It was damn close to being Return of the Son of the Vortex of Suckitude, but Matt Cain channeled his inner Jack Morris and the Giants prevailed. The Man Who Would Be HOF'd never roped a single up the middle for a two-out RBI, I reckon, but he is Veteran Savvy Clutchness personified, and that's what Matty had going tonight. Grit. Fortitude. The Will to Win. After three big, fat, BP cheese-puffs got blasted out to fucking Wyoming, VSC was the only thing to shoot for. What's with all the long balls? Those were straight up bad pitches! Buster would set up inside and the pitch would float outside and into the hit-me zone. Other than those two innings, Cain did a decent impersonation of himself. Final line: 6-1/3 IP, 8 H, 6 R, 2 BB, 6 SO, Game Score 37. Jeremy Affeldt delivered a six-up, six-down relief stint to secure the pitcher-win for Matty. Still think pitcher-wins are meaningful? Not that the baseball gods don't owe our lad a few.
The 2013 Giants are flashing some bat these days. They are 3rd in the NL in OPS and 4th in runs scored, but they have also given up the third-most runs, trailing only the Mets (15-23) and the Brewers (16-23). The first five games Matt Cain started this season ended in losses for the team. They next four ended in wins. I like wins, I don't care who gets the credit, but Brandon Crawford certainly deserves some for his clutch hitting. And did you see the barehanded grab he made in the 6th? Wow. That guy has some serious moves, and a cannon for an arm.
GO GIANTS!
--M.C.
5 comments:
And Belt supposedly has a better arm than Crawford.
Very generous assessment of Matt's performance. This was a reverse Caining, he deserved to lose and got bailed out. Does "grit" just mean you got good results? Matt's hr to fly all ratio is hitting astronomic proportions, above 18. I fear the years of his magic fly ball may finally be catching up and they are now going over the fence. We have proven we can deal with an off year from Tim, but what about Matt? I do not like what I see so far; not panicking like with Vogie, but DEEEPLY worried.
The Crawford play is hard to believe. For anybody to even try that is crazy and he made it look pretty easy. Is the guy from Atlanta really as good? I doubt it.
It's called "pitching to the score", man, and it's what "winners" do. Look it up! :-)
Giants aren't pitching well, but they are winning. If I were a betting man (I'm not), I'd wager the pitching will improve. After all, these guys have pitched pretty well overall the last few years, and short of physical issues, I don't see why they won't again. Meanwhile the hitters are carrying the load. Giants are the defending champs--teams are gunning for them. More advanced scouting, better game plans, etc. Giants have to make some adjustments to stay on top.
Pitching to the score would be if YOUR team gets off to a big lead and you keep the damage down. There was no score when Matt coughed up six earned runs. That is called taking your team out of a game normally. His offense and Affeldt got the win for him. If Crawford doesn't get that big hit then everyone is talking about what is wrong with Matt. I'm still confident that he will get it together, but yesterday was not the way a winner pitches.
This is 3 nights in a row of "Midnight Replay" torture. Depending on when I get out of work I can listen to the 1st or 2nd inning. KNBR is a little scratchy in parts of Auburn.
Incidentally, all 3 shifts at work were little slices of hell, so it's a little disconcerting.
But I was so delighted to wake up this AM to see the Giants pulled another one out. It's staring to seem like this sort of game is becoming rather typical for them.
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