Monday, February 7, 2011

18 games in September: XVIII

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:

Brother Bob said...

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.