Johnny Cueto had a nightmare 1st inning in his San Francisco debut. It started when he hit Chase Utley, the first batter, and ended with him giving up five runs on five hits and a walk. He even looked bad in the field, failing to cover first base on a bunt. We weren't happy campers, but we knew that the best time to be behind 5-0 was the 1st inning, so we had not gone over to despair. Sure enough the boys answered with two runs in the bottom half. Dodgers starter Scott Kazmir gave up a two-out hit to Buster Posey, walked Hunter Pence, then gave up singles to Brandon Belt and Matt Duffy. We had the feeling that if Cueto could settle down the lads would get more chances to do some damage.
Sure enough JohnnyC hit the reset button and threw six excellent innings,five scoreless, giving up one run in the 4th and notching eight strikeouts. The lineup, meanwhile, stepped up with three to tie it in the 3rd on two spectacular home runs, one by Buster Posey and one by Brandon Belt. We had a great view of both, Buster's was a high, soaring blast to left that stayed up forever, Brandon's was a screaming liner to center that got out in a hurry. Even the run the Dodgers got in the 4th was answered right away by Angel Pagan's solo shot. Whatever LA could conjure up the Giants seemed to have an answer. In the 6th the Giants knocked out three more runs off reliever Louis Coleman, the big blow a double to deep center from Joe Panik.
The bullpen was up to the task and go the last six outs, one by Sergio Romo, two by Josh Osich, and a neat 1-2-3 9th from Santiago Casilla. All in all it was a fine day at the yard. The Giants take three of four and come within a whisker of a sweep. We had an excellent group of old friends in section 148 today and the mood at the Park was festive. The youngster next to me got a ball tossed to him by Hunter Pence, that was a nice moment (excellent work by JC to make it happen!). The weather was overcast and pleasantly cool, very comfortable for sitting and watching the action. We got to jump up and down a lot and celebrate. The Giants had 12 hits including three doubles and three homers! JohnnyC looked bad and then he looked great and finished strong.
Here's a few shots of the group:
That's JC on the selfie-cam with Jim behind him, then Susanna and Ron to the right and Zo in front of them.
That's me on the left and Steve behind me, JC on the cam and Jim on the right.
The Giants have hit 14 homers in 7 games. I don't think we can count on that sort of pace, but I do think this team will be able to thump it. They can also do the small-ball thing and the keep-the-line-moving contact hitting thing and the gappers-and-speedy runners thing. It's a versatile lineup. If they get consistent pitching they will be very tough. Cueto showed, for the last six, what it can look like. It's too early in the year to get too high or low, but damn if the team didn't show us something this weekend!
More tomorrow,
M.C.
6 comments:
What an amazing day at the park! Even if the game had sucked, the day and the group would have been a total blast. Then add one of the best games I've been to for a while and you have AN AMAZING DAY. The Arcade seats were a blast and a pretty good view, although I need a few more games to get my eyes adjusted to that angle. Interacting with and watching Hunter Pence was probably my personal highlight. Dude is so cool. All I had to do was pick a quiet moment and I used my teacher voice to deliver the simple message " We love you Hunter". That's it. He looked right at me, gave a huge smile and a thumbs up! Sweet. Then next inning when he went to toss a ball into the crowd he looked right at me but I quickly pointed to a young kid we had befriended sitting next to us. Hunter knew exactly what I meant and delivered a perfect strike right to the kid's dad. Double sweet! Needless to say the kid was awe struck and the father very graciously shook my hand and thanked me for making that happen. Cool, huh? So Hunter Pence made me look like a mini hero and I will always love him for that.
The game itself was an wonderfully entertaining affair. Especially if you don't like pitchers duels. Cueto put us in a deep hole and he even looked injured for a few minutes. It was a bleak first inning, but then it got better. Lots better. JohnnyC ended quite strong and got through 7, which 5 minutes into the game looked very unlikely. I guess it was 2002 the last time someone gave up 5 runs in the first and went on to win.
Our group immediately saw that Buster and Hunter were going to have make something happen every time up. Guess what, they basically did exactly that. What can one say about Buster? (Besides , of course, that he has a sister that hit a HR cycle in a DH. Did you know that?) His homer yesterday was so pretty we were a bit stunned. Speechless for a few seconds, which for this crowd is really quite something. Belt's homer was very different, more violent and hurried. Jeez, listen to me...getting all poetic about dingers. Oh well, there is no fighting it...we are going to have a dingerfest this year. Dinger, dinger, dinger.
I will try to get my vlog up real quick. Off day and I have to travel home. Talk to you soon
I'm so glad you all had a good time.
I missed the top of the first because I was walking the dogs. I got home just in time for the Giants' fist score.
What did you eat and drink?
What a fun day at the ballpark! It was awesome to see everyone! None of us had ever sat in the Arcade, so that was a great novelty - close to the field, spectacular vistas, both inside & outside of the Stadium, as documented, a special relationship w/ Hunter, & nothing of any significance happened in our 'blindspots'. And, on top of it all, an emotional roller-coaster of a win, with Cueto turning the highest quality non-Quality Start I've ever seen, & the hitters erupting for 6 extra-base hits, 5 of which were very significant - 3 very different, very large HR's included. We had a nice pre-Game walk along the Embarcadero, a tasty & festive Indian post-Game Dinner, & some nice time w/ Dan & Akemi, after Mark, Jon, & Steve had departed. We were even treated to some impromptu entertainment on BART on the way back - 2 Brothers doing some intricate & acrobatic dancing/Yoga/contortions for everyone's enjoyment. A full, wonderful, memorable day!
My Parents DVR'd the Game, so we started re-watch ingredients it today - when Cueto is warming up to start, we are all clearly visible for about 20 seconds! I think that we're going to make a few more appearances later - the wonders of HDTV! Go Giants!!!
Warming up on the mound for the 1st Inning, that is.
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