Saturday, April 17, 2010

Game Wrap 04-17-2010: Giants 9 Choking Dogs 0!

The Giants furious rally that started in the top of the 9'th inning last night just continued into todays game. This time, they had the wonderful pitching of Tim Lincecum to back it up. The result was a 9-0 trouncing of the Hated Ones. The injury bug is starting to bite though. Disclaimer: My daughter had been begging for me to take her to LA MOCA for weeks, so I did the dad thing and did not see the game in person or on TV. I caught the tail end of it and the postgame on the radio on the way home. Key lines:

Eugenio Velez- 3 for 5, 2B, BB. When Pharoah is on one of his hot streaks, might as well keep him in there and enjoy it.

Pablo Sandoval- 1 for 4, BB, SB(2).

Aubrey Huff- 1 for 3, 2 BB, SB(1). Love the BB's. The Giants drew a total of 6 walks forcing Haeger to abandon the knucklball, and then smacked around his secondary stuff.

Mark DeRosa- 0 for 2. Pulled up with a hammy. More on that later.

Bengie Molina- 2 for 4, HBP. BA= .448. Think maybe Bengie has something to prove this year?

Nate Schierholtz- 1 for 4, BB. Nate gets the start against the knuckleballer, but even he was able to be draw a walk.

Tim Lincecum- 3 for 4. BA= .429. I bet you thought this was going to be a pitching line, huh?

Tim Lincecum- 6 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 7 K's, W(3). ERA- 0.90. Cy Young #3 baby!!

Mota, Runzler, Medders- 1 IP, 0 R each.

Just as the Giants are trying to figure out if there is some way for Aaron Rowand to play through his injury, DeRosa pulls up with a hammy. So the Giants, who just two days ago were backed up in OF's might just be wishing they had found a way to keep Fred Lewis! Here's my take:

Rowand should not try to play through it. Facial fractures are nothing to mess around with, and it seems like a plastic shield would just hamper vision at the plate. DeRosa didn't come out of the game immediately so hopefully it's not a 6-8 week hammy. Again, I'd rather see him sit and get completely well than try to play through it and have it become a problem all season.

Velez is red hot. No, it probably won't last all year, but when Pharoah gets hot, they might as well hitch up for the ride. I'm guessing he and Torres will form a platoon in CF with Velez playing against RHP's and Torres against LHP's. Bowker can move to LF with Nate taking over in RF. Huff can also play corner OF with Travis playing 1B or else Pablo can slide over to 1B with Uribe playing 3B if they call up Rohlinger or Downs from Fresno. Losing Derosa will leave the Giants without a great bat against LHP's. Otherwise, I think they can cover it quite nicely.

It's Zito vs Kershaw in the rubber game of the series tomorrow. Kershaw has been wild so far this season. The Giants need to force him to throw strikes just like they did with Haeger today.

No comments:

Post a Comment