Matt Cain wasn't overpowering, but he called upon his deep reservoirs of VSC and kept the high-flying A's offense from putting up any crooked numbers. They are patient and be they .220 or .320 hitters they seem to be able to work counts and wear down pitchers. If you can keep the highest-scoring team in baseball to only two runs you are doing something right. It was enough as the Giants put together a few odds-and-ends to beat Oakland in San Francisco. The A's wild-pitched a run in, and Man of the Match Hunter Pence smoked one over the center-field fence and into the fancy-schmancy new section of the Park and added another run with an infield hit. That's just so Pence-ian, getting a bomb and an RBI squibber in the same game! Joe Panik and Buster Posey had run-scoring hits as well. Make that a habit, gents. And nice to see Sergio Romo whiffing two guys with the fascist groove thang working beautifully. Find your mojo, lad. And how about Santiago Casilla's 8-pitch save?
Cainer racked up a Game Score of 56 which is the 7th highest of his 15 starts this season. For those of you counting, he has two losses and four no-decisions in those six games. Matty blew a bunt chance tonight and made a throwing error. That's so not Cain-ian! He gave up a homer, which seems to be what he does these days--one gopher ball per game. As long as they are solo shots I can live with it. A little run support helps, too, and this time the lineup obliged.
Over in the East Bay, the A's slapped around the Giants like Germany did to Brazil.* At AT&T, it felt more like Argentina-Holland with extra time and penalty kicks and all that. You know, one of those wins. One where it looked like they had to work way too hard. I'm not picky, and neither is the ball club. The Giants will take any win at this point including forfeits due to sabotaging the other team's bus. Win, win, win, and keep winning. That's it. That's what the Giants need to do--win ballgames. The Dodgers (51-42) lost and the Giants (50-41) are in a virtual tie for first. (They didn't get their 50th win until the first week in August last year.) The team has won only 8 of its last 28 games, but they are still in the thick of the race. God Bless America.
Tim Hudson gets his shot tomorrow afternoon.
GO GIANTS!
--M.C.
*World Cup reference.
3 comments:
I think it feels that way because we are used to our relief fucking the dog - so when we went into the 7th, no one felt a win was in the bag. And when we went into the 8th, no one felt a win was in the bag. 9th, maybe.
Cain's career W/L is now 95/95. He should get W #100 this year (it would be shocking if he doesn't) and that will be a very nice day.
God bless our great start, which left us tied with LA now! If we had played .500, we would be 10 games back right now, with everyone else.
Giants starting to look like the way they were early in the season, hopefully they can keep this going.
Post a Comment