Hey team! Just got back from the ER after yet another attack of chest pain(just kidding, of course!).
As is so often the case, this pitcher's duel didn't quite live up to the hype, but the game sure did! I think the ump contributed to throwing both starting pitcher's out of sync with an extremely tight, almost to the point of ridiculousness, strike zone. He wasn't calling strikes at the corners. He wasn't calling strikes at the knees. He was calling some high strikes which may have helped Timmy and Brian Wilson and hurt Halladay because Halladay really depends on keeping the ball down in the 'zone. In any event, Timmy battled the nerves, battled an apparent blister and battled the ump and came away with a hard, hard earned W, a huge victory for the underdog Giants in this series. Oh yeah, some guy named Cody Ross who just kind of washed up on shore took Doc Halladay deep in his first two AB's. I thought Halladay had kind of desperate look on his face after Cody's first dinger and was never really the same after that. Key lines:
Buster Posey- 1 for 4. Buster looked bad in his first two AB's against Halladay, but as he has done so many times this year, he started the 2 run rally that gave Timmy and the Giants the insurance runs they needed to win this game. I thought he also called an extraordinary game, keeping Timmy in the game and managing Wilson beautifully in the face of a very unforgiving strike zone but the ump.
Pat Burrell- 2 for 3. Pat showed he can be The Bat without hitting HR's. His double to drive in Buster which also led to Nate scoring was the final stake through Doc Halladay's heart.
Juan Uribe- 1 for 4. Another guy who looked bad early in the game. He calmly shot a single up the middle to score Nate from 2B. BTW, great move by Bochy to pinch run for Burrell there. Pat probably doesn't score on that play.
Cody Ross- 2 for 3, 2 HR, BB. Oh man! What can I say? Even when he is not hitting HR's, this guy is putting together great AB after great AB! Giants control his contract for one more season. They've got to find a way to keep him!
Tim Lincecum- 7 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 3 BB, 8 K's. I have to say, I am almost more impressed by this effort than the 14K job against the Braves. Timmy was battling everything out there. He started off with shaky command, leaving pitches up. The Phillies were hitting rockets but fortunately they were right at fielders. Then the ump started squeezing the strike zone big time. Timmy almost lost it. Good thing the ump can't read lips. Bochy raced out of the dugout to calm his pitcher down and put his big bod between Timmy and the ump. Timmy settled down and went back to work. From then on, he just dealt with the bad strike zone. When Halladay came unglued at the ump later in the game, nobody came from his dugout to help him out. His loss of composure almost certainly cost him and the Phils 2 runs, the difference in the game. Score one for Bruce Bochy! Timmy also took a long look at his middle finger in about the 3'rd inning. Rags told the TV guys is was a habit Tim has gotten into and that the blister was "absolutely not an issue". Tim never looked at his finger again and he did not throw one slider the entire game. I think that tells you something right there. He had a blister or was about to get one and he battled through it on a limited repertoire of pitches. Just a great gutsy game from Timmy. That's all!
Javier Lopez- 0.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K. Lopez came in to face Utley and Howard to start the 8'th inning. He was acquired for exactly this type of situation and he owned them! I had a really good feeling about the game at that point even though I knew Wilson would give me chest pains again.
Brian Wilson- 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K's, Save. I was a little worried that Wilson wasn't going to fare well with this ump, but Posey called great pitches and gave him great targets. I thought the ump gave Willy just a slightly wider zone than he gave Timmy or Halladay. Just a dominating performance by Wilson. Again, props to Bochy for going for the throat and bringing Wilson in for the 4 out Save.
With the win, the Giants take a 1-0 lead in the best of 7 series and wrest home field advantage from the Phillies right off the bat. They also quieted all the hype about the Phillies supposedly unbeatable starting rotation. Judging from Roy Halladay's facial expression and body language, I'd say the Giants have gotten into his head. If they are in his head, then they just might be in the Phillies' heads too.
Jonathan Sanchez takes the mound against Roy Oswalt tomorrow. Sanchez owned the Phillies in Philadelphia earlier this season. The Giants haven't exactly shelled Oswalt, but they usually score a few runs off him. Again, this series is still very fluid, but I am cautiously optimistic about the Giants chances tomorrow.
Go Sanchez! Go Giants!!
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Halladay improved this game: he only gave up 4runs against the Giants. He had given up 5 runs in each of his 3 prior starts. :^).
ReplyDeleteYeah, the Giants are in his head now!
Man, I was so pumped, I probably scared my wife's family. Burrell was really lucky that Ibanez butchered that fly ball, else it would have been tied game. Mistake cost them the game.
I feel the same about tomorrow, of the two games, I thought we had a better chance of winning game 2 for the reasons you state. Not that I do not believe in Timmy, but Doc did throw a no-hitter in his last start, I was thinking a 0-0 or1-0 score would have been outcome, and who knows who is the winner.
Go Giants!
I told you guys, Halladay is the shell of himself, he pitched to many innings !!!!
ReplyDeleteOk not really.
I agree that Bochy was in total control in this game but when he scared me when he let Lincecum in the game after the 6th inning.
Great win !!! I hope Huff will have a great game tonight, we need him to put the barrel on that ball !!!
Go Giants !! Go Sanchez !!!
GIP
Ibanez did butcher that ball. I have no idea what he was doing leaping at the wall when the ball was about waist level. He did have to run a long ways for it and maybe he got spooked by the wall? I doubt Burrell would have caught that ball, but Cody Ross definitely would have.
ReplyDeleteBochy showed some guts in sticking with Timmy for the 7'th. At that point, everything was making me nervous, but mostly the ump. Even though Timmy had given up the 2 run dinger to Werth, I had a strange feeling that Timmy had made his peace with the situation and could get through the inning better than a reliever who hadn't had to deal with it yet. Timmy's velocity was still in the 91-93 range. I think it was the right call and Timmy sure came out smoking in the 7'th, didn't he? Best inning of the game!