OK, I finally get it...and I'm probably the last one. The 2010 Giants team is not just about Tim Lincecum. This is a complete team; an entity that is clearly greater than any of its parts. Even my favorite part, The Freak. Never has that been clearer than in tonight's stunning dismantling of Cliff Lee and the Rangers, 11-7 in Game #1 of the frigging World Series.
Don't get me wrong, Tim played a big part in the victory. After all, he got the win! But the best thing Tim did was not implode like Lee did. It sure looked like he was going to in the first couple innings (what was he thinking on that rundown?) but each time he limited the damage. Tim seemed to gather himself when we got the lead and got two impressive outs to start the sixth. That was it. Seventeen outs. Ninety-three pitches. An ugly game score (38), a mediocre line score:
5.2 innings 8 hits 4 runs 2 walks 3 strikeouts
But a beautiful win!
Tim is not what will be remembered about our first victory of the 2010 World Series. This game was littered with action. Every Giant that entered the game seemed to make a noteworthy contribution. It wasn't always a gorgeous game - plenty of blunders, some shaky relief at the end - but it reminded me of an all-you-can-eat-buffet. Pleasure after pleasure; almost a sensory overload. When it is really good you can't always recall what you had on your first plate. Did Torres and Sanchez actually club those consectutive doubles? Did Rental really make a spinning spectacular putout? Did Huff actually save that error with his dive and jump up to tag the silly runner? The list goes on and on. Did I really eat all that?
Help me remember...what was your favorite detail of that miraculous event that we all just witnessed?
4 comments:
I went bananas when the Giants got the 5th run off Lee (Huff's single to score Burrell). It seemed like that was a critical moment, and Ron Washington agreed and yanked his starter. We all know how well THAT worked out. Juan Uribe's bomb was the difference in the game. It was nice to finally get a "killer blow" after all those nail-biters. A six-run inning is pretty rare anyway, and to have the Giants do it in Game 1 of the Series was amazing.
Ugly, ugly win, but ¡GANAMOS! in the World Series, nonetheless! After our 2 horrendous mental errors in the 1st inning, I had smoke coming out of my ears. After Bengie Molina 'challenged' Torres to throw him out at the plate, & Torres unleashed that high, arcing, useless throw, I was thoroughly disgusted. You know what, though ... I still thought that we were going to win. And, that feeling grew with every breaking pitch that Lee failed to spot. After a couple that we swung at in the dirt, we suddenly got the collective discipline to just wait out his curveball - taking breaking pitch after breaking pitch for balls, usually away. For awhile, he was very effective, changing the speed & angle on his fastball, but I thought that that bag of tricks would only survive one time through our line-up. Sure enough, we started raking him. Eventually, it was a rake-fest! We tried to sloppy it up again at the end of the game, but it was too late - we held on. Not one of our proudest moments - I hope that we tighten up our pitching & defense from here on out, &, like I'm sure most Giants' fans, I worry that we 'used up' too many hits in that one game. But, as pointed out pre-op by Zo, isn't that what we did in September? Occasional offensive outbursts, followed by game after game of tight wins. 3 more (probably) tight wins to go!
Jazz hands going yard, for sure. That was delicious.
I'm psyched by how hot FSanchez has been. What's he got now, 9 hits in 3 games? I always knew he had abilities, but with all his damn injuries it's been frustrating at times. For him to be so hot now, that's wonderful.
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