This game was a microcosm of the entire Giants 2010 season, a roller-coaster ride that swung between ecstasy and despair and back again several times. They did not get a great pitching performance from Madison Bumgarner nor from their bullpen, but this time the hitters picked up the pitchers and along with a great play at the plate by Aaron Rowand and Buster Posey took a 3-1 lead in the best of 7 series. Key lines:
Aubrey Huff- 3 for 5. Huff Daddy had a nice game including scoring the winning run on Juan Uribe's Sac Fly.
Buster Posey!- 4 for 5, 2 2B. Buster looked like his old self at the plate tonight, peppering the whole field, especially RF with base hit after base hit. He also made a great play at the plate coming up with a short hop throw from Aaron Rowand that arrived at exactly the same time the Carlos Ruiz was crashing into him. He just snagged the ball and tagged Ruiz in one motion and hung onto the ball depite taking quite a jar. I like the way he made the quick tag first and then gave ground to dissipate the energy of the blow. We don't need Buster getting a concussion or tearing up his knee doing the macho man thing and trying to be all Mike Scioscia at the plate.
Cody Ross- 1 for 3, 2B. Cody also hit a rocket that was caught by Polanco at 3B. Dude is seriously in a zone and the Phillies seem to want to try to prove they don't have to avoid the inside fastball with him. Result: More hits for Cody!!
Pablo Sandoval- 1 for 4, 2B. Can't be too mad at Panda for the GIDP with the bases loaded in the 8'th inning. He had already driven in the Giants last two runs with a nice left-center gap double that put them into position to win. It would have taken some of the suspense out of it if he could have cashed in some of those runs, but.....oh well!
Andres Torres- 1 for 2, BB, CS. Torres came into the game on one of Bochy's seemingly innumerable double switches(managers love to manage, LOL!) He looked much better tonight drawing a walk and then hitting a sharp single to RF. He seemed to take forever to get to 2B on the CS, so I'm guessing he still isn't 100% from his Appy.
Madison Bumgarner- 4.2 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 1 BB, 6 K's. Bum started out great with a fastball velocity up to 94 MPH. His location seemed very shaky and he was helped a lot by a generous strike zone on his glove side of the plate(outside corner to LH hitters, inside to RH hitters). Bumgarner also got a big break in the 2'nd inning when Rollins took off from first base after Bum had clearly started his delivery home. Bum stopped mid-delivery, threw to first and Rollins was called out at 2B on the relay throw from Huff even though I thought he clearly got his foot on the bag ahead of the tag. Two blown calls by the ump on one play! He then steadily lost velocity over the next 4 innings until the 5'th when he was down to 90 and the Phillies were teeing off on him.
Santiago Casilla- 1.1 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 2 K's. Casilla came in and poured gasoline on the fire in relief of MadBum, but then settled down to get the Giants to the 7'th inning without further damage.
Javier Lopez- 1 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 0 K's. Lopez breezed through the 7'th facing Chase Utley and 2 RH batters, but ran out of lefthanded kryptonite against Ryan Howard leading off the 8'th who he was kept in specifically to face.
Sergio Romo- 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K's. Romo hung a slider to Jayson Werth who doubled up the left-center alley to drive in Howard. With another runner at 2B and no outs, things were looking mighty bleak, but Romo recovered and looked the the old Romo baffling the next 3 batters to leave Howard stranded at 2B.
Brian Wilson- 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K. Wilson kept the Phillies at bay to preserve the tie in the top of the 9'th setting the stage for the Giants winning rally off non other than Roy Oswalt, who obviously didn't bring his best stuff into this relief role.
With the win, the Giants move out to a 3 games to 1 lead in the best of 7 series.
Tim Lincecum faces off against Roy Halladay in a reprise of Game 1. With some of the hype having died down about this matchup, look for a truly epic pitching duel tomorrow. Not a must win for the Giants, but going back to Philly is a dangerous proposition, so it would be very nice to close it out tomorrow.
Go Timmy! Go Giants!!!
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kruk said it wasnt a balk...therefore, it wasnt a balk...i trust in kruk
ReplyDeletedid i tell ya that posey wasnt tired?
pablo did have a big double, however, that dp was unforgivable...the only thing that was needed in that at bat was a fly ball...situational hitting....learn it panda...or you wont be long for the bigs
and for the first time, missing the cut off guy paid off for rowands...i was shocked
and huge kudos to both uribe and edgar...playing hurt...in pain...totally sucked it up
madbum may have hit the wall...i still think he is a better option than zito, and if the giants make it to the ws, he should still be the 4th guy....if he can give 5 innings, with the pen, it will be fine...still cant trust zito to do even that
the guys never gave up...and for the first time this year, i felt like they could come back...its the phils who are on edge...not the gyros
but still a long way to go...beating halladay twice in a week is close to impossible...and going back to that park is a nightmare
either way...its been a fun series...and i will say this, either of these team can beat the pants off of whoever makes it out of the al...neither the yanks or the rangers have enough pitching
I JUST LOVE THIS TEAM !!!
ReplyDeleteGIP
PS:
Is Huff, the best slow baserunner of all times ?!
Is Rowand, the best "60 mllions$ throw at the plate, when you need it", ever ?
Is Cody, can go from the worst to the best first name in a giant team in one post-season ?
Is Bochy will be the worst manager to have a statue in San fran ?
Is this wrap, the best wrap ever from DrB ?
Is Posey, the best ?
OK Bacci,
ReplyDeleteI'm not the expert on balks, but you don't think Kruk is just a bit of homer do you? I will admit that it was borderline whether his front foot came behind his post foot, but he definitely came more than halfway to home plate. All I know is I absolutely thought he was coming home with the pitch and was shocked to see him stop and throw to first. Unfortunately, I was stuck watching the Fox broadcast, but I thought Mitch Williams did a good job of explaining it. The only thing I wasn't sure about was whether his front foot came back, but I thought it did, just barely. Oh well, probably didn't make a difference in the game, but it could have.
Hey, thanks for reading and commenting everybody!
honestly, i thought it was an obvious balk
ReplyDeletesuggestion...wont give the link here, but if you do a google search for knbr backdoor stream, you can find a site that gets past the radio stream blackout
i cant deal with the fox broadcasters