On September 18th the Colorado Rockies were 82-66 and in 3rd place, one game behind the San Diego Padres and a half-game behind the San Francisco Giants.
Jhoulys Chacin and his mates had just
clobbered the hapless Los Angeles Dodgers who had
fallen out of contention way back in the month of August. It looked like the Rockies were finally putting it together (they won
10 in a row in early September!) and would be in the hunt for the NL West title. The Dodgers won the getaway game on
the 19th, preventing a sweep, and the Rockies headed for Arizona. They would be
swept by the lowly Diamondbacks, and come home to a big series with the Giants on
Friday, September 24th. They were 3-1/2 games back
at that point and needed a push. The Giants were clinging to their 1/2 game lead and needed to keep the pressure on the Padres (who were hosting the Cincinnati Reds).
Jhoulys Chacin pitched a great game but gave up a late 2-run homer to
Pat Burrell and saw his 1-0 lead become a
2-1 deficit. He had the misfortune to be matched up with
Tim Lincecum that night in Denver, and The Freak had his A-game going, giving up only 2 hits, walking none, and striking out 9. It was the last game in
The Streak™.
Barry Zito would get hit hard
the next day and
Brian Wilson would blow a late lead and the Giants would lose the game.
On Sunday,
Matt Cain would flirt with a no-hitter and
bury the Rockies for good. The Giants would go up by a half-game on that day and not look back. The Rockies would go 0-7 in their final stretch, and the Padres would go 3-4 in the same span. The Giants would take it to the last day but their 4-2 record would prevail and they would win the title by 2 full games.
--M.C.
Pitching IP H R ER BB SO HR ERA BF Pit Str
Tim Lincecum W (15-10) 8 2 1 1 0 9 0 3.51 26 106 74
Brian Wilson S (45) 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 1.82 3 8 7
Team Totals 9 2 1 1 0 10 0 1.00 29 114 81
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 2/6/2011.
1 comment:
A Giants centerfielder just made it into the Hall Of Fame. Wrong Hall Of Fame, though.
Congratulations to Deion Sanders, one of the great athletes of this or any era. I had the pleasure of watching him play the outfield of Candlestick Park a few times. He was pretty good. No Andres Torres though.
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