Escaping last week's oppressive rains to shine again under Miller Park's shelter, the Giants dominated the Brewers 8-4 with plenty of offense and major contributions from Nori Aoki. Lincecum picked up his 5th win of the season, benefiting from an outrageous bat-around, 7-run 6th inning.
Tim Lincecum's performance was far from spectacular (5
Innings, 5 hits, 4 runs, 3 walks, 4 strikeouts) and the noteworthy aspect of this win was probably not his favorite. Until tonight, aggressive hitters had only claimed one home run in the 47 innings pitched since opening day, and tonight in 4 innings they bagged three; fortunately these were inconsequential. Is it just the odds catching up with Tim, or a trend to be worried about? Only time will tell.
Game quirks:
Khris Davis was almost denied a home run due to celebrating with a "skip-step" which may have caused him to miss contact with home plate. The replay group in New York disagreed, but ultimately the home run didn't matter. Curious.
Nori Aoki had a splendidly productive 4-4 game, inspired no doubt by my wife's recitations of the "Aoki Fight Song," which also made a guest appearance in Freshman English last week as an example of Japanese poetry in pop culture. "Take your chances/Hit! Hit! Aoki!" Worked every time. This same chipper cheerleader is ghost authoring today's Tim post, as our usual author is driving through our Golden State's parched Central Valley, partially dictating and musing about the game.
All in all, a memorable Memorial Day victory.
10 comments:
"Well Supported"? True, but sounds like a jock strap ad.
Indeed, the big inning saved the day. Nice work from Affeldt and Strickland, too.
It was the right call to appeal the HR, and Counsell had to demand a review. I was surprised it was overturned, the TV views we saw could not have been enough. They must have had a Milwaukee TV feed that was definitive.
So, digital amanuensis? JC's thoughts, The Fire Dancer's fingers?
Seems to be a different hero almost every day. Pence came back from the DL putting up ridiculous numbers. In 9 games he has as many RBI and Runs as McGehee had all season. The lineup seems at the moment to be very difficult for the opposition. Even if you can get the 3,4, and 5 hitters, you have all these other hitters that can beat you. Duffy seems to be making great strides when facing a tough pitcher for the second go around.
Timmy is now 5-2. If he can keep this up he'll have a shot at a 20-win season. I know this is bogus in the brave new world of stats, but it still means something to me.
BTW, I was glad that homer was reviewed the way it was. It would be such bullshit to take it away. He hit it, right?
You gotta touch the bases, man. Otherwise they could just go right back to the dugout after hitting one.
I'm not a fan of "pitcher-wins." Spent too much time following Cain's career to care, ever again, about who gets the "W" next to their name. All I care about is the "W" in the W-L column in the standings.
A bit of kharmic retribution for all the 2 - 1 losses that went on Tim's record.
As I was finishing my remarkably clean shave this morning, using my museum-quality twin-blade Atra shaver (remember those? it's getting harder & harder to find generic blades for them), I mused again about my brilliant motivational skills yesterday - firing up my would-be castoffs, Affeldt (to the DL) & Strickland (to the Minors) into achieving excellence in yesterday's stunning win.
However, I still want more Position Players & less Pitchers. In the good old days, you only had to worry about the Manager making righty-lefty mid-Inning switches very late in the game. Now, they get to do it during the middle of the game &, again, at the end. Another factor in lengthening the games with more TV timeouts. Whereas, making Pinch-Hitting moves or Defensive Substitutions takes no time at all.
There are still people who use leather strops and straight razors. In fact, they are making a comeback among the millennials, urban hipsters, and the "maker" crowd.
When I was a kid and someone said "the good old days" my dad would go into a rant about how shitty the "old" days were. My dad was nuts, but he had a point.
I don't have a problem with specialty relief pitching. The Giants and Bochy are masters of the art of bullpen management and it has been a crucial part of the three titles.
Never forget Merkle's Boner!
In the good old days, people died or were crippled regularly from common illnesses that today's vaccination regiment prevents and only the rich had access to drinkable water, most regular folks had to go to a nearby drinking water distribution center (i.e. water spigot), which was an important plot point regarding the discovery of how cholera was being spread in a mid-1800's English neighborhood.
Miller's Park is a HR hitting park, so there's that, but moreover, I'm not letting one start negate 8 starts of overall goodness. Everyone has their off days. Plus, other than the homers, the numbers were not far from what he's been doing all season. Just one start...
The Giants are in the middle of a stretch of 17 games in 16 days including travel and rain and no-rain delays. Just relax about the pitchers until they get through it.
What's the 'maker' crowd?
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