The Giants battled the Padres to a 0-0 standstill into extra innings, then Bang, Bang Maxwell's Silver Hammer Came Down and an Opening Day crowd of 45,000 fans, the second largest in the history of Petco Park, went him bitterly disappointed. Key Lines:
Nori Aoki- 1 for 3, 2 BB. BA= .412. On base 3 times in 5 PA's, yet did not participate in the scoring. I think Giants fans in San Francisco are going to love this guy!
Brandon Crawford- 0 for 5. BA= .278. It was Crawford's pop fly dropped by Clint Barmes in shallow left-CF for a 2 base error that paved the way for the winning run. Crawford had a spectacular game of defense with the Padres announcers gushing about how he looks like a Gold Glove winner. I started watching in the 8'th inning and I saw Crawford save the game at least twice, maybe 3 times.
Casey McGehee- 1 for 5, 2 Errors. BA= .294. Casey McGehee did not have a spectacular game with the glove making 2 errors from which his teammates picked him up. In fairness, he started a DP earlier in the game and the Padres were hitting some rockets at him. He is not cat quick like Pablo, though. Oh, and he also hit into a DP to strand Pagan at 3B after Pagan had hit a leadoff triple in the top of the 9'th inning off Craig Kimbrel.
Speaking of…..Pagan's AB in the 9'th generated some extracurricular activity. Catcher Derek Norris apparently took exception to Pagan calling timeout and stepping out of the batter's box arguing that time had not been granted. There was also video showing Pagan picking up a pebble in the batter's box and flipping it against Norris' shinguards. Kimbrel's next pitch came in at 97 MPH and grazed Pagan's chin prompting the umpire to warn both benches.
PS: The "pebble" was actually a piece of gum and that is apparently what started the teeth grinding between Pagan and Norris. LOL!
Justin Maxwell- 1 for 1. BA= .286. Maswell entered the game as a PH in the top of the 12'th with 2 outs and runners on first and second. Bochy was clearly hoping to catch lightning in a bottle. To Maxwell's credit, he did not swing for the fences and ended up sending a 2-strike single to CF scoring Crawford from 2B and that was the winning run. On the postgame show, Greg Papa called it Maxwell's Silver Hammer. Ha! Now, where did you hear that first?
Tim Hudson- 6.1 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 5 BB, 1 K, GO/AO= 11/2. ERA= 0.00. Huddy was a bit ragged, but he had the groundball machine working and got a whole $&#%load of DP balls taking a shutout into the 7'th inning.
Bullpen- 5.2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 6 K's. Bochy still had Petit in but bullpen when the Giants scored the winning run. Casilla got the Save facing just 3 batters.
The Win improved the Giants record to 3-1 and they trail the first place Colorado Rockies by 0.5 games. The Dodgers were idle to remain at 2-1, the D'Backs were idle and stayed at 1-2 while the Padres dropped into last place at 1-3, 2.5 games off the pace.
Tim Lincecum takes on old college rival Brandon Morrow tomorrow night in game 2 of the 4 game series in Petco.
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Crawford was a machine out there today. I think he might finally be getting the Gold Glove buzz he deserves. McGhee had a rough night and has a reputation of hitting into a lot of DP's so we may see some more of those too before the season is over. Pen looks strong though and Aoki is looking like a good addition.
ReplyDeleteThat was quite a game!
ReplyDeleteHuddy kept flirting with disaster, but kept getting the ground ball he needed. Gutsy game.
I've said before that I thought Aoki will be a nice addition. Effective leadoff hitters aren't easy to find.
Crawford had a excellent game, and he's proving that he's among the best SS in the game.
And I was really happy to see Maxwell make good adjustments for the situation. Power is nice, but timely hits are usually more valuable.
My main worry is that Pagan is going to hurt himself again, but I guess that's a risk that must be taken. He plays in 'overdrive' all the time; it's his game.
Once Belt and Pence are back in the lineup, the offense should be a lot of fun to watch. Not so sure about the starting pitching.
Gonna be interesting to see how Timmeh roles out tomorrow...
The warning was after the jawing and before the high and tight pitch by Kimbrel. I really respected Kimbrel for bringing that pitch IMMEDIATELY after the warning.
ReplyDeleteThe knives are out for McGehee. Yes, he made two errors. But I think fans need some perspective. In his early career, the man was a poor-fielding 3B man who couldn't hit for average and lost his power, his one saving grace. Kind of like Adam Duvall, the minor league 3B prospect in Sacramento.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, that washed him out of MLB baseball. So he went to Japan and re-tooled his entire game and not only hit for a good average, but had just 7 errors last year. That error rate was second best among qualified 3B men. He also had a .979 fielding percentage, also second best among qualified 3B men. So he's not exactly a 'pile of garbage.' His batting average, .287, was third-best among third basemen in the Majors while is .712 OPS was 'merely' 16th. So, at worst, last year he was 'average' as a hitter.
So, yeah, he's not an All-Star third baseman. But jeeze, it was one bad game. And it's not like he signed a giant FA contract, stabbed his teammates and fans in the back, showed up to camp fat and is currently stinking it up at the plate and at 3B... Rather he's actually playing pretty well, save for the two errors.
Agree on McGehee. As I have said before, he does not replace the Pablo that's been there since 2009, but I would much rather have McGehee on his contract than the future Pablo on his.
DeleteGotta look at the situation for Casey yesterday:
DeletePadres are re-tooled and better.
The game is low-scoring, close and very tense. Not much margin for...yeah, you know I'm going to say...error.
Their fans actually showed and were boisterous
McGehee made a couple of errors at a REALLY bad times.
Plus his DP came at a SUPER bad time, high emotion, leaving Pagan stranded after mixing it up with Norris and Kimbrell.
No one here mentioned the line drive that clanged off his glove. (It's was a hit for sure, but really, McGehee got his glove on it, he should have caught it.)
It was no good, terrible, very bad game. So, it's fair for the sound and the fury crowd to get in a few shots on him.
Agreed, one game, and Casey isn't going anywhere anytime soon.
Anyone who jumps all over Casey this early in the season doesn't really understand the game of baseball, that's the bottom line. We leave that to the media.
DeleteThough I was lukewarm on the sign, he's so far looking to be a solid hitter, a pretty fair defender at the corner, and has a personality that meshes well. So personally, I'm loving the guy now.
I don't know McGehee enough to say if Bochy will consider putting in Arias late in the game in the future. I think he will be OK, even without Pablo's cat quick reaction.
ReplyDeleteThe real big difference with Pablo and McGehee is the arm. I wonder how many errors McGehee gets because of his arm. I wonder how the Padres were feeling after getting all those base runners only to see them run off the field two at a time? Panik is as gold as it gets for the pivot.
ReplyDelete