Well, you can't win 'em all if you don't win the first one. Got that out of the way in a hurry! Pat Burrell's laser shot HR in the bottom of the ninth inning was too little, too late to keep Tim Lincecum from fallling victim to some sloppy defense by the Giants and a dominating pitching performance by Clayton Kershaw. Key Lines:
Pat Burrell- 1 for 4, HR(1).
Brandon Belt- 1 for 3, BB. The hit was a bouncer behind the bag at 1B that Belt beat out as Loney almost made a very tough play on it. Belt generally impressed by putting up good AB's and not swinging at bad pitches. If his strike zone judgement is as good as it looked tonight, kid's gonna be alright. He also showed some speed afoot and tremendous range and quickness around the bag at first. It looks like SF pitchers can pretty much forget about having to run over and cover 1B, Brandon Belt will take care of it himself, thank you! Oh, and what a target for the infielders to throw at! My goodness, Willie Mac may have to bequeath his nickname "Stretch" to Belt before this is all done!
Tim Lincecum- 7 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 5 K's. Kershaw was by far the more dominant pitcher early on, but Timmy hung in there like a champ. It's a shame the game was essentially decided by bad fielding. I will say the deciding error was a error of aggressiveness by Buster Posey, abetted by Pablo Sandoval. They thought they had caught Matt Kemp loafing off 3B on a blocked pitch in the dirt. Unfortunately, Kemp was on the bag when the throw got away from Sandoval down the 3B line allowing Kemp to come home with the go-ahead run. Never say never and never say die, but you knew this one was over on that play.
Clayton Kershaw(Dodgers): 7 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 9 K's. Kershaw has pretty much ditched the curveball for a hard slider, and it is a nasty pitch. It was too easy for hitters to see the curveball coming and lay off it. With the slider, it looks like a fastball until it itsn't and the Giants hitters were flailing.
Barry Zito escaped serious injury after a very scary sounding motor vehicle accident in which is car was broadsided in an intersection by a red-light-running taxi. Zito was fortunate, and it helps when the car you are driving is a Bentley rather than a Mitsubishi Spyder convertible. Zito reportedly saw it coming and tried to speed past but the taxi caught the rear half of his car. Scary!! Zito says he is going to make his start on Sunday, but he was wearing a neck collar today and you have to wonder.
Brian Wilson reportedly aired it out today and everything checked out A-OK. He should be back soon.
Jonathan Sanchez takes the mound tomorrow against Chad Billingsley who is always tough on the Giants.
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zito was hit by a cabbie...and doc, come to la and watch the cabs...they are nuts...and most are driven by crazy russians
ReplyDeletehe is headed to the dl for sure...watch for the stiffness to increase by tomorrow...and i wouldnt go with runzler
i was very impressed by belt....very impressed
if his eye is this good now...think about how its gonna be in 5 years
he works every count...i havent seen that since bonds
tejeda knows better than to rush throws
the team just seemed off today...and i blame the idiotic start time....thank you espn
btw...really brilliant move replacing miller and morgan with a guy and his two monkeys
valentine is great on wrap up shows....but he doesnt get tv at all...you are allowed to shut up for a couple of minutes...orel is just plain irritating
back to loving watching pablo in the field again
not so hyped on the of alignment
and let me say this....kershaw was more dominating tonite...but timmy is the better pitcher....he was struggling, yet gave up nada...and had his d not failed him...couldve thrown a complete game shutout
ok...giants are in last place....we got em where we want em
On the bright side, even though Timmy took the loss, his ERA is still 0.00!!
ReplyDeleteDefense and situational awareness wasn't smooth tonight, but we got a pretty good look at Belt. He has very good knowledge of the strike zone. He laid off so many borderline pitches and put up a good battle in his at-bats. He has the brains and the ability.
One more thing, take a seat Matt Stairs.. Pat Burrell is Jonathan Broxton's new bully now.
Yeah, I meant to say something about the ESPN announcing team. OMG! Now I know why nobody wants to hire Bobby Valentine as an announcer, and what's with only hiring ex-Dodgers for national broadcasts? I mean, Eric Karros, Hershiser, Valentine? Those guys are all horrible! Give me Kruk and Kuip any day. Heck, as annoying as Tim McCarver is, even HE is better! Joe Morgan too.
ReplyDeleteI don't know, as much as I love Timmy and admire what he did last night, if that's the way they both pitch every night, I'll take Kershaw. Dude was big, nasty and dominant.
Yeah, after Burrell took Broxton deep, I really thought Belt was gonna do it to. Kid put up a great AB though. Maybe he gets to Broxton next time?
Valentine was not so bad but Hershiser needs to take up knitting or something. He is a bias dip.
ReplyDeletePablo looked good and Timmy was outstanding considering he had to struggle with his pitches. I know this sounds repetitive, but they still need a SS. Bad throw by Buster. Buster should have known to NOT throw regardless of Pablo wanting the ball. The team looked stale. The dugout didn't have its normal levity. Get used to Kershaw because I think he has turned the corner.
West L.A.? In a Bentley? Put this guy on suicide watch.
ReplyDelete