The Padres, as always, were quite Pesky tonight threatening to ruin terrific games from 3 Giants rookies with a bases-loaded threat in the 9'th inning before Ramon Ramirez struck out a Pesky Jesus Guzman to end the game. Key Lines:
Justin Christian- 1 for 4, 2B, Sac. BA= .250. In his first MLB game since 2008, Christian showed a nice quick stroke that produced a double down the LF line that turned into the go-ahead run when Beltran doubled him in. Later he made a nice sacrifice bunt that he almost beat out for a hit that led to an insurance run the Giants needed.
Carlos Beltran- 3 for 4, 2B, BB. BA= .299. Beltran is 20 for 47 since coming off the DL.
Brett Pill- 1 for 3, HR(1). BA= .333. Pill hit a long HR off a 3'rd story deck fence of the Western Metal Supply building in his first MLB AB joining Will Clark and Jonnie Lemaster as the only Giants to hit a dinger in their first AB. Let's hope for Pill's sake his career is more like Clark's than Lemaster's! Although, I guess Johnnie Lemaster did have a pretty long career.
Eric Surkamp- 5 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 1 BB, 2 K's. ERA= 3.27. Surkamp wasn't locating his curveball but made do with the fastball and changeup and ended up with his first MLB Win. Nice pitching there without his best pitch.
The Win enabled the Giants to gain ground in the NL West as the D'Backs lost to the Rockies. The Giants are now 6 games back.
Matt Cain takes the mound tomorrow afternoon against Aaron Harang who always seems to give the Giants a hard time.
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Brett Pill! Wow. That has just been an unexpected pleasure. I never thought the Giants would call him up. Then he turns out to be such a personable kid. Truly thrilled to be here, watching him arrive in the dugout over the weekend. And now, tonight? In front of his family and friends. Just a lot of fun.
ReplyDeleteSurkamp hanging on by his fingertips.
Beltran insanely hot, making the Wheeler thing acceptable...
Great story about Christian too. Great bay area roots.
Rockies come back and Coors Field the D-Backs.
Great day to be a Giants fan.
To be precise, they are Giants who homered in their first plate appearance. For first at bat, you need to add John The Count Montefusco to the list, as he walked in his first official plate appearance before homering (I can still remember Al Michael's call and him giving the Count his nickname).
ReplyDeleteYeah, wow, Pill the Thrill! Yes, it would be a hard nickname to live up to, but at least he is in his company forever, when talk about first homer plate appearance come up. Still not sure what he can contribute up here, but his energy and excitement clearly helped the team. At minimum, it has ignited Beltran, who is having a September like he had for Houston.
We'll see whether it makes up for missing all those games with his hand injury, whether it makes a big enough dent into the D-backs lead. As the saying goes, it is always darkest before the dawn. But in baseball, sometime the dark is all you see...
Hopefully he just goes up and be himself, that would be the best thing for him. Lucky for him he ended up facing a pitcher he knew something about, that was probably part of the calculus that led Bochy to start Pill in the game.
Christian is a nice story too, just not sure either what he can do up here. It's throw the jell-o on the wall and see what sticks time, and they both stuck yesterday.
Yes, great day to be a Giants fan!
http://chronicle.augusta.com/sports/baseball/2011-09-06/speech-inspired-greenjackets-second-half-run?v=1315358431
ReplyDeletedefinitely a philosophical change on the farm