Game Score 56
Quite the titanic struggle today, and a badly-needed win for our guys. Home runs have eluded us all season long, and just this week we've had two huge game-winning bombs--one by Juan "Don't Forget About Me" Uribe against the hated LAtriners and one by Bengie "Mr. VSC" Molina against the dreaded NYMs.
Matt Cain stepped up big today, going toe-to-toe with one of the game's elites. The terrible beaning of David Wright was unfortunate, you hate to see that happen to anyone. He's one of the best ballplayers in the league, and that naturally makes it a bigger story. Santana's retaliation--tossing at Sandoval and plunking Molina--looks pretty foolish in retrospect. The Giants seemed to shrug it off as "just baseball" but I get the feeling Santana knew he was getting yanked and figured he had nothing to lose. You have to "stand up for your guys" in the MLB, I reckon, and the chance presented itself so he took it. Cain's pitch was clearly not intentional and I wonder if the time-honored "tit-for-tat" baseball machismo code could use some updating. David Pinto thinks the Mets ace deserves to be fined.
This is the first time this season Matt has yielded three runs. He's given up zero runs three times, one run nine times, two runs four times, four runs three times, and five runs three times in his previous 22 starts (I'm dropping the 1-2/3 IP injury-shortened start on July 11). Isn't that weird? Despite the hiccup in the 8th inning I thought it was a great start today, especially considering the circumstances. His game score of 56 was below his season average of 60. Tim's average game score, for comparison, is 66. Just a few fun little numbers to feed our Matt & Tim frenzy!
Final thought? You have to love beating Francisco Rodriguez. Even if it was another one of those pesky 2002 Angels that did it.
4 comments:
There sure has been lots of intense moments revolving around Pablo, first the bench-clearing incident with LA, now with behind-the-back pitch from Santana, followed by the homer. Pablo took a big step toward stardom yesterday. Mark Grace sure loved saying "Kung Fu Panda" over and over. And he channeled Kruk and Kuip by saying "He can hit" a few times.
Matt and Tim just can't get win #13. Isn't it 3 tries each without success? I believe only one of those ended with an "L" added to the personal stats, so at least the team still tends to win when our 2 stars start.
Kudos to Molina. At least one of our gnarly vets knows how to occasionally deliver the goods. Rowand and Winn keep getting worse and worse.
The more game scores I see, the less I like 'em. That was a below average performance for Matt?? He was a stud. WAY too much value for strike outs, not enough value for VSC. No consideration for the quality of the opponent, either.
Sandoval's moment of triumph over Santana was the thing of legend. Doing it in NY was perfect. It looks like we have another one that can rise to special occasions. It was pathetic to see Santana plug Molina after Pablo's HR. Totally predictable and sad...and I loved that Pablo was who had brought him to it.
I love baseball numbers, it is one of the best things about the game. And there's no way to measure VSC and no way to make a GMF stat. That's one of the best things about the game, too.
Sandoval has carved out quite a niche. Check out this piece from Dave Allen on Baseball Analysts: One of the Game's Strangest Hitters.
I heard the helmet impact from the 5th level of CiiFIeld. I had been at the park when the MEts' NIeve tried to throw that warm-up pitch and collapsed. Remembering Dave Dravecky in Montreal (no, I wasn't), I appreciate what they face a little more.
So,me GIants' fans behind me were providing [;easant running commentary, but when they left I had to go because two guys were bellowing across their aisle behind me about...the Metrodome! At one point, one of them pontificated about the Mets getting Bobby Valentine back from Japan, and it was all I could do to stop myself from asking, "If you face east, he could probably hear you."
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