Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Number Nine

Giants go crazy in Atlanta and score NINE RUNS for the second night in a row--who can explain this? And three home runs, to boot, two of them three-run homers! What the hell happened? Weird, weird shit going down in Turner Field. Ryan Vogelsong lost his eight game streak of pitching at least seven innings, but his streak of at least six includes all seventeen starts this season and hits a high of eighteen when you include his last start of last season. The man is a machine. The Giants emptied the dugout and got big hits from unlikely places like Brandon Crawford, whose bomb in the 11th was the difference-maker. The guys on the pre-game show talked about the need for a bat off the bench that could get the team a homer, and sure enough Gregor Blanco piled on with his own in the 11th as well. Crazy! A tense, nail-biting pitching duel goes to extras and morphs into a blowout. Bludgeon the bastards, I say. The guys on the pre-game also talked about the need for some bullpen help. Santiago Casilla needs some help, that's for sure. I really thought the Giants were done in the bottom of the 9th when they made all those poor plays in the field. That's got to improve. And I thought they were done again after the bottom of the 10th. I guess I shouldn't underestimate them.

Giants get their first series win on the road against the Braves since 1997. The Giants won the West in 1997 with 90 wins, and the Braves won the East with 101. The Arizona Diamondbacks did not exist.

Keep it rollin', boys, keep it rollin'.

--M.C.

4 comments:

Zo said...

Castilla made the first two outs look easy. He left a waist high fastball on the outside part of the plate (off the outside?) and McCann, a huge guy, swatted it over the left field wall. What is disturbing is the number of BS he has committed recently. Nen, Beck, these guys all would blow 5 or 6 a season. Castilla has blown 5 of the last 8 attempts. We have to count it as luck and pluck that we managed to win 3 of those games.

Ron said...

For some weird reason & despite some recent success with his breaking pitches, Castilla decided last night that he was going to blow everyone away with fastballs. When someone like McCann knows that a fastball is coming, that's not a good situation, especially when every single one is 94 mph with the same movement. To emphasize the point, after the HR, he got some strikes on Uggla with breaking pitches. Should Whiteside or Bochy's pitch calls be questioned, or was this Castilla being 'macho'?

Crawford's HR after the foul ball off his knee was cool!

Brother Bob said...

As sole member of the Eli Whiteside Fan Club, I have to say I'm totally psyched to have my man back in the Bigs where he belongs. Hector can take plenty of time to rest that sore knee. Maybe come back after he loses 10 pounds or so.

Brother Bob said...

Just kidding. I know Eli's a stiff. I have a soft spot in my heart for catchers. Probably because of "Bang The Drum Slowly."