Tim Lincecum and Anthony Bass hooked up in an exciting, nail biting pitching duel tonight at AT&T Park. For 5.2 innings, it looked like Bass might lay a perfecto on the Giants. Timmy broke it up himself with a groundball single to deep SS. Brandon Belt finally came through with a ringing 2 run double to drive in the 2 runs Timmy needed. Key Lines:
Melky Cabrera- 2 for 4, 2 2B. BA= .299. Melky got the first real Giants scoring threat going with a double over the head of Cameron Maybin to the base of the CF wall.
Nate Schierholtz- 1 for 3. BA= .288. Nate's grounder into the right side hole was fielded by Hudson in plenty of time to throw him out, but his throw was a bit wide and barely pulled Alonso's foot off the bag to keep the inning alive.
Brandon Belt- 1 for 3, 2B. BA= .278. Belt had hit the ball hard enough in his previous AB to get the attention of the Padres TV announcers. His game winner was a long liner to left-center that split the defenders and easily drove in both runners on base. Now THAT's what I'm talking about!
Pablo Sandoval- 0 for 4. BA= .314. Pablo's hitting streak ends at 20 games. Now he can go back to just raking.
Tim Lincecum- 8 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 4 BB, 5 K's. ERA= 5.74. Tim's command was still a bit shaky in the early going, but he seemed to get stronger and more confident as the game went on. In the 8'th inning, after the Giants got the lead, the crowd was roaring with every pitch and he seemed to have his old swagger back. Great to see.
Santiago Casilla- 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, Save(3). ERA= 1.17. The leadoff batter, Alonso, hit a dribbler in front of the plate that Casilla couldn't get a handle on. Hudson advanced the pinch runner, Bartlett, on a grounder to the right side. I've seen many a 9'th inning come unraveled for the Giants after a start like that, but Casilla bore down, striking out Maybin and getting Kotsay on a weak bouncer back to the mound that he almost booted again.
The Win draws the Giants record back over .500 at 11-10. The Dodgers' game against the Nationals is headed to extra innings so they will be either 3 games behind the NL West leaders or 4 depending on the outcome. The Rockies lost to the Mets 7-5 to drop 0.5 games behind the Giants. The D'Backs lost to the Marlns 3-2 to drop a full game behind the Giants into 4'th place. Of course, the Pesky Ones lost and dropped 4.5 games behind the Giants in last place.
BTW, Bryce Harper is 1 for 3 with a double in his MLB debut.
Madison Bumgarner goes against Clayton Richard in tomorrow afternoon's finale of the 3 game series.
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Belt looked like he had the eye of the tiger in that last at bat! He was pissed and finally decided to do something about it. If nothing else this team is exciting and does everything they can to win.... you can't ask for more effort then what they gave at the end of the game tonight.
ReplyDeletebums won off of kemps 11th dinger of the season....im calling for a drug test
ReplyDeleteconcerned about nate
concerned about timmy and why bochy would have him throw 120 pitches
velocity still down...92 would be fine...dont like 89
why do the giants always make avg pitchers look like cy young winners
fo gotta get their act together. surkamp and runzler were supposed to be well into their rehabs by now...they are both still in extended
they shouldnt talk about freddy till he starts making starts in the field...at fresno
and huff wasnt supposed to be anywhere near the belle....yet seen taking bp??
and dang...i hate when arrogant sob's can back it up with good play...eff you harper...
I don't think Bass is going to be considered an average pitcher for very long. He's got the same stuff I saw a couple years ago in the Cal League when I said to myself, "you know, this guy is going to pitch in the major leagues and be really good." FB 91-93, sharp downbreaking slider/curve/whatever and a nasty split change that comes in harder than Timmy's with a later downbreak. Yeah, Anthony Bass is going to lose some games like this because of lack of run support, but he's the real deal if you ask me.
DeleteDrb, good call on Bass.. The Pads might want to watch him closely in July-August though because they're converting him from a reliever..
DeleteHenry Schulman tweeted something interesting about H. Sanchez.. His NL scout pal raved about H. Sanchez's defense, specifically his quick release on throws to 2nd base.. He says he would love to have him, and thinks that Posey should be playing 1st base and Sanchez catching..
LG
It occurred to me today that between H Sanchez, Brett Pill and Joaquin Arias plus maybe Henry Blanco, the Giants are accumulating some reserve players with serious trade value down the road if any needs should arise, especially Sanchez. Man, that guy's trade stock must be sky high at this point. Of course, after what happened last year, I'm sure the Giants are not anxious to trade a pretty sweet insurance policy at the catcher position.
DeleteTim Lincecum is no longer an elite pitcher. Get used it. He had a gutsy performance tonight. And his line looks WAY more solid than he pitched. A couple of fly balls would have gone yard elsewhere. I agree with Bacci. 89 MPH. It is now a below average fastball. It is not intimidating anyone. Tim is an great adapter. I'm hoping he can tighten up control a bit, and morph into an effective, solid pitcher. We'll see. But we can stop talking about 8 figures for Tim. That ship has sailed.
ReplyDeleteBacci, I don't know why you're all agro-anti-Harper. I think he's over-cocky too. But he's 19 and playing major-league baseball. You get to have a little swagger. Ego, yeah, there is too much. He hit that double tonight, and running to 2nd, he knocked his helmet off on purpose. I'm pretty sure so we could all see his face as he stood on 2nd after his first knock.
He also made a hell of a throw to home in the 7th, which SHOULD have nailed Hairston at the plate. Hairston chopped the ball out of Ramos' glove, missed the plate, then tried to swipe the ball away again because he missed the plate. You have to see this weasely maneuver he makes. Watch the highlight on mlb.com. The Hairstons MUST BE STOPPED.
Great to see Brandon get the big knock tonight. Good for him.
Anyone catch what the Dodgers did to a guy with 100 MPH heater? In fact they stated Henry Rod was 102 MPH a few times.
DeleteEvery year Timmy has his "PMS" month and stinks up the place. He is just having it earlier this year.
Hang on, the Giants are getting to run off a string of wins. I saw it in a vision coming out of Flagstaff in a thunderstorm.
Not sure why Harper knocked off his helmet so everybody could see his really, really bad hair. Man, that is one ugly 'do! But yeah, he looked very much like the real deal.
DeleteKemp is simply the best player on the planet right now. I hope when the Giants play the Dodgers they don't give him anything anywhere near the strike zone. Let someone else try to beat them.
I was able to watch my 2nd Giants game of the year since a Hawaii TV station brings in the NBC Bay Area telecasts. Both pitchers were great and Bass didn't deserve the loss.. Nice to see Timmy pitch through some shaky defense early.. It was generous that the error charged to Burriss was changed to a hit. I thought Bochy showed a lot of confidence in Timmy leaving him in the 8th inning to pitch to a hot hitting N Hundley. Maybe the Monday dayoff had something to do with why Timmy pitched the 8th inning. Nice hitting by Brandon Belt taking that outside changeup to left centerfield.. Maybe he's starting to get his swing together, which is great news for the Giants.
ReplyDeleteLG
The Padres are just tough for us. Pesky indeed. These type of wins are sweet. I enjoy Belt's baserunning. He is very aggressive and moves well for a 6'5 guy. Good to see him make that type of contact. I think Bochy might want to stop worrying about platoon splits and just let Belt rip for a bit. Lefty today, we'll see.
ReplyDeleteCheck back in August with those Tim Lincecum no longer elite comments. I refuse to count The Franchise out yet. So much of his game is in his windup and delivery. The Bochy trot-out Timmy in the 8th doesn't bother me. Sometimes you have to show faith in your pitcher and build his confidence when he's scrapping.
Don't remember if DrB mentioned the move, but check out non-top 50 DrB prospect Steve Edlefsen back up yet again. There must be something the Giants see in him. I like the funky delivery but he has to throw strikes if he gets the chance.