THE MAGIC NUMBER IS THREE.
Tim Lincecum (16-10) finished off his tumultuous 2010 regular season with a quality win against the lowly snakes. It wasn't the prettiest performance, in fact, the beginning was downright scary. Tim's second pitch was destroyed by Drew to give Arizona the early lead. Boy howdy, that was one quiet stadium. Somehow, that was all he gave up though. Tim kept us on the edge of our seat for the next four innings; throwing a ton of pitches and giving up base runners but always wriggling out of trouble.
Then it all changed after Pat the Bat crushed a 3 run homer.
It doesn't seem like much does it? Three lousy runs. But for The Freak, three runs of support is like money in the bank. Lincecum is now an amazing 45-3 (.938) with a 2.75 era (149er, 488ip) when the Giants score at least three runs of support for him (72 starts)...SF is 52-20 (.722) in those contests. Those are some lovely numbers and Tim lived that scenario again tonight. Once he had the lead, Tim got quite stingy. He never had the velocity of his last start, but he had some nasty shit...limiting them to singles and getting the "K" when he needed it. His line:
7 innings, 6 hits (all singles after the dinger), 1 run, 4 walks, and ELEVEN strikeouts
So, even though it looked bad at the start, it worked out to a swell game score of 68. The moral of the story: Tim looked like our Ace again tonight, but only after a little support from his friends. Heavy, huh?BTW: I failed to mention some more "history" that Tim is racking up. Last start, he passed Dwight Gooden for the most strikeouts in the first four seasons combined. Gooden's numbers are 892 strikeouts in 924.1 innings and Tim's numbers end at 907 strikeouts in 811 innings.
13 comments:
I sure do like 3-run HRs, and I sure hate 1-0 games. Tim got his groove on and started whiffing guys like crazy. It was sick.
Posey's walk in front of Burrell was great--he got nothing to swing at so he laid off. Wish more guys would do that! For all our great pitching, we'd be in 2nd or 3rd place without two guys (Posey and Burrell) who weren't on the Opening Day roster. Man, the thought of trying to win a game like last night with Rowand or DeRosa or Molina or Renteria or any of those stiffs is terrifying. Thank god we can at least score SOME runs.
Check this out (from Baseball Musings): it's a list of teams and quality starts since August 3rd.
Phillies have the most (35), Giants have 28, but have the 4th best Average Game Score (54.8). If you change the sort date to September 1st, the Giants leap to the top by a lot in AGS (64.4) and have 17 QS (T-3rd).
Check out my re-sort.
Most everything is looking good right now, & I think that we can close this out. I'm seeing most games on MLB TV, & the park looks to be rocking.
I am troubled by a couple of things, though. It has been quite awhile since Buster has gotten a meaningful hit. Overall, his BA has plummeted over the last 10 days or so. He does various other great things, so he's still contributing, but I'm worried about having a clean-up hitter who isn't hitting. Is he worn out? I would like us to clinch with a day or two to spare, so he can get a bit of rest.
I constantly worry about over-using a closer down the stretch. With Nen, it may have cost him his career. I'm seeing some signs that Wilson is running out of gas, & we have very capable set-up people. Was it really necessary to use Wilson for 5 outs on Tuesday, then bring him in again last night? I think that Romo could have finished the 8th on Tuesday.
Otherwise, it's all smiles. We have some scrappers & some boppers & some fantastic pitching - a great combination.
What a glorious game! The time is approaching. Soon all will be revealed. Go Giants!
Ooh! I thought you meant resort!
I share the question about whether it was necessary to use him for five outs the other night, but Monday was an off day and he was not used Sunday, so I think Wilson will be fine. Probably a Giants blow-out or CG wouldn't hurt. I also think Posey is fine. He is hitting the ball hard. It is, I guess, part of the nature of Giants fans to look for something to go wrong when, for the moment, things aren't.
I think MOC fancies himself as sort of a romantic, literary version of Earl Weaver. By contrast, I like 1-0 games. Especially when the Giants win. Having always been a fan of pitching (boyhood heros Juan Marichal and Bob Gibson), I like strikeouts.
Open question: Could Anonymous be Gandalf the Gray?
SIR says I wish I was your Brother JP. I caught the line, but will Bob?
And Zo, Anon's name is 5 letters, in case you forgot his/her clue.
Huh?
There are only 2 people from New Jersey who would be worthy of all of this self-aggrandizing hoopla:
Bruce Springsteen
Mark DeRosa
Which one is it? As interesting as it would be, if it were The Boss (& Bruce does have 5 letters), Mark DeRosa makes much more sense. Otherwise, many of these posts would have been made at 3 AM, Eastern Time. Mark DeRosa has always been awake & with the team or in San Francisco. Mark O'Connor, statistically, the average of the number of letters in Mark DeRosa's first & last names is 5.
Buster Posey homered with Huff on base to give the Giants a 3-1 lead. He's fine.
@SIR - I guess that lets out Theodoropolous??
I hate 1-0 games because there's too much chance involved. Fluke events decide many a pitching duel. Good starts get wasted. You get a lead, you build a cushion, you can (more often than not) survive bad shit happening. Bad shit happens, both by happenstance and design, and I don't like bad shit. I had enough bad shit to last a lifetime in 2002. I like a comfortable margin--if that's a romantic notion, then I'm a romantic. I want the Giants to win the whole thing and I want to stack the fucking deck. I don't want to count on bad shit not happening. If I wanted 1-0, I'd replay Spain's triumphal World Cup campaign.
I'd like to see Buster get a day or two off, too, but he's doing fine. More than fine. Awesome. Beyond Awesome. We would not be talking about the post-season if Buster had not become the starting catcher. So, he plays until we bury the fucking Padres. He's a big boy, he can handle it.
It was the right move to use Wilson for 5 outs. This is the time, it has to get done, you have to go for it. He's our best guy. And he's given you no reason NOT to use him. AND he was well-rested after Cain's CG and the off-day. This is the time--we need to finish it off.
Sorry SIR says remind me not to comment. I guess I need a little help from my friends, cause Bob ain't heavy but he's your brother.
@SIR: Hey now! You must keep commenting. Here's why: You are so insightful that you actually perceived an obscure rock'n'roll allusion that I had unintentionally made. When Robyn and I looked closer we figured it out quickly...but I must admit it was just luck. I wish I included such subtle techniques to my posts...hey wait, I DO. Keep up the good work, SIR!
Someday, I will try to explain why this sentence: "I hate 1-0 games because there's too much chance involved" is nonsense.
I also, however, like to see the Giants crush the opposition. I put this in a separate paragraph to emphasize how unrelated these thoughts are. But all this is for another time. For now - Go Giants!
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