Buster Posey hit a walkoff home run in the bottom of the 9'th inning as the Giants absolutely stole a win from under the Hated Ones, a game they had no business winning. Oh how sweet it is! Key Lines:
Marco Scutaro- 1 for 4, 3B. BA= .240. Kershaw took a no-hitter into the 6'th inning and I mean the Giants did not so much as sniff a hit. Well, maybe Brandon Belt's 418 foot flyball out in triples alley would have been a HR in any other ballpark, but yeah, Kershaw was absolutely dominant until Scooter split the gap in right-center and legged out a triple.
Buster Posey- 2 for 3, 2B, HR(4), BB. BA- .281. Buster drove Scooter in with a drive into the right-center gap that was almost a carbon copy of Scooter's triple, but Buster ain't the fastest guy on the planet. He then won with a line drive into the left field seats off a wild Ronald Belisario. Hail to the Buster!!
Barry Zito- 5 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 4 BB, 1 K. ERA= 3.06. 10 baserunners in 5 innings. I don't know how he did it, but Zito kept battling and came away having allowed just 1 run. All in all, Giants pitchers allowed 18 baserunners on 11 hits and 7 BB's and the Dodgers ended up with just the 1 run to show for it. Oh yeah, and Hanley Ramirez popped his hammy while getting thrown out by Hunter Pence on an ill-advised attempt to go from first to third on a single. Yeah, it looks like a bad hammy from the way he was limping.
Sergio Romo- 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K's. ERA= 1.84. Romo was not quite as sharp as he's been, but it was enough to get the game to the bottom of the 9'th setting up Buster's game winner. Romo got into some drama with Cowboy Joe West the plate Umpire. Kemp had stepped out of the box and as he was stepping back in, Romo was already in the set position looking to quick pitch him. West took umbrage at that and came out in front of the plate gesturing. Romo stepped off the mound and threw up his hands. West was quite obviously PO'd and I thought he was going to toss Romo. I think he might have had he not realized it probably would have started a riot in the stadium, particularly if the Giants ended up losing. I really hate Joe West. Besides being on ugly sonofa, his strike zones are inconsistent, often to the point of ridiculousness, and he is a hothead and an instigator to boot. He almost ran Nick Punto who led off the the inning and got hot at a called third strike that I have to say was at least 4 inches off the plate. Later, during the Kemp AB, Romo put one on the inside corner that was no more than 2 inches off the plate, yet did not get the call.
Clayton Kershaw- 7 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 3 BB, 5 K's. ERA= 1.66. 6 baserunners in 7 innings to Zito's 10 in 5. No-hitter into the 6'th. Credit the Giants hitters for not giving up and keeping after it. Also credit Zito for hanging around, and some defensive goodness from Brandon Belt. Anytime you can steal a win on a night like this from an opposing pitcher like Kershaw it is huge. HUGE, I tell you!
The Win put the Giants in a first place tie with the Rockies, who lost to the Tampa Bay Rays in an interleague game, 7-4. The D'Backs lost to the Pesky Padres 7-6 to drop 2 games off the pace. The Dodgers loss put them 3.5 games back in 4'th place while the Pesky Ones got to 5 games back in last place.
Ryan Vogelsong takes the mound in a twilight game tomorrow facing RHP Matt Magill who is filling in for an injured Ted Lilly.
Oh, and Adrian Gonzalez sat out tonight's game with some sort of neck problem.
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Like you said, give Zito credit for hanging in there despite a tough strikezone and the Giants hitters keeping after it geting Kershaw's pitchcount up.. Bochy must have been pulling his hair watching his pitchers give up 5 leadoff walks and 2 leadoff basehits.. I think something to keep an eye on is 17 appearances each for Romo and Casilla out of 29 games along with 15 appearances for Kontos. Hopefully Affeldt will ease the burden on them. He looked a little off tonight which is understandable. I sense that Arias doesn't have the range defensively of Brandon Crawford.
ReplyDeleteLG
There were a couple of groundballs into the hole that got through that I thought Crawford might have gotten to. They both would have been mighty tough to make plays on, though.
DeleteI agree that the pitch count was big with Kershaw. Something I've been saying for awhile, the Giants accomplished last night, if you can't hit him, at least try to foul it off. There were several times during the game, even when he was still no-hitting them that I could sense a bit of frustration on Kershaw's part at not being able to put them away on 3-4 pitches. Especially Zito's AB. Do you think Kershaw had payback on his mind for all those foul offs by Zito when he faced Zito later in the game?
You're right, doc. That was a HUGE win over Kershaw. If it's true that you're bound to win 50 games and bound to lose 50 games, and it's what you do in the other 62 games that determines the season, then this is one of those 62. Woohoo!
ReplyDeleteAll the Dodger injuries almost make me feel bad about them. Almost. But not quite.
I would take it further and say that this was one of those 50 games ticketed for the Loss column and now that number is 49 while the Win column is 51 with 61 other games to decide the season. Just a huge win, and it has to be a demoralizing loss for the Dodgers.
DeleteThe Kid is alright! He's never walked off before. Watching that HR again and again with my boys this morning. Fun times. Posey is squaring up balls with consistency now. What a great hitter.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you about Cowboy Joe West. His shenanigans are extremely annoying, and I noticed the exact same pitches as standout. Matt Kemp might be struggling right now but he put that ball right on the money to nail Posey at the plate. Kemp and Kershaw can carry that bloated team, don't sleep on them!
Any time we can eek out a win against Kershaw its like stealing money. He is the best pitcher in baseball in my opinion. Sure Verlander gets close, David Price, maybe Strasberg, but to me Kershaw is it. So it is a HUGE win. Now can the Giants do something against this rookie they're bringing up? (Ted Lilly to the DL - shocked!) The Giants tend to be very generous to rookies. It'd be nice to have that trend change.
Pence had a very nice game, with gunning Hanley as well as the single that Kemp gunned Buster. Scutaro needs to tighten up his defense, that should have been a double error, but he got bailed out by the staff. Affeldt was a little rusty but he battled.
Love this team.
Think the Giants will give Pegs a chance to play? I'm glad they did not throw him in against Kershaw but I would like to see him play.
ReplyDeleteI hope so.
DeleteI do not see what the hew and cry is, do people still cling to the theory that Bochy loves vets and hate rookies? There were all these people at CSN complaining. They view Pegs as a starter and would not bring him up if they were not going to use him.
DeleteIt's not the end of the world if Pegs does not start, and it does not make Bochy a rookie hater. However, it would not be the first time the Giants called up a rook only to let him cool his heels on the bench. I think a lot of people, including me, find that frustrating. Doesn't change the fact that the core of this team is homegrown, but I would like to see Pegs get a chance to start a few games in a row to see if maybe there is something more there than the Blanco/Torres platoon.
DeleteI think you can want Pegs to play and be frustrated when he doesn't without going overboard saying Bochy is a rookie hater, etc.