Game Wrap 5/18/2011: Giants 8 Dodgers 5

Any win against the Dodgers is a good game, but man, I feel so sad for Matt Cain. He took a 5-2 lead into the 8'th inning only to have a ridiculous parade of relievers blow the lead. Fortunately, Cody Ross hit a 3 run dinger in the top of the 9'th to get the 3 run lead back and Brian Wilson got through the bottom of the ninth for an undeserved Win. Key lines:

Freddy Sanchez- 2 for 5. BA= .276. Freddy kept the line moving in the 3'rd inning after Matt Cain started a series of 3 consecutive singles with 2 outs to drive in the Giants first run off Clayton Kershaw. Then started the winning rally with a single in the 9'th.

Buster Posey- 2 for 5. BA= .275. I guess he'll take them any way he can get them but the first hit was a dribbler up the middle. He then kept the winning rally going with a ground ball single to LF. Buster just seems to put the ball on the ground way too much for a guy who isn't all that fast and is supposed to be driving in runs.

Cody Ross- 2 for 4, HR(3). BA= .260. Gotta say, Cody Ross has a flair for the dramatic.

Miguel Tejada- 2 for 4. BA= .214. Nice game for Miggy. Maybe the start of something good?

Mark DeRosa- 0 for 1. BA= .162. DeRosa came up holding his left wrist on a check swing in his second AB. He appeared to be in severe pain. Word from the clubhouse was a wrist sprain, but gotta think it's a whole lot worse than that what with that being the same wrist he's had 2 surgeries on. The DL seems like a certainty and we may be looking at the end of his career.

Matt Cain- 7.1 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 3 BB, 7 K's. ERA= 3.28. Cainer seemed to temporarily lose focus after Kemp broke up his perfect game with a leadoff HR in the top of the 5'th inning. He managed to get out of it without further runs scoring and took a 5-2 lead into the 8'th. He gave up a leadoff single, got an out and was then lifted after 111 pitches as Lopez was brought in to face Ethier. Was Cainer showing just a bit of frustration and maybe showing up his teammates just a tad when he went streaking over the the railing on the 3B side to try to catch a pop up that Posey and Miggy got late jumps on? What was that, anyway?

Javier Lopez- 0.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K. ERA= 1.13. It looked like Lopez got some generous calls from the ump but struck out Ethier looking with some nasty stuff off the outside corner.

Sergio Romo- 0 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 0 BB, 1 K. ERA= 1.74. There really is no shame in giving up a soft single to Matt Kemp with 2 outs and a runner on first, but that was it for Romo as Bochy harrumphed out to the mound to bring in Wilson. Now, if Bochy really had so little faith in Romo, why didn't he bring in Wilson to face Kemp for the 1 out? Just ridiculous reasoning, or lack thereof!

Brian Wilson- 1.1 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 0 BB, 1 K, BS(2), W(4-1). Wilson didn't look right at all tonight. He was pale, a little gaunt looking. He coughed up the 3 run lead, but then managed to get through the 9'th after Cody Ross bailed him out. At one point he threw a pitch and came up holding his arm at a funny angle and the trainer came out to check on him. He later hit 96 on the radar gun so maybe it was just a twinge, but BWeezy really didn't look good out there tonight.

With the Win, the Giants move back into first place in the NL West by 0.5 games over the Rockies who lost to the Phillies 2-1. The Dodgers fall to 4 games back tied with the Dangerous D'Backs who came from behind to edge the Braves. The Padres went 5.5 games down in last place with a 5-2 loss to the BrewCrew.

Madison Bumgarner takes the mound tomorrow evening against the Dodgers and Chad Billingsley as the Giants try for a 2 game series sweep and a .500 road trip.