You put your ace on the hill and he blows chow. This was a lousy game. The defense was responsible for 2 of the runs, but really, Madison owns this. To be fair, the home runs from Andrus and Beltre appeared to be at their eyeballs, but they were obviously hit-able.
The game was over before I could finish my martini, and I hate that. It was over in the second inning, and the Giants made it a quick one by stringing together a series of wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am innings for Texas against Nick Mediocre, a Martinez pitcher if there ever was one. The Giants added a score to make it 6 - 3 in the 9th, but really, that was pointless. The announcing team tried to make a point about how it is hard to go to a place where it was hot, but I'm not buying it for a second. They had this game lost before they could work up a sweat.
Madison's pissy act whenever someone looks at him, or whatever, is wearing thin. Pitch like a stud and then work up a hissy-fit. You were a turd tonight.
14 comments:
It seemed like Bum was one of those few ballplayers who could get emotional and channel that into outs, in defiance of common baseball wisdom which says "keep your cool at all times." But maybe that's not so! The league ain't stupid--if there is a chink in someone's armor you can bet they will exploit it. Even Bum is mortal.
A game should never be over before the first martini. It's just not right.
The only thing that could have made that a worse start to the road trip to hell would have been an injury. So I guess we got lucky. I also hate that type of loss, where you kind of have to hang around for 3 hours to see every horrible detail. I fee like I waited a day and a half for that too. With that ballpark and our offense, and that shitty Ranger pitcher, I expected us to mount a comeback. Not even close. Shitty start, now we have to beat Hamels and that could be tough.
The petulant MadBum thing is almost predictable and a bit tiresome. I think what sets him off is when 1) he 's losing. 2) the batter makes a big demonstration of any kind, usually when they miss a pitch they think they should have pounded. That is what started yesterday. It is no fun to watch but I figure it is part of his persona. As long as he doesn't throw at people, I guess it is tolerable.
Even more annoying to me, probably because it is so much more common, is the daily whining of Angel Pagan. At this point all the umps must be pretty sick of him. He makes a point of drawing attention to his conversations with the umps. It is not helping and I am getting quite sick of it About half the time he has NOTHING to gripe about. The rest of the time, ne needs to SHUT UP and get over it. I suppose that the whining will stop when he ever starts hitting extra base hits.
In Pagan's defense, I think some of the times he is just asking the umpire where the pitch was. But not always.
When the Giants come to town
It's Bye Bye Baby!
I couldn't wait for the new post to celebrate the Saturday night win.
We need to designate a new niche for JC in this post-Lincecum era. I miss his BS.
Thanks for the "compliment" bro. But I'm very OK with taking a break from regular posting. It was a joy many years ago during the dream period of the Freak but it has truly been a sad burden at times during the last 3 years. And writing is hard for me, so this chance to relax (and comment like crazy) has been super fun and relaxing. No more dreading every fifth game and coming up with another snarky Tim title.
I also feel like this blog has gone into a bit of new era with more dialog and fantastic regular commentors. The posts are still fun and erudite but the comments are usually my favorite part. So I figure to chip in more and help out with that delightful trend. Still lots of BS for everyone!
So after watching every moment of Friday's horror, I completely (not even radio) missed Saturday's bliss. Figures. Reading the recaps this morning, sipping excellent coffee, wishing I could see the mountain through the smoke.
Bottom line: We win ALOT with Hunter Pence in the line up. Is that just numbers being weird? Doesn't Pagan have a similar effect on winning %? Reality?
I am completely excited about Leake. Look for us to lock him up with big money if he does anything good at all, at least we will try. It seems like we have wanted him for a while now. Much of the Tim $ we gain is already going to BCraw (please give him an extension today) but maybe we can still pick up Mike. I guess I'm getting a little a head of myself, like I said, I'm excited about Leake.
We need Panik in the lineup and Aoki needs to lead off! Pagan can bat eighth. Overall I think Pagan does get more than his share of bad calls.
Sure is quiet this weekend on the old blog. Must have been a busy weekend, I know I was all over the place. Missed yesterday's game completely too. Oh well, getting dominated by a guy that gave up 8 runs his last time out is rather depressing, but at least it was hella close. In fact it sounds like the new third base coach may have cost us this one by holding Aoki with one out in the ninth. It was sound baseball thinking (after all how often does Pence hit into a DP?) but when the throw sailed way over the catcher, the decision turned out to be the wrong one. It seems that Kelly may be a conservative but when your team hits as well as we do (especially with 2 outs RISP!) that makes some sense. Perhaps he just watched Flannery rather randomly send every one (especially lumbering All Star catchers!) for the last several years and he got a bit sick of that, can't say that I blame him. I suppose the third base coach costs the team a game or so each year, maybe. Only something crazy bloggers would really worry about.
Wish I had seen Leake, although I'm sure I can picture it. Gee, another sinker, command specialist guy. Just like, oh everyone else on the pitching staff except MadBum and Strickland. Maybe that is why those two are my current favorite pitchers...
I think the call to hold Aoki was the right one. The throw was not good, but had it been (Hamilton has a good arm) he would have been out by plenty. Leake pitched well enough, but Perez only used 80 pitches to go 8.1 innings. Amazingly good, or maybe the Giants' game plan was to swing at the first pitch so they wouldn't have to play in the heat.
And speaking of which, I am sick of hearing about how hot it is. First, both teams have to play in the same heat. Second, ever been to Texas? Fucking parking garages are air conditioned. They have to be in the heat for the time they are in the field - yesterday, that would have been somewhat over an hour (more than Texas though because their at bats were so brief). These guys are professional athletes and have a medical staff ready to pump them full of saline and ethylene glycol if they need it.
As I have watched the video over a few times I get less sure it was a good decision by Kelly. It looks like Aoki got a monstrous jump and was probably going faster than Kelly expected. That little guy can fly and I bet he slides like a clever devil, so I think even with a good throw the play would have been pretty close. I also think Hamilton is over rated. Oh well, it is ancient history now.
I have read that the stats show Pagan as the worst CF. That is a little surprising, but I know defensive stats are kinda hinky. Many people in the blogosphere actually think that every other Giant OF would be better in CF. Offensively, he does seem to be on the verge of a scary BAD season. I keep thinking he is about to take off and get it together, but then it slips again. Is this a case of Bochy sticking with the veteran a little too long?
Pagan earlier in the year was getting a good jump. Recently, I think in the last series there is a shot of a ball hit to center from behind the plate. It was a blooper. You can see it took quite a while for Pagan to make his move toward the ball. When it was hit I thought it would be an out. It dropped in. A good jump, a Willie Mays, and it is an out. On the other hand until about a month ago, I thought Pagan was playing the best centerfield of his career. An injury may have cause him some problems in the last few weeks when going back on the ball. Earlier in the year he seemed to have no problem crashing into the fence. Now he is being more cautious. The Met fans at the time of the trade were glad to let him go, as I think that last season with the Mets was his worst fielding season of his career. Again, playing injured may have had a role. Pagan's last AB Sunday, was possibly his best AB in a month. He has been looking like a poor mans Juan Pierre. My hope is that he will return to being the Pagan of April. The odd year jinx seems to have placed the odd year second baseman on the DL. Hopefully he will come back strong, and soon. I thought he should have let OK try to score. Yes a perfect throw would have had him, put sometimes you just have to force the action. Maybe it was the right call, but I think of all the times they sent Posey and Pablo in that situation and they nailed them by a foot, with a perfect throw. Sending a fast runner puts more pressure on the fielder to make a perfect throw. We know what happened. How close was the play at first ending the game? Surprised it was not close enough for a challenge. I know we are all hoping for the giants to beat the odd year jinx, and become one of baseballs most famous dynasties.
Panik is now on the DL.
Just to say something about the heat having a negative effect on the ball players. Even though both teams had to play in the same heat, the giants who usually play in much cooler weather have to adjust, and that is a real thing. On the other hand it playing 81 plus games in cool weather has to benefit the giants as they should not be as run down in the late season as some teams that have to weather the high temps and high humidity. I have lived in the Northeast where the weather varies from day to day, and there can be brutal hot days with high humidity followed by nice cool days with low humidity. Having lived in California, the weather is more consistent there from day to day. The cool weather in SF can have its negative effects on opposing teams coming in from hot weather areas. Living now in South Florida, before the Marlins built their climate controlled stadium, the humidity and heat were definitely a home field advantage. I could see the opposition pitchers start sweating early in the game, while the Marlin's pitchers seemed to keep their
sweat glands under control for a longer times. Of course there is individual variation, but it is quite observable. Probably the biggest natural home field advantage is in Denver, as players tend to get tired from having to play a mile high.
When the Giants play as they did tonight, in the first game against Atlanta, it's hard to believe that they will make the postseason. A six run lead blown, and the bullpen pitching as if the team would have done better to have put it all on the DL along with Panik, so as to call up Osich, Broadway, Law, and a mixed assortment of others.
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