The sleeping Giant awoke! For one of the only times this season the Giants played an all around excellent ballgame and smacked down the formerly streaking doggers, 6-2. Tim Lincecum pitched a fine game that was supported by a baker's dozen of hits (including a dinger!) and an efficient bullpen. Throw in some shaky LA defense and the sell-out crowd at AT&T had a truly swell time.
Spiffy double plays were a key feature of this game. In fact, Tim got the blue goo to hit into FOUR, which was the most by a Giant pitcher in 13 years. The best of the bunch was a beauty that BCraw started with a dive and perfect flip. It was spectacular and it is getting to where you expect it!
This game had so many highlights that is easy to lose track of the fine job that Tim did. We needed a solid start (hell, we needed EVERYTHING) and he certainly delivered : 6 innings, 5 hits, 1 run, 3 walks, 5 strikeouts, game score 60. Even though he was a little wild, he kept it down and was rewarded with big double plays. An all around great game, but the clear player of the game was...
Justin Maxwell. When you hit a triple and a homer AND make a magnificent catch, all against the doggers, you definitely deserve the game ball. Congratulations, new guy! We have only won 5 games and Maxwell is largely responsible for two of them. Gee, think he deserves a bit more playing time?
Tomorrow: Bumgarner vs. Kershaw. Does it get any better?
7 comments:
Used to be Timmy would give up a run, and lose 2-1 to Kershaw. Lets hope we can steal a victory from Kershaw, with Bumgarner on the mound. Kershaw has not been quite himself so far, but Bumgarner has been worse. A Bumgarner masterpiece win, is what the giants need.
MomenTim. Nice to see some clean, competitive Giants baseball! Forcing unease upon the opponent. No more of this overthrowing the cutoff, not backing up bases, base running gaffes, clutchless hitting, sloppy defense, etc. Okay, McGehee doesn't look good, but at least he ate a couple grounders instead of sailing them way over 1B. We saw a drag bunt for an RBI, pressure created some runs thrown in, incredible Giants defense, and lookee we got a 2-run homer. Great pitching, never serving up that inopportune big cookie. I think a week ago we had only three players batting over .250 avg, now look where we are! Keep hope alive. BEAT LA!
Giants baseball: pitching, defense, and game-breaking infield singles!
Big out by Javier Lopez in the 8th after the catch by Maxwell. That was a tense inning. I really liked it when Timmy struck out A-Gon, too.
Giants fielding >> LA fielding. Kendrick and Rollins are no match for Panik and Craw with the gloves.
Nice to see Maxwell get the big hits, too.
A quick look at the box score shows 6 Giants with 2 hits each. That's pleasant stat in a game loaded with positives. It is so satisfying to see Tim succeed.
The next thing we must do is win at least 2 consecutive games. Tonight's game should be epic.
MomenTIM is right! This game shows the evolution that Lincecum has been struggling with the past few years, learning to go for the grounders, pound pound pound them into the ground, while saving his Stuff to strike out guys when he needs to do that. The change from thrower to pitcher.
Last season was actually a great improvement over the prior one, as he was able to keep it going pretty well for most of the season until that Save he got for us, roughly two-thirds of the season.
And this season has been good from the very start, something he has not been able to do the past three seasons. Well phrased carmot!
And what about Maxwell! Glad that a boyhood Giants fan got to experience that in the orange and black.
Hope we get to keep him, but with Ishikawa most probably ready soon, somebody will need to be taken off the roster. Maxwell, Ishi, or Arias? Though I suppose they could send Susac back, and wait until Peavy is ready to return to make that decision.
Again the giants had a batter strike out on a 3-2 pitch when the pitch was ball four and yet we had a swing and miss. Gmen are striking out more this year than last. We are also giving up more walks. Let's hope that this trend reverses.
Wow, what a game! I was mad that Bochy kept Bumgarner in, I mean, he was ready to replace him with Kontos the inning before, but then left him in there to tie up the game. I get deferring, but this far back, you should just go for the win, especially against LA.
But we won, and against their vaunted bullpen! Sweep!!! Go Vogie!!!
Post a Comment