The Giants coulda-shoulda deprived Webb of win #21. They jumped on him for 3 quick runs, but Sanchez caved in quickly and had a disastrous 2nd inning, hanging an all-time bad 0-2 pitch to Webb, who drove in 2 with a double. The inning went from bad to worse with Upton's mammoth HR. Sanchez managed to strike out the side in the 3rd, but lost it again in the 4th and was gone.
A stirring rally in the 9th was the coulda half of coulda-shoulda. The geezer duo of Omar and Aurelia produced a few runs. One more and Webb gets a ND.
4 comments:
That guy is something else. My skeptic's soul tell me those hit rates are unsustainable. But goddamn, he is tearing it up and making me a believer!!!
And with that, the party's over. The Giants, with yesterday's loss, are 11 games behind the smog suckers (who also lost) with 10 to play. The amazing thing is, that it took until September 17th for the Giants to be mathematically eliminated from the pennant race. I chalk it up to 1) the Giants being better than most folks thought (I predicted last place, believed that they could improve on last season, but still be in last place), 2) the NL west is worse than almost anyone predicted, making the Giants' mediocrity appear competitive.
More irrationality from this morning's Chron: "...allowing Brandon Webb to earn his 21st victory and gain more footing in his race against Tim Lincecum for the National League Cy Young Award." Webb pitched 7 innings, gave up 3 in the first and got a win, thanks to the snakes putting up 7 against Sanchez and an offense that, young excitement aside, still sucks. He struck out 2 and walked 2. If it is about wins, then stop the nonsense about letting Tim throw pitches until he wins the thing. If it is not about wins, then don't say it is.
Also, "The Giants' downfall after eight straight winning seasons stemmed from an overplayed strategy of building around Barry Bonds." The "strategy" was not the issue. When you have the most feared hitter in the major leagues, even at age 65 or whatever Bonds is now, why not build your strategy around him? The fault was that the "building" consisted of stiffs like Rich Aurilia and Dave Roberts. I mean, really. Don't read the sports pages if you expect to have to do some critical thinking.
Baseball is a logical game with a great deal of short-term randomness built in. That is why a season is 162 games, and division winners, based on fundamental statistical analysis, are largely predictable. It is also why, with three rounds of playoffs, world series winners are crapshoots. It is why the "best" teams are no longer necessarily the ones in the world series, because the randomness of short-term events (like Craig Counsel having a good week, the little twerp) can sway an outcome. God, I hope Bochy doesn't want to "help" Tim win a Cy Young by letting him throw 300 pitches today.
Damn, Zo, that was awesome. It should be the "Post" and my blurb should be comment #4.
Having the Sanchez assignment was more fun in June. I don't want it anymore.
Tonight might be a statement game for our cute young righthander. Does he have the stones to throw another dominating game? Will the Giants be able to beat the Big Eunuch?
Bob's right, that's a great piece o' work, Zo-meister. Headline stuff. Use that "create new post" button! This is why we blog--because the mainstream media doesn't give us what we want.
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