Game Wrap 5/29/2014: Giants 6 Cardinals 5

There was more than just a hint of playoff atmosphere in the air tonight in St Louis, and the Giants and Cardinals played a game that would have lived up to any playoff hype.  The Giants came out on top of a tense see-saw affair including a heart stopping bottom of the 9'th inning.  Key Lines:

Pablo Sandoval- 1 for 3, HR(8), BB.  BA= .247.  Pablo's BA keeps inching up and he continues to play a major role in Giants victories.  He's also apparently closing in on some sort of record for consecutive games with at least 1 RBI, kind of a silly record, but a neat one, nonetheless.

Michael Morse- 2 for 4, 2B(14), HR(11).  BA= .290.  Oh, this is good!  The Cardinals intentionally  walked Pablo Sandoval with Blanco on 3B representing the go-ahead run.  Michael Morse didn't just make them pay.  He drove in Sandoval with what ended up being the winning run all the way from 1B when he scorched a line drive up the R-CF alley that tailed away from Bourjos like crazy and went all the way to the wall.  I cannot even imagine the fan reaction if that happened in SF.  Oh my!  Morse is on a pace to hit 42 doubles and 33 HR.

Gregor Blanco- 3 for 4, SB(6).  BA= .221.  Blanco started the winning rally with a single.   He then stole 2B enabling him to take 3B on Pagan's single up the middle.  He then scampered home when Carlos Martinez was out of position in front of the mound and blocked Molina's vision on the throw causing an overthrow to the backstop.  Oh, and Blanco is hitting .348 over his last 10 games.

Ryan Vogelsong- 6.1 IP,  7 H 4 R, 3 BB, 5 K.  ERA= 3.45.  You could almost see Ryan Vogelsong's demons come and perch on his shoulder.  He would fight them off only to have them return and alight on his other shoulder.  Vogey oscillated between painting the corners with perfect pitches and not being able to hit the broadside of a barn.  Ultimately, he took the game into the 7'th inning and left his team with a chance to win.  It wasn't a QS and it wasn't pretty, but it was just good enough.

Javier Lopez- 0.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K.  ERA=   .  Lopez came on in the 7'th to get two big outs and take the game into the 8'th.

Jean Machi- 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K.  ERA= 0.33.  Machi, Machi, Machi man did his thing including pouncing on a chopper to the left side with lightning reflexes and easily throwing out the runner.  Kruk and Kuip called it "cat like quickness."

Sergio Romo- 1 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 1 K, Save(17).  ERA= 3.52.  Romo struggled with command of his slider again and darn near coughed this one up.  He finally got Shane Robinson to pop out to Arias who was playing 3B as a defensive replacement to end the game with the winning run on base.  On the single by John Jay that brought the Cards within 1, Romo threw a 3-2 slider on the outside corner that Jay looked like he was expecting.  It got up just a hair and Jay smacked it into RF.  Romo could have thrown the slider down and in, but then Jay may have taken the pitch for a walk or else he might have just dropped the bathead on it and taken it deep.  Not a lot of great options at that point and that is where Romo sometimes comes up short as a closer.

The Win gave the Giants a chance to extend their lead in the NL West over the Dodgers who are sitting  6 games back and trailing the Pirates 6-3 at the time of this post.  The Rockies were idle to slip 6.5 games behind in 3'rd place.  The Padres were also idle falling 11 games back in 4'th place.  The last place D'Backs shut out the Reds 4-0 behind Jesse Collmenter to remain 13 games off the pace.

Madison Bumgarner and Adam Wainwright square of tomorrow evening in a battle of aces.