9 4 1 1 0 9
Game Score: 84
Matt Cain is playing some serious ball! He had the big smoke today, blowing away some good hitters (Holliday, Giambi, Suzuki) and giving up some bombs (Cust). When you go with the 4-seamer, you are going to get it both ways. He was dominant, and like his mates this weekend, efficient. I'm not much for intangibles, but I have a strong feeling that the excellence we are seeing this year from M.C. isn't just about maturity, but about his fellow hill-men. You've got one of the greatest (if not the greatest) southpaw in the game, at 45 years old, throwing 7 gnarly innings, you've got your wunderkind teammate, the reinging Cy Young winner, tossing a shutout, don't you think that fires a guy up? Makes him more competitive? I like to think M.C. had that "I'll show those sumbitches" gasoline in his tank this afternoon. Athletes are naturally competitive, and always looking to "one-up" the other guy. You have to figure that even the pros need need to get pumped up and keep the flames going. Nailing the zone with 95 mph heat probably helps as well.
My man Mississippi Fred has been singing the benchwarmer blues, and that has given both Torres and Schierholz more chances. Torres had a brilliant game, as did Schierholz, who managed to knock the Panda off the highlight reels. I'm thrilled for both of them, especially our Young Olympian, if only because Torres has a track record as a 4th man. If either can play starter-level baseball it will be a joy-oozing scene.
We just played one of our best games of the season, swept the A's, racked up a 9th win for Big Sugar, and got a thunder-bomb from the surging Sandoval--what could be bad?
Dare I say it? Schpilkes! I've got schpilkes!
(.700 record at home)
8 comments:
Our relief corps only got two innings of work this weekend. This is getting interesting. Could it be that Brian Sabean has seen the future and it consists of hitters who don't use PED's and therefore, look lousy (apologies to Nate and Pablo)? And copped great pitchers to push into the brave, strange new future? Dare we start to have a glimmer of belief in this team?
Nate is finally getting a chance to show off his five tools. Sadly, it's coming at Freddy's expense, but this is the big leagues. They can't sit around hoping for the best from him.
I heard that Nate wasn't getting more time earlier in the season because the Brian Trust wasn't high on him. But he is a more polished baseball player at this point.
Cain is amazing. He's one of those uber-talented guys with the head, work ethic, and desire to match. He is something special.
Now, if the Giants could only find another 24 year old stud hurler!
Is this our first schpilkes sighting of the year? So much changes now. I have to start looking at the standings, for one. And Sabean should feel more pressure to find that extra bat everyone's been yammering for all year.
The emergence of Schierholz is a beautiful thing. What a great arm! I love that in a right fielder. Lewis had plenty of chances and he blew them. Likewise with Ishikawa and Frandsen.
I don't know why moving Rowand to leadoff made such a huge difference but it sure did. Perhaps some credit should be given to Bochy at some point. Up until now he's done nothing but make lemonade from lemons.
And- Stay hot Pablo!
I finally looked up "schpilkes" and it doesn't sound like a good thing- more like an anxiety attack.
I want to encourage everyone to sample Wordnik.com, my son-in-law's new venture. If you love words you'll love Wordnik.
Hey Mark, how do you make links within a comment?
No. No, No. These words do not ever belong in a sentence together: "Sabean ..... pressure ..... find extra bat", and this makes it worse: "everyone's ... yammering." Everyone is not yammering. I, for one, may be illucid, illiquid and ill mannered, but I am not yammering. Sabean has resisted the lunatic fringe so far, he needs to continue. And by lunatic fringe, I mean radio and print commentators as well as guys who live in their mothers' basements. Remember, there are still guys who think Matt Cain for "a bat" like "Adam Dunn" is a good idea. It is most emphatically not.
Bob: I will link to Wordnik on my other blog--very cool site! To "embed" a link in a comment requires HTML. It is pretty simple. See this site: http://www.w3schools.com/html/html_links.asp, or I should say, see this site. I'll send you an e-mail with an example.
Zo: Sandoval, Cain, and of course, Lincecum, are untouchable. Rowand and Zito are unmoveable. Like you, I'm nervous about the "trade for a bat" notion. I'd rather build incrementally and do nothing dramatic. That being said, the rest of the roster is pretty mediocre and if we've ship out some guys for some new (young) guys I'm OK with that. For now, let's get Schierholz more ABs. (The latest scary rumor is Derek Lee, who was a great hitter a few years ago but is not anymore.)
I think of "schpilkes" as nervous tension due to excitement ("ants in your pants"). This winning we are doing is exciting, but when my team wins I get nervous because I start to expect more and fear a big letdown. Plus, close games make me antsy, I walk around like a crack-head and can't sit still.
This is all Ron's fault. He's the resident Yiddish expert. We'll let him guide us on proper usage.
Schpilkes is a good thing, along the lines of Mark's comment.
Don't trade for 'a bat'. It is short-sighted, mindless folly. Hold onto all of the young arms & all of the other promising young players. Finish with a satisfying plus .500 season & build for domination of the NL West for the years to come.
Oh, & readers of this blog, brace yourselves for Jon's 'life mocks me, I'm a jinx' epistle tomorrow ... things aren't looking too good for Jon, Robyn, & Barry Zito right now (behind 7-0 at the time of this entry). Maybe there's still some magic to come ... a pair of Panda Slams?
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