My first impressions were not good:
The Boston Red Sox have 10-pitch at-bats.
The San Francisco Giants have 10-pitch innings.
I'm glad we don't have Tim Wakefield on our team. Don't get me wrong, I love the guy, he's a complete stud. But our old, weird pitcher is Barry Zito. Not Tim Wakefield. Or Jamie Moyer (another total stud and an inspiration to middle-aged guys everywhere). Or some other seriously old fuck. Our old guy in the rotation is 32. I like that. That's a good thing. Now I know that Barry Zito's yearly salary could feed the population of St. Kitts & Nevis for a year--and we are talkin' champagne and caviar--but that's not the point. He's 32 and he's our old guy.
Kevin Youkilis and Dustin Pedroia are better than everyone on our club. My god, Pedroia limped off the field after drawing a walk. You'd think JSanchez could have thrown him a strike. But that's OK. He limped off the field, which meant we didn't have to pitch to him. Victor Martinez is better than Bengie Molina. But we have Buster Posey, and someday, someday, he'll be our catcher. Did you see Buster's line tonight?
Jonathan Sanchez showed lots of grit and fortitude--and dare I say Veteran Savvy Clutchness--by pitching into the 6th. Hell, Juan Uribe had given us the lead at that point. It was a game to win, not merely to salvage. Sergio Romo put a man on but got the big K. Santiago Casilla scared the crap out of us but still got five big outs, finishing with a K. Brian Wilson took "scaring the crap out of us" to unforseen heights, but wriggled out of it in the end. The Red Sox got four hits off Wilson and three off Sanchez, and also got TEN walks. The vaunted Sox offense looked like the Giants, squandering scoring chances by the bushel.
In the 8th, no. 12 Nate Schierholtz and no. 21 Freddy Sanchez book-ended a beautiful sequence that gave us the "insurance" run that saved the night for the home team. It was a tortuous affair, but ultimately satisfying as the lads pulled off win no. 40 and finished the first 4/9 of the season 40-32. At that pace, they're a 90-72 team. Right now, the Giants have the 4th-best record in the NL and the 8th-best overall. I try not to read too much into one game, and with 5/9 of the season still to go I try not to get too excited about any one win. I have no idea if the Giants can stay at .556 and go 50-40 in the last 90. One thing is certainly true--one of the toughest teams in the majors came to our yard tonight and we beat them, straight up.
Hell, let's do it again tomorrow!
--M.C.
2 comments:
That was hard to believe. Boston stranded 3 in the 6th, 3 in the 7th, 2 in the 8th and 3 in the 9th!!!
For the second straight game our starter coughs up a 3-run homer in the first inning. I thought,"Oh shit, here we go again." You don't usually recover from that kind of start.Amazingly, Sanchez settled down nicely and no further damage was done, aside from too many walks.
And the offense was just good enough this time. Uribe has been Mr. Reliable. Is he team MVP so far?
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