"Then we probably get to be pulled through the ringer once again by Zito."
Wrong, Bob. The Chron has made much about how we have now won the last 15 of Zito's starts, although, given that there was an off-season in between yesterday's and the previous 14, that means nothing. But yesterday, following what was purported to be a highly festive 2012 World Championship flag raising ceremony (didn't get to see it myself, although I did get a first hand account), Zito kept the Cardinals scoreless through 7 innings, yielding only 3 hits. Has Mr. Zito found a zen-like space in which to pitch that brings success? Has he become more confident, made a mechanical adjustment, or learned some variation on his pitches? I don't know, but could not be happier about the results.
About that "holding the Cardinals scoreless" part - good thing, because the Giants only managed 1 run, when Jake Westbrook walked Angel Pagan with the bases loaded in the 4th inning. The Giants only scratched up 6 hits on the day, 1 of them from Barry Zito himself, who also put down 2 sacrifice bunts, including one in that 4th inning that was not picked up cleanly by Bengie Molina's little brother, Yadier. That loaded the bases for Angel's at bat that produced the lone run. Zito is leading the team in batting! Posey and Pence each had a hit, Gregor Blanco got his season started with one and Brandon Crawford had a pretty good day at the plate, 2 for 4 after getting only 1 hit in his first 10 at bats this season. Affeldt and Romo were efficient in the 8th and 9th, facing a minimum number of batters each.
Other thoughts: No new Chevron commercials. I know they are busy making money and fixing the refinery and all, and the radio commercials are pretty good, but they get stale after the first 600 hearings or so. I still can't see Yadier Molina's name in print without thinking it's backwards. We turned more double plays than we hit into! I'm betting Ryan Vogelsong would give anything to make the Giant's early season record .800. Shelby? Did they run out of guys named Chad?
* They did not loser their opener.
3 comments:
Too many infield hits today off of Vogey, and by not signing Beltran last year, we lost today.
Geez, who misses Beltran? Not me.
It's a sort of disservice to Vogelsong to make him #5 starter. He'd be #1 on lots of teams. We have such a remarkable rotation. I still can't wrap my mind around the concept of Zito being Mr. Reliable.
May as well not post on April 7th. Finally the giants score some runs for Cain, and he goes totally altruistic on the Cards. Maybe the hitters know something. Perhaps the plan is to not score any runs for Matt for 8 innings, forcing him to throw shutout ball, and they go hells a blazing to try to score for him in the ninth, before he can give up a zillion runs, and bring Romo in to save the game. Tell me that someone did not transplant Timmy's brain into Matt today during the 4th inning. This type of Cain implosion suggests that the planets and the stars are way out of line. Kind of like bowling pins being off spot.
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