Tim Lincecum was, once again, Big Time Timmy Jim tonight holding the Pesky Ones at bay while Beltran and Belt produced just enough offense to give the Giants a win they desperately needed. Key Lines:
Carlos Beltran- 2 for 4, HR(16). BA= .285. Beltran's laser shot HR into the RF arcade in the 4'th inning gave the Giants their first run and gave Timmy the lead. It might be just a bit early to be calling the Beltran trade a bust?
Brandon Belt- 2 for 3, 3B, SB(3). BA= .243. There were Giraffe hats in the stands as The Awkward One showed off his athleticism running out a standup triple to the CF wall and later easily stealing 2B.
Tim Lincecum- 8 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 5 BB, 7 K's. ERA= 2.46. Timmy walked the bases loaded in the first inning after 2 outs. He got out of that one and then settled down to pretty much dominate the rest of the way. Big Time Timmy Jim may be gunning for another Cy. He has an ERA of 1.44 since the first of July.
Santiago Casilla- 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K's, Save(10). ERA= 1.43. A dominating save for Casilla. He just blew the last 2 batters away! Who needs Brian Wilson?
The Win enabled the Giants to keep pace with the Dangerous D'Backs 2 games behind in the NL West.
The Giants also begin a 4 game series against the Houston Astros with Ryan Vogelsong facing Henry Sosa tomorrow night.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
So we now have Orlando Cabrera leading off, I am sure it will be a disaster very soon maybe as soon as against the dis-Astros ;-) .
ReplyDeleteI know you want to let a young player feel comfortable in the back end of the line-up and that when your primary position is 1rst base you don't hit lead off, but what about having Belt (as a left fielder) leading off now that he is beginning to rake.
He would give to the Giants some speed, power, patience and on base skill at the top. The opposite pitcher would have to face a real threat as soon as the first batter and the dominoes could fall in the right place after him.
Let's imagine something like:
Belt
Keppinger
Beltran
Panda
Huff
Nate/Ross
OCab
Stewart/Sanchez
I imagine this line-up could work even if the end of the line-up is very weak (well not when Madison is playing).
As you surely remember, Barry Bonds was leading off when he was a rookie with the Pirates, Bobby Bonds too with the Giants. Not that I compare Belt to the Bonds family (one can dream he is this kind of player) but what about the idea to have power in this part of the line-up.
It could give a boost to the rest of the batters, put pressure on the opposite team and generate some runs by giving all your best players more at bats.
The only downside I can see is regarding Belt tendency to take pitches instead of trying to hit the pitch he likes as it seems to be the difficulty he faced at the beginning of the season, but it would be less of a problem at the top of the line-up.
Hey, I have to find something to boost the Giants offense since I told Bacci that the season was not over till it was over !!!!
Go Giants !!
GIP
I was thinking the same idea too, Belt leading off, or even Schierholtz, as while he don't take pitches or walks, he also doesn't strikeout a lot and is a good baserunner. Of course, he's out for a while, so Belt will do for now, until Torres returns.
ReplyDeleteSorry OGC, Bochy stays with OCab as a lead-off tonight .... I came to the conclusion that Bochy doesn't read DrB blog, what a pity ....
ReplyDeleteLet's go Giants !!
GIP
According to media, Bochy is supposedly considering Belt leading off! Maybe he does read!
ReplyDelete