The Giants got what might be the best game of Barry Zito's career and once again scored 4 runs in the 4'th inning to avoid elimination from the postseason. Key Lines:
Pablo Sandoval- 2 for 4, HR. BA= .286. Pablo added a nice grab of a line drive down the 3B line on defense. Pablo is having a strong postseason and hit his second dinger in 2 games in this one.
Gregor Blanco- 0 for 2, 2 BB. BA= .133. In the pivotal 4'th inning, Lynn pitched around Blanco to face Crawford which could not have been a bigger mistake.
Brandon Crawford- 1 for 4. BA= .235. After looking very bad on a K in the 3'rd inning, Crawford probably seemed like a gimme to Lance Lynn who was battling to get out of the 4'th inning after throwing the ball away on an attempted DP at 2B. Instead, Crawford patiently worked the count to 3-2. Lynn might have gotten a bit impatient and tried to surprise him with a curveball that Crawford just stroked up the middle for a 2 run single. I kind of knew the Giants were going to win at that point. Big, big basehit there for the Crawman. One more thought: Matheny may have made a managerial blunder here by underestimating Crawford and not bringing in Eyechart to face him and make sure he got out of the inning with a 1-0 deficit. Might not have mattered anyway as the 1-0 lead may well have stood up, but a 1-0 deficit is a whole lot different than 4-0.
Barry Zito- 1 for 2. BA= .500. Zito laid down a surprise bunt single for a RBI to tack on an insurance run in the 4 run 4'th.
Barry Zito- 7.2 IP, 6 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 6 K's. ERA= 0.00. I figured we might be in for a special Zito start when he pitched his way out of a jam in the 2'nd inning. First of all, it was a beautiful piece of pitching. Secondly, If Zito can make it past the first two innings without getting bombed, he usually settles down pretty good. He dominated after that. He was able to locate his 84 MPH fastball, had a nice sharp curve and a very good changeup that was tailing down and away from RH batters. Very nice work from the Z-man.
The win narrows the Giants deficit in the NLCS to 3 games to 2. They now come back to SF for Game 6 and hopefully Game 7. Ryan Vogelsong faced Chris Carpenter in Game 6 on Sunday evening with Matt Cain set for Game 7 if the Giants win Game 6. Gotta feel there's a pretty good chance of that happening right now.
Go Giants!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
WowZZZZZZZaaaa! Zito, man I take back all the s#$t I said about your $126MM contract - debt paid in full.
ReplyDeleteTha Cards weren't ready for the zen of a 84MPH fastball and Zito bunting. Neither was I.
Really, I was bumming the Giants weren't going to make it out of that cow town. Now the script can be rewritten again and with a bigger ending.
Voggie and Cain and pray for Cardinal pain. Got to be the starters leading the way if the Giants are making it to the WS.
Can't even contemplate what Detroit will have in waiting - hopefully waiting takes their edge away. Verlander, anyone?
Any other team I would say the time off would hurt but Detroit I don't expect to miss a beat. No need to look that far ahead yet we stil have a ton of work to do!
ReplyDeleteYup. One game at a time!
DeleteZito came to play baseball pitching a shutout & bunting for an rbi single and sacrifice. I think game 6 will be competitive.. Carpenter is scary with a 10-3 post season record. Cards hitters might approach Vogelsong differently. Hopefully the Giants score early and jump ahead. I would love to see a game 7 because it would have a chance to be a classic with these 2 teams.
ReplyDeleteLG
Don't want to get my hopes up because Carpenter is a competitor, but I'm not sure he's physically 100% coming off his Thoracic Outlet Syndrome surgery.
DeleteIt all comes down to whether Vogey can come up big again.
As always, it all comes down to pitching.
carpenter is basically in spring training mode and it shows
Deletehis stuff is there, but he is missing
to me, it comes down to the ump
if he allows vogey to get comfortable early...its all good
if not...well, it was a great year
giants cannot go into the 6th, behind
Game six by the bay! Thanks Barry Zito!
ReplyDeleteThe series is over when it's over. Must win elimination game in our park. Hope Vogey can do it again, finally breaking up that losing streak.
Crawford is reminding me a bit of JT Snow. Always good on defense, money in the post season. Now panda is warming up, buster needs to take a step back and wait for his pitch. Pence? Who knows. Execute your plays Gigantes, and hope for some favor from the baseball gods.
Shank, going to the game?
DeleteNope. Mccarver and buck for this guy!
DeleteI was thinking more like Rich Aurillia with much better defense. I found Richie to be clutch at times.
Deletepeter the pink was running around st louis, telling everyone...I WANT MY JOB BACK
ReplyDeletefox was proving that they should not be in the baseball game as interns were feeding mccrappy, bad bio data on giants players
to me, key to the game is for the team to get past the off day doldrums, that they have had all season
Interesting thought on peter the pink. He did get his zito quote on - the last sentence stood out to me - marketing.
DeleteThe key to me is to score first, get the crowd fired up and ride that momentum.
wow, some strange moves today
ReplyDeletebeane traded penington and yordy cabrera to the snakes for young and cash
snakes then flipped cabrera to the marlins for bell
maybe not so strange on the part of the a's as it will lessen the need for of platooning...but why would the snakes want bell?
I agree, Bacci. Those is some mighty strange moves. Snakes are probably buying low on Bell hoping he can bounce back and give them a dominant setup man and insurance against a Putz injury. Are the Marlins going to pay any of Bell's salary? That would be the part that doesn't seem to make sense for the D'Backs.
Deletesnakes are picking up 13 mil of bell's salary
Deletea's now have a glut of of...which is the way beane likes it, so you know he has a bunch more moves to make during the offseason
snakes getting bell makes no sense to me, unless they think he will feel more comfortable back in the west...i dont think so
snakes have a lot of pitching in their system...i just dont get the move
also find it interesting that they totally gave up on young
I would say that means the D'Backs are committed to Adam Eaton as their CF for next year and just wanted to be rid of Young and his K's and injuries.
Delete