After squeaking out narrow wins and going up 2-0 in the series, the Giants went for the kill tonight behind Matt Cain. The amazing Buster Posey, with some help from Andres Torres, Juan Uribe, and Pablo Sandoval, led an offensive explosion that produced EIGHT RUNS. In the 2nd inning, the Giants pounced on emergency starter Hisanori Takahashi and never looked back. I like it when we rack up the runs and crush 'em. By god, it feels good! The Mets are a decent club--they came into the series with a better record than the Giants.
Cain not only got run support, he took advantage of home plate umpire Mike Estabrook's generous strike zone and got the first 18 outs without too much trouble. The 24-inning scoreless streak finally came to an end in the top of the 7th when Carlos Beltran crushed a triple and Ike Davis blasted one in the water. The bullpen made a mess of things, but a six-run margin does wonders for your odds of winning. Cain had only thrown 93 pitches when he was pinch-hit for in the bottom of the 7th, so I'm not sure what that was about. In all, he faced 26 batters and allowed 4 hits and 2 runs, walking 1 and striking out 3, for a Game Score of 63. He also hit a double over Carlos Beltran in the 6th!
Other highlights: Pat Burrell's two walks, Nate's line drive hit in his only plate appearance, and Wilson's four-pitch save. The Dodgers and Rockies both lost, moving the Giants into 2nd place, 3-1/2 back of the Padres. It's the team's 50th win, and ties them with St. Louis for the 4th-best record in the league (.549).
Let's get the brooms out and complete the sweep tomorrow!
--M.C.
4 comments:
Magic Saturday night. Runs, pitching, bullpen explosions, Brian Wilson still awesome, Pablo, Buster, Uribe, pretty much e'erbody! Also, 5 game winning streak, new season high! Go Giants! And, that's why you keep watching!
On a side note, I remember way back in April when the Phils came to town. I remember it was Halladay matched up against our lovable Dirty Dirty. I believed in him and we won. Besides, Roy's been better this year than Johan has. I know that Dirty's April numbers were pretty ridiculous and have cooled down since then, but, I still believe, besides, we gotta Buster Posey and Co.
It may just be that Sandoval is regaining his good form. If so, that would be hugely significant.
I recently commented that I always check the box score to see who got multiple hits, and it seemed that Sandoval was usually getting a hit or two, even while he was struggling. So I perused the team stats, and sure enough he is very close to "first half MVP" Huff in total hits 95 to 93. All of Huffs other stats are WAY better, eg. OPS of .931 to .718.
Therefore, Sandoval hasn't been all that bad this season, it's just that his VSC is poor.
Or is it VCS?
Sandoval puts the ball in play a lot and doesn't walk much, so to be really valuable he has to hit for power. Last year he slugged .556 and had 74 XBH. This year he's slugging under .400 (28 XBH). If he can start hitting the ball hard again he could be the "missing bat" the team needs. Let's hope he rediscovers his power stroke.
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