SF 1 LA 0
The Giants have scored only two runs so far this season. Both have come on Joe Panik solo homers. Yesterday he took Clayton Kershaw deep. His long ball was the difference in a 1-0 win. Tonight he took Kenley Jansen deep. His long ball was the difference in a 1-0 win. Joe Panik homers in back-to-back games against arguably the best starter and the best closer in baseball! That's some serious VSC! And some serious craziness--consecutive 1-0 games to start the season? Have the Giants ever won the first two games of a season 1-0? Have the Dodgers ever lost the first two games 1-0? Has any team had either happen? Crazy!
Speaking of VSC, Johnny Cueto was brilliant tonight. He retired the first 18 batters he faced and lost his perfect game to the leadoff hitter (Chris Taylor) on a single to right-center in the 7th. But Corey Seager obliged with a double-play grounder and Yasiel Puig flew out to left and that was 21 hitters and 21 outs. Tony Watson was perfect again in the 8th and new closer Hunter Strickland followed with a perfect 9th. Giants pitchers faced the minimum! You could argue that Dodgers starter Alex Wood was even more dominant, giving up only a weak infield grounder (to Brandon Crawford in the 5th) over eight innings. It should have been an out but the infield was in a shift. He pitched through some wretched fielding, too. Alas, it went for naught with Panik's heroics in the 9th.
Two games, two nail-biters, two wins. Giants pitchers have thrown 18 scoreless frames. On the road. Against the defending NL champs. That's not a bad way to start the season, I must say.
FNG Derek Holland tomorrow. GO GIANTS!
--M.C.
10 comments:
Hope the giants can continue to win, once they start hitting. Posey and Longoria look lost at the plate, and Cutch makes like a typical giants base runner the last few years getting picked off of first. So far the fielding looks good.
Even Jon has to admit this season is starting off well. Loved watching Cueto dance his way through an almost perfect outing. Beating the Dodgers is always sweet!
Well is not the word I would choose. F#cking amazing maybe. Historic. Freaky.
JohnnyC clearly had something to prove. Mission accomplished.
Joe Panik is the first player in ML history to have a homer in consecutive 1-0 wins.
Agreed, Cueto was sending everyone a message: this ain't last year.
I also kind of love how Watson strikes out the first 5 he sees after getting ZERO k’s for all of Spring Training.
I definitely love seeing Strickland look like a confident bastard that has a lot more than a nasty 95 mph heater. Invisible Melancon may be a blessing for Hunter.
A 'message' would take a full Season of success. But, it was an awesome performance, nonetheless. He looked like he was in total command of everything. It was also a fair strike zone, which helped both Pitchers, but frustrated the crap out of the whiny LA hitters & crowd.
Hey Ron! - You must admit that JohnnyC is all about the drama, so I’m sticking with the overblown “message.” However, you are right. His collapse last year was quite extended so we definitely must wait and see.
Also , on the topic of umps. Wtf with the first base ump? Two close chances that he blows! It took 5 seconds to overturn BOTH of them. I saw both pretty clearly. He’s behind the plate today.
The guy who looks, to me, like a big upgrade over last year's version is Hunter Strickland. According to the announcers, John Smoltz worked with him on his slider, and encouraged him to use it. Just having more than a fastball is huge. Bullpen, bullpen, bullpen. We lost so many games there last year - now to give them just a bit more of a lead to work with.
getting back to the strike zone. I only saw one giant player visibly complain about a strike and that was our lead off hitter, when he was called out on a high slow curve ball, in the zone. Dodger hitters would wince and complain on pitches that looked pretty good. If that square they show is the true strike zone, then the strike zone was more fair to Wood than it was to cueto, but it did not matter. I do not think Cueto fooled Puig on that last quick pitch fast ball, the ball flattened out, and Puig just missed it. So far the fielding looks good.
I disagree, Ron--JohnnyC was surely sending a message. And that message is: "I'm back." Now, we don't know if that's a TRUE message or not, and we won't know until the end of the season, obviously. But he was still sending a message! He had pretty much refused to comment on his Spring Training work, mostly saying "trust me" and that the regular season is what matters, not the exhibitions. (Funny how reporters need that explained to them every year.) I've no doubt his pride was wounded by his performance last season, and that he'd like to be back in the conversation about the league's best pitchers. The Giants will certainly need him to be a top-notch starter again.
I'd like to see the lineup get some hits and score some runs today. No complaints so far about the pitchers, can't do better than zero runs allowed!
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