Game Wrap 6/3/2011: Giants 3 Rockies 1

The Giants mounted a 3 run rally in the fourth inning against Rockies rookie pitcher Juan Nicasio and the pitching made it stand up for a 3-1 victory over their division rivals. Key LInes:

Emmanuel Burriss- 3 for 4. BA= .333. Burriss played 3B tonight. He didn't score or drive in a run but 3 for 4 is almost certainly more than what the Giants would have gotten out of Miggy T.

Cody Ross- 2 for 3, 2 2B. BA= .276. Ross was the linchpin of the Giants offense tonight driving in 2 runs and scoring 1. He's on one of the hot streaks he is known for with 10 hits in 20 AB's over his last 5 games. Diggin' the shoes too! Maybe Cody doesn't mean anything when he flips his bat but don't try to tell me he's not a hot dog. The shoes said it all tonight!

Brandon Crawford- 1 for 2, 2B, BB. BA= .292. Crawford grew up in a family of Giants fans and attended many games as a young fan in AT&T Park. Tonight, his family was in the stands watching and got a big thrill when he drove in the insurance run with a double down the RF line that hit flush at the base of the foul pole. The BB was intentional. His first AB, that ended in a flyout, was prolonged allowing him to see all of Nicasio's pitches and I'm sure it helped him in his subsequent AB. I really like what I'm seeing of Crawford. He's hit very well, but hasn't gone unconscious like some rooks do. This actually looks sustainable. I'm sure there will be rough spots, but he looks like he's for real in the long run. BTW, Brandon's mother is a very charming lady who even caught a foul ball tonight that the TV cameras showed.

Matt Cain- 7 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 4 BB, 7 K's. ERA= 3.64. Cainer just pounded the zone with fastballs with great location. They are still scratching their heads over at fangraphs.com over how Cain in particular and Giants pitchers in general have such a low HR/FB ratio. They scoffed at me for saying it's all about fastball command and not giving in to the hitters. Dave Cameron interviewed Rags this spring and claims that Rags denied telling his pitchers to not give in to hitters. Well, on the postgame press conference, somebody asked Bochy about the 4 walks. His response was the walks can be strategic. It's not that they are trying to walk batters to pitch around them. They are trying to get them out, but they insist that the hitter hit the pitcher's pitch. If it misses and the batter walks, it's not what they wanted, but it's also not the end of the world and they just go after the next batter the same way. After watching literally hundreds of Giants games over the years, it's so obvious. I don't know exactly how Cameron asked the question or exactly what Rags' response was because Cameron has not posted a transcript of the interview, but I guarantee you, the reason why Giants pitchers can suppress HR/FB is due to fastball velocity, command and refusing to give in to hitters.

Javier Lopez- 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K's. ERA= 2.61. Lopez dominated the 8'th inning against the heart of the Rockies' lineup which happened to include 2 LH batters. He made the lefties look silly and Tulo was out on a soft flyball to Torres.

Brian Wilson- 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K, Save(16). ERA= 3.12. Wilson added his familiar drama. He was just barely missing with the two seam fastball, the 4 seamer was sailing high, so he chucked those and got the last two batters out with the cutter breaking back over the arm side corner of the plate. Wow! Dude has 3 different fastballs. 2 weren't working, but the one he did have was was unhittable.

With the W, the Giants stayed 0.5 games up on the D'Backs who blanked the Nats 4-0. With the Loss, the Rockies dropped 5.5 games behind the pacesetting Giants. The Dodgers lost to the Reds 2-1 to slip 6.5 games behind. The Pesky Padres topped the 'Stros 3-1 to stay 7.5 games back in last place in the NL West.

Madison Bumgarner takes the mound tomorrow afternoon against Jhoulys Chacin who can be a tough customer himself.