Tim Lincecum woke up the echoes, or whatever it is they do in the Notre Dame fight song, but yeah, that was vintage Big Time Timmy Jim out there tonight, even if the style and stuff was a bit different. Tyler Colvin had a big night in his debut in the Giants starting lineup driving in 3 runs as the Giants reeled off their 25'th Win on the season against just 14 losses. Key Lines:
Angel Pagan- 3 for 4, 2 SB(8). BA= .326. Pagan did not figure in the scoring, but he did his job as the leadoff batter once again.
Hector Sanchez- 2 for 4. BA= .254. Hector started the winning rally with a single up the middle. His other single probably would have been a double in any other stadium as he bounced it off the padding between two archways right into Heyward's glove. With the short RF and Heyward's arm, Hector wisely held up with a single. In addition to all that, Hector took charge of Tim Lincecum's game as Timmy broke out a devastating curveball that we have not seen much of for a long time. Hector rode that curve all night long and mixed it in with just enough FB's and change ups to keep the Braves' hitters guessing, well, except for BJ Upton who had the only two hits Timmy gave up all night, one a HR. I don't know when I've seen a catcher have so much fun calling a game as Hector did tonight.
Tyler Colvin- 2 for 3, 3B, HR(1). BA= .500. Colvin's bat had heated up of late down in Fresno and he just kept it going tonight. He came up in the bottom of the 2'nd inning looking to do immediate damage. He took one mighty hack at the first pitch then got on up in the wheelhouse and jumped all over it for a legitimate splash hit. Nothin' but water! Later in the 7'th, with runners on first and second, he scorched one down the RF line into the corner. Heyward was shading toward Triples Alley and had to come a long way to dig it out which allowed both runners to score and Colvin to reach 3B where he later scored an add-on run. Another savvy offseason pickup by Sabes and nice patience on the part of both the Giants and Colvin to get him to the right place at the right time.
Tim Lincecum- 7.2 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 4 BB, 11 K's. ERA= 4.78. As mentioned before, Timmy reached way back into his repertoire and broke out a devastating curveball that Hector Sanchez jumped all over and rode for the night. Hector may have taken over the game, but it was Big Time Timmy Jim throwing the pitches and man, did he ever throw them! Took me all the way back to A ball when I saw Timmy pitch in San Bernardino. He had trouble commanding the FB that night, so went to the curveball as his primary pitch and dominated the game with it.
With the Win, the Giants won for the 14'th time in 18 games since April 22 after dropping the first 2 games of a series against the Rockies. The Rockies were idle so the Giants extended their lead in the NL West to 2.5 games. The Dodgers held on to beat the Marlins 6-5 to remain 4.5 games behind in 3'rd place. The 4'th place Padres were idle to fall 7 games off the pace and the hapless D'Backs lost to the Nationals 6-5 to fall 11 back in last place.
Ryan Vogelsong takes the mound tomorrow night facing lefty Mike Minor in game 2 of the series.
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In Timmy's postgame comments, he referred to the breaking ball he was throwing with such effectiveness as a slider. On TV, it looked more like a curveball and Kruk called it a curve. I guess it really doesn't matter, as long as the blister problem doesn't come back to bite him which is why he's junked the slider in the past.
ReplyDeleteBrandon Crawford's UZR is finally into positive territory, confirming what we've been witnessing on the field. He's kicked his D up a notch.
ReplyDeleteNothing quite like Big Time Timmy Jim showing up. The crowd reaction as well as the performance goes a long way towards explaining why they made the effort to get him back.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteI want what Timmy's smoking (at home)
ReplyDeleteHow many times have the Giants Brass caught lighting in a bottle? Really? Burrell, Ross, Uribe, Renteria, Huff, Voggie, most of the Pen, Hicks, Morse, Huddy, even Melky. Off the top of my head, and it's a much longer list. I mean this ain't by chance.
Colvin, the latest addition...
Giants pitchers have got the Braves number right now. Keep dialing it Vogie! Go Giants
Oh, and anyone notice how the Giants D positioning has been taken to a new level. Especially the infield shifts, both subtle ones and big ones. They must be putting to use that tracker thingy and scouting. All I can say is I have been amazed how many times the D has been in the right place. And how they are defeating certain batters for a whole series. The four games in LA were a positioning clinic.
+1
DeleteScutaro is another one, Franchez too, Torres as well, even Blanco and Arias, they've been valuable additions in 2011-2012. You nailed it: this ain't by chance.
The baseball writers are finally starting to take notice of how many times the Giants come up with valuable players out of the dumpster. Yeah, it's way beyond chance by now!
DeleteWe need a Shankbone/OGC Dumpster Diving to the World Series study.
DeleteWell I'll say this - we were all looking at Jonny Gomes as a signee, the Red Sox snagged him and look what happened!
DeleteSabean has been doing this for a long time. Marcus Grissom, even a guy like Deivi Cruz who doesn't look too good from a #s standpoint.
Great game by Timmy.
ReplyDeleteIs he still pitching to contact? If not, it doesn't matter if he keeps it up.
Sanchez is a good catcher and so is Posey, but this is at least the second time, maybe the third time, that Hector caught Lincecum. I think they all get along, but maybe Timmy is just more comfortable with Hector?
Tim discussed this after the game. He's going to go with what he needs to do, with what he got that day. So if his stuff is working great, like it was yesterday, he's going with that. But if he needs to induce crappy contact, he'll go with that.
DeleteI noticed that about Sanchez catching Lincecum too. I think ultimately it's about keeping Posey healthy, fresh, and clear-headed. Lincecum is a punishing pitcher and Hector is the magnet catching all of that pain. Better him than our best hitter, Posey. I think that is the reason why Bochy avoided Posey catching Tim before. Look at last year, it was talked about a lot about how Posey caught a lot more of Tim's starts last season, but it was also the season that Posey ran out of gas and power in the second half because he was so tired. And with Hudson pitching the game before, it is like Posey is getting extra rest because Hudson throws as many pitches in a game as others do in 4-5 innings. That's a lot less effort for the catcher. Tie that with a rest playing 1B when Timmy comes up next, and you keep Posey fresher, stronger, longer into the season.
Timmy has had good games with both Buster and Hector and bad ones with both, so I don't think there is any problem with either one. I was just commenting on how animated Hector was last night and how he seemed to be reveling in the discovery that the ATL batters were pretty much helpless against that breaking ball, whatever it was. Sanchez pitch calling, gesturing and positioning against Chris Johnson after Timmy had pitched around Freddie Freeman was just very fun to watch.
DeleteThe last time I saw a catcher be that emphatic and excited was a few years ago when Buster was just breaking in and Matt Cain was facing Jason Giambi for the last out of a 2-1 game in Colorado. He had two strikes and Buster stood up then bent down and jabbed his finger at home plate, got back in his crouch, flashed a deuce and held his glove low. Cainer threw a perfect curveball that hit Buster's glove about 1 inch above the ground. Giambi swung through it. Game over.