB, 6 K's. ERA= 3.15. Sanchez was shaky early on with 3 walks in the first 2 innings and 2 runs in the first 3. He once again showed his developing maturity by pulling it together and shutting the D'Backs down in innings 4, 5, and 6. Nate completed the nice outing by singling in the go ahead run as the PH for Sanchez giving Durty the W.
Ramon Ramirez- 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K's. ERA= 3.04. A dominant inning for Ramirez who is making a himself a lock to be on the postseason roster.
Brian Wilson- 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K's, Save(46). ERA= 1.86. Wilson had two days rest coming into this one. He slammed the door in the 8'th after the D'Backs mades some noise by getting 2 runners on with 1 out. The mark of a great closer. One who can come in early in the high leverage situation as well as pitch the 1,2,3 9'th. How many times has Wilson done just that?
Now for the fun part..... With the win, the Giants move to 2 full games in front of the Padres for the NL West lead with 5 games to play, because the Pesky Padres lost to the Cubs 5-2 as Rafael Soriano hit 2 dingers and Ryan Dempster outdueled Mat Latos. The Choking Dogs eliminated the Reeling Rockies from playoff consideration with a 9-7 win in Coors Field. Anybody still think Jim Tracy is a better manager than Bruce Bochy? In the Wild Card Race, Atlanta edged Florida 3-2 to move 1.5 games ahead of the Padres while the Rockies are 5.5 games behind with 5 to play, so they are eliminated here too.
With the Giants magic number at 4 with 5 games to play, Tim Lincecum moves up in the rotation to take on Ian Kennedy. Not to worry, Timmy is going on a full 4 days rest while MadBum will go on 5 days 6 days rest on Thursday. That would make Timmy available for a hypothetical tiebreaker game next Monday which is looking less likely, especially if Timmy takes care of business tomorrow.
5 games to go! Go Cubs! Go Giants!!!!
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Amy Guitierrez of CSN Bay Area tweeted that it was his 6th 5-out save in 2010 and that Bochy will try to limit him to 9th today.
ReplyDeleteYes, Go Giants! Go Cubs!
And Pablo definitely looks like he's back!
ReplyDeleteHopefully he can keep it up, but people claim it is his fat that caused his problems, so I hope he continues to shine and show all the size-biased people that it wasn't his size that caused his hitting problems.
6 5-out Saves? My gosh! That harkens all the way back to the days of Goose Gossage and Greg "Moon Man" Minton when Closers routinely went 2 or more innings to wrap up a game.
ReplyDeleteI'm starting to think Brian Wilson deserves some consideration for Cy Young if not MVP!
Speaking of MVP, I was thinking about who the Giants MVP would be this year.
ReplyDeleteI am usually not a fan of a shared award, but I think the G's MVP has to be shared between Posey, Huff and Torres. Without any one of these guys, the Giants would not be anywhere near the playoffs. Wilson is a decent idea as well, but the BP as a whole has been pretty solid, as well as the rotation giving him a lot of opportunities. If given the choice to re-do the season without one of the 4, I would pick Wilson every time.
CSS,
ReplyDeleteOh my! I don't know about doing the season without Wilson. There were fairly long stretches earlier in the season when he was the only reliable pitcher in the bullpen. I can't help but think of all those years with the likes of Matt Herges and Armando Benitez and realize how important a shut down closer is.
Choosing an MVP for the Giants is tough because it's been such a team effort. Torres has tailed off here in the last month and a half or so, probably due to the Appy, but he does give the offense a spark like nobody else on the team. His D is huge too. The Giants surge to the top began the day Buster Posey arrived, so we certainly can't discount the value of his contribution and Huff Daddy has been solid from wire to wire and has provided inspirational leadership.
I'll throw another name into the discussion, Matt Cain! Has Hoss had a great season, or what? He's been the anchor of the rotation from wire to wire.
I cant disagree with anything you said. Cain has been a total stud, as has Timmeh. Sanchez continues to improve and Bum would be a marketing hero on any other team in the bigs.
ReplyDeleteI would even throw Sabean into the MVP talk. His additions to the team throughout the season have been absolute key!!
Don't forget Dustin Hermanson!
ReplyDeleteAlong with Cain, I would point out Burrell as well.
But I think Posey has earned the honor, the team did not take off until he took over as starting catcher and cleanup hitter (not sure if that was at same time or what, but want to note it), plus he has been a constant in the offense in September until the past week, while Torres was gone, Huff went through an extended down period.
Cain and Burrell did well in Sept. Cain was a steady force all season, better than another other starter, but I have to lean towards Posey for the change in the team after he joined (51-31 since he became starting C; that is a 100 win season). Burrell has been a consistent offensive force but he gets removed often before the end of the game, and his defense is tolerable for the offense.
Yes, back to our youth, when relievers were men who could go as many innings as their team needed.
Oh yeah, Dustin Hermanson! I was trying to remember his name and drawing a blank last night. Man, anybody who says closers are a fungible commodity just needs to ask a Giants fan who lived between the Nen and Wilson eras.
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