Wandy Rodriguez and Barry Zito went curveball toe-to-toe tonight in The Battle of the Quality Starts. BZ kept the Astros off base, only one walk and three hits allowed. Rodriguez obviously didn't get the memo about Giants hitters as he started off the 6th with back-to-back four-pitch walks to Edgar Renteria and Pablo Sandoval. Both later scored when Aubrey Huff laced a single and Mark DeRosa beat out a double-play grounder. It looked like Rodgriguez would dodge another bullet--the Giants had hit into three DPs by that point--but the baseball gods and DeRosa's savvy clutchness saved us. Bengie Molina displayed yet another facet of his supreme gamerosity by driving in a run on a first-pitch foul pop-up to Hunter Pence, whose up-the-line throw home allowed a dancing Panda to score. It was, suddenly, 3-0. Zito struck out the first batter in the bottom half, Michael Bourn, but Jeff Keppinger hammered a ball to the top of the wall in left that should have been ruled a homer. He was stranded on second when Zito routinely dismissed Hunter Pence and Carlos Lee. 90 pitches, 22 batters, 5 K, it was a good night's work--nothing but zeroes for our spendy, greybeard* southpaw. Two starts, 13 shutout innings, I think that's the formula, no? We got a taste of the future with Waldis Joaquin, Dan Runzler, and Sergio Romo racking up outs (2/3 IP each) with serious heat. Zito topped out at 85 mph and all three of those kids were in the mid-90s! In Zito's defense, his 71 mph hook did the job. Brian Wilson looked positively relaxed throwing his usual screamers and other vicious unhittables. Bring it on, man!
2-0 to start the season feels fecking grand, eh? Matt Cain at 11:05 a.m. tomorrow.
Dare I say it? Sweeeeeeeeeeep!!
--M.C.
*Todd Wellemeyer is a few months younger, making Zito the Giants second-oldest pitcher (32 in May). Only the antediluvian Guillermo Mota has more growth rings. Minor quibble: I want Bowker (or Schierholtz) starting, not Torres. Torres is a bench guy. Bowker is our starter, screw the lefty-righty stuff. How the hell will he ever learn to hit lefties if he doesn't get to swing the bat? I was happy to see Bowker get a pinch-hit. Play the man, dammit!
4 comments:
"Zito topped out at 85 mph"
What game were you watching?
I recalled CSN's gun showed him hitting 89 mph at least once and never lower then 84 MPH on his fastball. Just in case CSN's gun was hot I checked Gameday from MLB.com and they showed basicly the same results.
Topped out at 89 mph to Pence in 3rd.
Bottomed out at 84 mph to Feliz in 2nd.
Hit 88 mph 4 times.
Only 85 mph 5 times.
Hit 87 mph 13 times.
Hit 86 21 mph times.
Net he averaged just above 86 mph.
Zito did look like he had a bit more juice yesterday. He seemed to use his fastball more than usual(?). Lots of low pitches, very nice to watch, which is not what I often say when I watch Zito.
The key part of the game was when the Giants TOOK TEN STRAIGHT PITCHES!! I bet that never happened last year. Anyway, two walks and a nice Huff hit on the eleventh pitch was what started our scoring. That was sweeeeeeet.
Rowand now 0 for 10.
Yes, Zito was throwing extremely well. I'm trying not to expect too much from him, but he is showing signs of being much improved from those two abysmal seasons in 07 and 08. He's always had that great curveball, if he can have a lively fastball and hit his spots (only one walk!) then he will be very effective. Man, that would be great. We saw some nice stretches of that last year, let's hope we can get a full season of it!
Brett Myers is a righty so I hope we get to see Bowker today.
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