Saturday, May 23, 2009

NUMBER ONE

9 10 1 1 0 7

That's right, The Tennesse Stud is NUMBER ONE on the San Francisco Giants in ERA, IP and WINS. Wins! Matt Cain! Big Sugar threw his first complete game of the season tonight in Seattle, taking 111 pitches and 34 batters to get those 27 outs. He got some ground balls, getting 2 DPs, and didn't walk anyone. That's right, 34 batters and nary a base on balls. The 7 Ks offset the 10 hits and he came up a winner. The Hurra-Cain showed some serious grit and gamerissitude, VSC was practically oozing from his pores. You had to love whiffin' the Griff in the 9th!

If there is a formula for the MMIX Giants, we saw it tonight. Maybe not the part about waiting until there were two out in the 8th (and Señor Slow batting) to show some batting life, but all the rest. We had TWO, yes TWO extra-base hits (we are last in the NL is XBH) in that very inning. We had an actual rally, getting a massive hit from Juan Uribe and thunderous coup de grâce from Mississippi Fred Lewis. Oh yeah, the formula: great start, big inning with curly numbers. I like that combination, it reminds me of that well-known Weaverism about pitching, fundmentals, and DINGERZ. I'm cool with 3-run dobles, you know, just as long as you get some curly fookin' numbers up there on the board.

A great win. After four agonizing losses, a win like this is very satisfying. Geez, we had three hits last night in 12 innings! That was hell. I have this recurring nightmare where I'm crawling across the desert, parched, boiled by the sun, and a tall glass of cold pilsener is just out of my grasp, pulled along by an unseen hand, and I keep reaching and reaching and never slaking my thirst. That was what this losing streak was like. Thank goodness Matt Cain got the GMF memo and played stopper. It's not even June and he's got FIVE in the W column. I'll drink to that.

4 comments:

JC Parsons said...

WooHoo!

Thought I might use this week's favorite metric, Game Score, to see how well Matt did last night.

Matt got a 70, which was the best yesterday in the NL by far but third best behind Lohse (80) and Beckett (74). The Mariner starter, Olsen, got a 66.

Of Matt's nine 2009 starts he has scored above 50 (quality) six times. He got a 49 once. Yesterday was not his highest this year, his win against COL earlier this month was a 72. Matt's career avg is 55, MLB avg is 49. His best ever was an 87, lowest was 10. For comparison, Tim's avg is 59, best is 88 and lowest is 21.

Cool numbers but they still don't capture what a studly performance that really was. BoyHowdy we needed that.

Brother Bob said...

Mark, I think you could have gloated even more. You've raised Cain well. (When will it be time to cut the apron strings?)
I'm impressed by his bearing. He looks like he's in charge when he's on the mound.
Something's wrong with Pablo's right elbow. Let's hope it's not serious. He's a very important part of the team already.

Theo said...

I smell an All-Star appearance for Cainer, and it's about freakin time he gets some respect around the league. Sadly the only way that will happen is if he gets wins. Cain at 5-1 is like the equivalent of Josh Becket going 44-2 given their respective luck.

M.C. O'Connor said...

Josh Becket at 44-2: yeah, I'll buy that! The Cainer, with a little bit o bloomin' luck, could indeed get an All-Stat nod. (Ssssshh, let's not jinx it.)

I'm way past gloating, that's so last year. I'm into ridin' the confidence bus this year. Dig the Game Scores, how can you not like a metric that shows how cool Matt & Tim are?

"The Kung-Fu Panda does not get hurt" --Matt Cain