Sunday, April 18, 2010

Game Wrap 04-18-2010: Dogs 2 Giants 1

Baseball can be a cruel sport, and nobody knows that better than Giants fans, especially when it involves the Dodgers. The Giants today did exactly what they needed to do against Clayton Kershaw, force him to throw strikes. He ended up walking 4 Giants, but the tone of the game was set with the first batter when Velez took the first two pitches, a fastball and curveball, and both of them were strikes. No team is going to score many runs off Kershaw, who's raw stuff is as good as any in baseball, when he can do that. Barry Zito matched him pitch for pitch and finally went to the 8'th inning with a 1-0 lead thanks to a Juan Uribe HR in 7'th. Alas, the Dodgers had an ace in the hole that the Giants just don't have. I might quibble a bit and say you don't throw Manny Ramirez anything in the strike zone in that situation, force someone else to beat you, but the Dodgers have other weapons and probably most managers would have tried to get him out. Just one of those games that will gnaw on you for awhile. Key lines:

Juan Uribe- 1 for 4, HR(1). BA= .326.

Barry Zito- 7.1 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 3 K's. I'll just say that if Zito pitches the rest of the season the way he has pitched in his first 3 starts, the Giants will have a good season.

The Giants got out of LA with a 2 run lead in the standings. They head to Petco Park, which has been a house of horrors for them ever since it opened, to face the Padres. Last year, the Giants got swept on this swing in both LA and SD. A 3-3 split would be great, but 2-4 will be a whole lot better than 0-6! With Cain and Sanchez going the first two, they should win at least 1. Game 3 will be a test for Wellemeyer.

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