Tim Hudson held the line for 6-1/3 with his usual array of sinkers away and four Giants relievers combined to hold off the Dodgers the rest of the way for the team's sixth shutout. It was a nail-biter's dream as the potent LA lineup kept creating chances and their pitchers kept it close all night. Buster Posey poked a single to left to give the home town boys a 1-0 lead in the 3rd, driving in Joe Panik who was on base three times. That was the only scoring until the Dodgers defense gifted the Giants an insurance run in the 8th. Utility man Enrique Hernandez had pinch-run for Adrian Gonzalez and then went to left field on a double-switch where he couldn't handle Brandon Belt's deep fly to the track. It wound up a two-base error and Belt later scored on a wild pitch from Chris Hatcher. Starting LF Scott Van Slyke, moved to first base when A-Gon was taken out, had been picked off by Sergio Romo for the third out in the top of the inning, snuffing a potential rally. Beautiful stuff, man!
Huddy wasn't overpowering, but he kept the ball down and refused to give in and got lots of help from his big park and stellar fielders. He left after a one-out hit from Alex Guerrero. Jean Machi got his batter, Justin Turner, to hit a grounder but they couldn't turn two as Panik made a rare poor throw. Javier Lopez then walked both Joc Pederson and Jimmy Rollins to crank up the intensity but Sergio Romo got a comebacker from Howie Kendrick to end that threat. The Dodgers put two on in the 9th with two outs against Santiago Casilla but Rollins grounded out to Belt and the win was secured.
Tim Lincecum tomorrow night.
GO GIANTS!
--M.C.
7 comments:
That's four in a row now, and only 3.5 games back.
Let's make it two, five, 2.5, Timmy!!
Go Giants!
Go Giants!
So different from a 9 - 8 slugfest. Huddy did a great job even though his breaking stuff wasn't working the way he wanted at the start of the game. The point is, that he pitched really well and when he didn't, he pitched well enough. Go Timmy!
That was classic Giants baseball: dink hits and scoring on errors and wild pitches. It must have driven the smog suckers crazy.
Wonder which Tim we get tonight. As long as he doesn't fall down too many times, we should be OK.
When there's no mud stuck in his cleats, Lincecum has been very good this season. We are at home with no messing with the mound, so he should be good, unless that weird throw (you know what it was) threw his body out of whack.
I'm always amazed by what the Giants call a "rally". But it works, man!
The Giants are really strong in the field and if Timmy takes a page from Huddy's book and lets his fielders do their jobs things will work out well, I think. Throw strikes and keep the ball down!
Despite not giving the giants pitchers called strike 3's on at least 3 occasions during the game, the staff still found a way to shut out the bums. Hudson's pitches had much more bite to them this time, than in his previous outing.
And tonight, Wednesday the 20th, another win for six in a row, another shutout for #7, and Lincecum moves ahead of Carl Hubbell in Ks.
As for Lincecum's place in Giants' strikeout leaders, Mathewson and Marichal are legit above him, but there's also Amos Rusie, who holds the record for games lost in a season, and several records for number of batters walked. He was truly a guy from different times, who pitched 40-50 complete games a year, and got washed up by the age of 30.
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