SF 2 LA 1
Just when I was thinking the Giants Brain Trust wasn't going to do anything dramatic they did something dramatic. 2013 1st-round draft pick Christian Arroyo was called up and assigned to third base and the sixth spot in the order for tonight's contest with the Dodgers. The 21-year old phenom went 0-for-4 in his debut but he put the ball in play each time and even moved up a runner with one AB, a runner that actually scored. That's a rare occurrence with this club! He looked like he knew which pitches to whack at and which to lay off of, and certainly did not have the deer-in-the headlights look some of the rookies do. He made a couple of clean picks in the field, one in a clutch spot, and even rescued Matt Cain with a barehand catch-and-throw off a ricochet. That earned a chest bump from the grizzled vet.
Speaking of Matt Cain, he was terrific. He put up zeros in an efficient six innings; only 70 pitches to 21 batters, two hits, one walk, three strikeouts. He had a nasty curveball working and a crisp two-seamer with good break that generated a lot of weak contact. It's too early to tell but perhaps our grizzled vet is re-inventing himself a bit, learning how to get outs with a somewhat different repertoire than the young stud of yore. Mysteriously he was removed after that excellent outing with "tightness in his hamstring." Perhaps the ball that rebounded off his leg over to Arroyo had something to do with it. Fortunately the bullpen (Okert, Kontos, Law, Melancon) got the job done. The final play was Buster Posey, catcher extraordinaire, throwing behind Justin Turner on second base to pick him off after he strayed too far on a swing-and-miss from Adrian Gonzalez. Beautiful, man!
Wins are good. I like wins. Let's see some more. Rookie Ty Blach matches up with the best in the game, Clayton Kershaw, tomorrow night. I love it. Let's get some youthful energy injected into this struggling team! GO GIANTS!
--M.C.
2 comments:
Special thanks to the crew of die-hards (Mark, Sue, Dan and Akemi) that came out to my place to watch the game. Clearly our combined presence was the difference maker!! Love you guys!!
It was a grand time! We need to do that again. Makes me think of the old days when we were always watching the games together, either at the park or in a living room. I tell you what I sure miss being able to turn on the radio and hear the game, especially when driving around, that was one nice thing about living in the Bay Area. Mt. Shasta had a Giants affiliate when we first moved here, I remember cruising up Mt. Eddy in the summer and being able to hear Barry batting, that was great. I'm grateful for the nerds who invented mlb.audio, I tell you what!
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