Game Wrap 4/16/2011: Giants 5 D'Backs 3

The Giants played a game that was both frustrating and very entertaining. They ended up winning it due mostly to an exceptional effort by Guillermo Mota and the bullpen, and they overcame 5 GIDP's! Key lines:

Aaron Rowand- 3 for 4, 2B, BB. BA= .359. Gamer was as good this game as he was bad yesterday. The first hit to lead off the game was a thing of beauty, a long, low line drive up the left-center alley that Chris Young could not get to.

Freddy Sanchez- 2 for 4, 2B. BA= .308. Freddy drove in 3 runs with his 2 hits. He's smacking the ball pretty good right now.

Buster Posey- 1 for 3, HR(2), BB. BA= .306. My wife was watching the game with me and had just commented on how nice Buster's swing looked....Bam! She looked at me and said, "see, I told you!"

Mark DeRosa- 2 for 3. BA= .429. DeRosa has no place to play. He got the call at 1B against the LHP today. He has a very reasonable contract and may have some trade value.

Darren Ford- 0 for 1, PO/CS. Ford entered the game as a pinch runner, got picked off first base running on first move and almost beat the relay from the first baseman. Later, he struck out in his first career MLB AB.

Barry Zito- 1.2 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 1 BB, 0 K's. ERA= 6.23. It was pretty obvious that Zito didn't have it before he sprained his foot fielding a bunted ball on the fly. The first two outs of the first inning were smoked, and he certainly wasn't fooling anyone in the second inning. Hate to say it, but I doubt the Giants win this game if Zito hadn't gotten hurt.

Guillermo Mota- 4.1 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 0 BB, 4 K's. ERA= 2.19. Mota exceeded his previous career high IP total, I think by a full inning. He actually seemed to get stronger and more unhittable as the appearance progressed. My goodness! He as throwing some nasty breaking pitches in the 5'th and 6'th innings! An exceptional effort! Maybe he can be the emergency starter if Zito goes on the DL?

Jeremy Affeldt- 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 BB, 1 K. ERA= 3.00. A nice effort by Affeldt to back up Mota's performance.

Sergio Romo- 0.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 K. ERA= 0.00. Romo's slider seemed to have almost supernatural qualities tonight. After getting the last out, he let out a yell and jabbed his finger at the sky as he always does. Ryan Roberts took exception, started yelling at Romo and seemed to be looking for a fight until the ump and a coach got in his line of vision to Romo.

Brian Wilson- 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K. ERA= 9.64. Wilson is making it look too easy. I kind of miss the torture. He now has what I consider the holy grail of fastballs, 4 seamer, 2 seamer and cutter. Add in a slider to the mix and he is truly unhittable.

The W moved the Giants record to 8-6 and to 3 games behind NL West leading Colorado Rockies who finally lost a game to the Cubs 8-3. Meanwhile the Dodger are getting pounded by the Cardinals again, 9-2 in the 9'th inning. Kershaw lasted less than 5 IP. Don Mattingly is already second guessing himself and being second guessed about how many pitches he lets his starters throw. Kershaw threw 111 in his 4.2 IP after throwing 117 in his last start. This on the heels of Hiroki Kuroda getting shelled in his last start after throwing 117 in his prior start. Not sure I blame Mattingly given how lousy the Dodgers bullpen is. Kuo is now on the DL again. This time with a bad back. Now there is talk that if Frank McCourt cannot get some type of financial rescue package put together, the Dodgers might not make their next payroll. Oh, and the LA Times reported today that the Dodgers made deep cuts in their security budget in 2009. Man, what an embarrassment for one of the sport's historical flagship franchises!

Madison Bumgarner tries for the sweep tomorrow against Barry Enright. Bumgarner has had success against the D'Backs. Enright kind of baffled the Giants in an early start last year but he has poor K/BB numbers and the Giants seemed to figure him out in a subsequent game.