I'm at a loss for words as Barry Zito out-duels Adam Wainwright and one-ups Tim Lincecum, going 8 innings and striking out 10 Cardinals in a 2-0 Giants victory. Check out the Game Score of 83! Who is this guy? What's happened to him? He's pitched exceptionally well to start the 2010 season and given Giants fans--finally--something to cheer about. I only saw the first two innings tonight so I missed all the excitement, but I did see Barry Zito strike out the first two St. Louis batters and get Albert Pujols to ground out weakly. Who knew he would do that all night long? And you have to be happy for Nate Schierholtz and Andres Torres, both delivering big hits when the club really needed them. It's not easy to win when you only score 2 runs. On the flip side, you generally win when you shut out the other team. The Giants have given up only 51 runs, the fewest in all of baseball. The Cardinals and Padres are tied for second at 57.
Matt Cain tomorrow. GO GIANTS!
--M.C.
2 comments:
Zito was fucking brilliant. The called strike that ended the 5th was "nasty" (Krukow agreed with me) but the called strike to Pujols to end the 6th was awesome. Yeah it was a couple inches inside, but so what?
I also thought it was sweet that Schierholtz and Torres got to be heroes. These are two guys with tons of ability who just need to believe in themselves.
Don't forget the Panda, coming through with two hits on his bobblehead night.
Torres did hit a ground ball right up the middle that scored Schierholtz. However, he swung away because he failed at two bunt attempts. Wainwright was a tough pitcher. Perhaps, uncharacteristically, La Russa left him in a bit long. This was one of the few games that I got to watch beginning to end. The reason: ironing. I ironed from the start of the game up through the middle of the seventh, a testament to the no-nonsense work of both Wainwright and Zito and the back-log of ironing I had to do. Let's look at some early season numbers:
27 IP, 1.00 era, 0.93 WHIP, 32 K, 1 hr - this guy won 2 Cy Young awards and pitches for the Giants.
27.1 IP, 1.32 era, 0.84 WHIP, 19 K, 0 hr - this guy won a Cy Young award and pitched for the Giants yesterday. Early season sample, I know, but, my goodness!
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