Sunday, September 2, 2012

It's Easy to Fill in for MOC When the Giants Win

And Win they did!  Matt Cain took the hill today, and pitched pretty well, but the Giants saved their fireworks until he was out of the game.  Matt threw 91 pitches in 5 innings and gave up 5 runs, 4 of them in his last inning of work.  He gave up a run when DeJesus singled Barney to third, which allowed him to score on Hunter Pence's fielding error.  After another single, Matt hung one to Alfonso Soriano, and he knew it was gone when Soriano hit it.  Matt was lifted in the bottom of the fifth for a pinch hitter, wait for it.....Aubrey Huff!

The Giants, however, went into the sixth trailing 5-3.  Travis Wood quickly disposed of Pence and Arias, but former Cal Bear, uninspiring major leaguer and FNG Xavier Nady hit a triple.  Our old friend Manny Corpas was called in to serve up a Wrigley Field triple to Brandon Belt, who then scored on a wild pitch.  Game tied!

Into the ninth against Carlos Marmol.  The X man took a walk, and was replaced by Gregor Blanco.  Gregor stole second as Brandon Belt struck out.  Brandon Crawford, who entered the game in the bottom of the eighth, walked.  Angel Pagan hit a line shot up the middle the scored the speedy Blanco.  The next batter, Marco Scutaro, did the same thing, another line shot up the middle.  Crawford scored without a throw home.  The Giants were up 7-5.  After one out in the ninth, Darwin Barney (really, that's his name) hit a single and Santiago Castilla, the pitcher of record, was replaced by Javier Lopez.  He induced the Beav to hit into a double play for the game, set and match.  The Giants are 5-1 on this road trip and headed home for Labor Day!

Conclusions:  Line shots over the pitcher's head are a useful run-scoring device in some situations.  The Giants have been pretty good lately scoring late.  Since August 3, when we came off of that 2 game losing streak in NY, the Giants have scored in the seventh inning or later in 19 of their last 29 games.  Doesn't it seem like in some seasons they hardly ever do that?  Also, of those games that they did not score late, 4 of them were against the doggers and Atlanta in 5 consecutive games and they won all 4 of them.  Also our bullpen has looked pretty good, although I am not going to look up numbers to verify it.  Is gay marriage legal in Illinois?  If Manny Corpas married David DeJesus, they could be Corpas DeJesus, "body of Christ."  But if it were Darwin DeJesus, would they have an internal debate over evolution?  On the other hand, if Brian LaHair married David DeJesus, they could be LaHair DeJesus, "hair of Christ."  I may go to hell.

3 comments:

SIR said...

Your labor of creativity will "make my day" this Labor Day - Thanks! Sometimes here at Dad's I do feel as though I'm just talking to a chair. But we watch all the games!

Zo said...

Clint Eastwood reference!

M.C. O'Connor said...

Corpas DeJesus is genius. Hell yes, you are going to hell. Good thing, we'll need company. (" . . . heaven is a place where nothing ever happens . . .")