Buster Posey broke a 2-2 tie in the bottom of the 8'th inning with a 2-run HR to give the Giants a happy ending to a game that had all the makings of another Caining. Key Lines:
Buster Posey- 3 for 4, HR(8). BA= .272. Buster was in the squat tonight and his bat, which has been making a comeback in recent games, stayed hot and provided the dramatic game winner in the 8'th. He now has a 5 game hit streak in which he is 8 for 22.
Brandon Hicks- 2 for 3, 2B, 3B, BB. BA= .191. Jonathan Niese was tough on everybody except Posey and Hicks tonight. Were it not for Hicks, the Giants may well have not been in position to reap the benefits of Buster's heroics. A 2 out double was wasted in the second inning, but the 5'th, Hicks hit a 1 out triple to left-CF and came home on Brandon Crawford's SF. Later, he drew a walk, went to 2B on a WP and came home on Crawford's single up the middle to tie the score at 2-2. Great game for Hicks!
Brandon Crawford- 1 for 2, SF. BA= .238. Crawford drove in both Giants runs that produced the 2-2 tie going to the 8'th inning. After he tied the game in the 7'th on the single up the middle, I had a feeling the Giants would eventually win this one. Didn't take long for them to prove me right.
Matt Cain- 7 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 1 BB, 3 K's. ERA= 3.52. Cain was very sharp early on in this one pumping his FB at 92-93 MPH. It was looking very crisp. He took a perfecto into the 6'th. Then in the 7'th, he gave up the 1-0 lead when he gave up a leadoff double to Matt Den Dekker followed by a 2-run dinger to Daniel Murphy. It looked like another Caining, but the Giants came back as I have described above.
With the Win, the Giants maintained an 8.5 game lead in the NL West over the Dodgers who trounced the Reeling Rockies 7-2. The Rockies fell farther off pace to 11.5 games back. The Pathetic Padres were whitewashed by the Nationals 6-0 to fall 13 games behind while the Desperate D'Backs fell to 15 games behind with a 5-2 loss to the Braves.
David Huff was DFA'd to make room for Matt Cain on the active roster. He said he would accept a AAA assignment if he clears waivers.
Tim Hudson faces off against Bartolo Colon tomorrow night.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Just an additional note about Hicks. I looked up his Fangraphs stat page. Between his 8 HR, .702 OPS, +BsR and +D, his fWAR stands at 1.0. We are a bit over 1/3 of the way through the season so his fWAR projects to around 2.8-3.0. Not an all-star but a lot harder to replace than his .191 BA would make you think at first glance.
ReplyDeleteI loved his homerun off Kershaw.
DeleteLately (not last night, last night, he was on, but, say the last month or so), he's cooled off a bit, power and average wise. Defense has been good, I've read. I hope he can picked up the earlier pace. It will be a big contribution to have that 2.8-3 WAR at the end of the season.
Hicks is THE definition of clutch.
Delete