Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Duelin' Tim

That famous "magic" that was inside last year obviously has not left the premises. The walk-off fun continued tonight as Cody Ross drove in the only run of the game and the Giants beat the Snakes. That's our fourth straight win, six of our last seven and, here's my favorite, that was our seventeenth straight game decided by 3 runs or fewer. For the year it is 29 out of 35 (83%) which leads the Majors. Hey, that was part of the formula last year (115, the most since 1983), so I'm OK with more close ones.

Needless to say, Tim Lincecum deserved a better fate. Who knew that he would face such a worthy opponent? Just kidding, we all knew. How many times have we seen the Giants turn an OK pitcher into a lethal weapon? This time the recipient of the "Giants bump" was Ian Kennedy. He and Tim matched zeroes for the first eight innings. In fact, Lincecum's numbers



8 innings 4 hits (all singles) ZERO RUNS 2 walks nine strikeouts

are almost exactly the same as Kennedy's. Tim had one less walk and one more K, so his game score 81, just beats out the equally impressive 79 for Kennedy.

A noteworthy event was the return of Andres Torres and Mark DeRosa to the starting lineup. Torres' presence was immediately felt with a hit, a walk and his usual excellent range in center. Clearly good things are in store with Andres. I wish I could say anything good about DeRosa's return. Each at bat was weak, just like they were before his most recent paid vacation. Can you tell I don't like the guy? Somebody help me out. I don't want to be a hater but the dude sucks. Why are we wasting a roster spot on him?

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

@MC: You know, DeRosa hails from Passaic, NJ which is not too far from where I reside. I actually go through Passaic very often.

I love that Andres did not waste anytime re-establishing himself. I wish the same could be said for Fontenot and DeRosa. Both had poor games and I fear that Tejada will creep his way back into the lineup because of that.

Enough negative talk, the Giants won! That puts us only 0.5 game(s) out of 1st place! Go Giants!

M.C. O'Connor said...

DeRosa gets a spot because neither Emmanuel Burriss nor Ryan Rohlinger are major-leaguers. Before the injury, he was a useful player. He was a starter in Chicago on two good teams (2007-08 Central winners). If he's healthy he can contribute. Wrist injuries can be career-enders, though, so we'll see. When I get worked up over Sabeanesque old guys like him and Tejada I think about Edgar Renteria and winning the World Series.

Brother Bob said...

Weird things are afoot when your closer has as many wins as your ace.

Anonymous said...

DeRosa is on the roster because he is an ivy league grad. Why sign 35 year old guy at the time, with a known bad wrist for 2 years at 12 million. What a waste of roster money.

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