Game Wrap 7/14/2012:

Tim Lincecum was pitching for his place in the rotation and came through with what might have been his best performance of the season pitching 8 dominant shutout innings.  The lead was lost in a bizarre turn of events in the  top of the 9'th inning so he ended up with a no decision.  Hector Sanchez eventually picked himself up from his 9'th inning defensive miscue with a walk-off RBI single in the bottom of the 12'th.  Key Lines:

Gregor Blanco- 1 for 4, 2 BB.  BA= .252.  Blanco reached base 3 times in 6 PA's but did not figure into the scoring.

Melky Cabrera- 2 for 5, BB.  BA= .353.  Melky's hit parade continues unabated.

Pablo Sandoval- 2 for 5, BB.  BA= .308.  Both of Sandoval's hits were IF hits.  He is in noticeably better shape than when he came off the DL and was getting down the first base line in 4.5 secs.  He scored the game winner after beating out a chopper to the SS hole.

Hector Sanchez-  4 for 6, 2B.  BA= .278.  Sanchez is taking a lot of heat for the miscue in the 9'th.  In fairness to him, it was a very tough play.  Tough pitch to block and he had to go a long way to get it.  The throw was more a mistake of aggressiveness than a bad play.  Gotta love the long term potential of the bat, well, the whole package, but especially the bat.

Tim Lincecum- 8 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 11 K's.  ERA= 5.93.  I still think Timmy looks too thin, but he had plenty of stamina in this one.  He got stronger in this one as the game went on and he pitched 8 full innings.

Santiago Casilla- 1 IP, 1 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 3 K's.  ERA= 2.97.  Casilla's stuff might have been too good in this one.  The tying run scored on a K on a nasty pitch in the dirt that Sanchez partially blocked but it bounced far enough for him to feel like he had to hurry his throw to first. It was an awkward angle with the runner partially blocking the path of the ball to 1B and it pulled Belt off the bag into foul territory.  Maxwell, who started the play at 2B saw that Sanchez was too far away from the plate to get back and cover it and never stopped running beating Belt's throw and the game was tied.

Brad Penny- 1.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K's.  ERA= 2.25.  How big is Penny's ability to go more than one inning in relief?

The Dodgers lost to the Pesky Padres 7-6 so the Giants move back into first place in the NL West by 0.5 games over da Bums.  The D'Backs lost to the Cubs again so they fall to 5.5 games off the Giants pace.

Matt Cain takes the mound tomorrow against Bud Norris in an afternoon game.  We all know what he did in his last start against the "Stros.

Go Giants!