Some of my earliest baseball memories are of great pitching performances in the World Series and later the playoffs too. Sandy Koufax blanking the Twins in WS Game 7 1965. Bob Gibson striking out 17 batters vs the BoSox in Game 1 1967. The Giants had pitchers who were capable of pitching like that back then, Juan Marichal and Gaylord Perry to name two., but they never made it to the World Series! Later, when the Giants did make the playoffs and even WS, they just didn't have that kind of dominant pitching, ant that is probably why they still don't have a ring. Tonight, I feel like I crossed a barrier, maybe real, maybe just psychological. Tim Lincecum's performance tonight, no disrespect to Roy Halladay, stands as one of the dominant postseason pitching performances of all time. At no time in the game was I seriously worried that he would lose it, or even give up a run. He was just that dominant. What a performance! Nevermind that the Giants only run of the game was tainted by a bad call by the ump. The Braves were not going to score in this game. End of story! Key Lines:
Buster Posey- 2 for 4, 2B, SB. Who else but Buster to lead the way on offense? He led off the 4'th with a hard single through the hole between 3B and SS. He was clearly out on an attempted steal of 2B, but the ump called him safe. He eventually scored on two out single by Cody Ross. The only run of the game!
Cody Ross- 1 for 2, BB. Ross showed why he was put on the active roster for the series at the expense of Jose Guillen. Even batting in the 8 hole, he gives you a great AB. Makes the pitcher work just a little harder. He was in the right place at the right time tonight.
Tim Lincecum- 9 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 14 K's. Just look at that line and realize it is a line of greatness. Just as I, to this day, carry the perception that Sandy Koufax was the best pitcher of all time, maybe my kids will tell their kids that they saw the best, Tim Lincecum! Just a stupendous line!
Derek Lowe- 5.1 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 4 BB, 6 K's. Credit Lowe with being a gamer. He battled out there. He actually had very good stuff in term of pitch movement. Maybe he had a little too much pitch movement and ended up walking several batters and in general throwing a lot of pitches. In a way, it's a shame he got burned by a ump's bad call, but hey, the Giants have had to deal with their fair share of bad calls going against them this season.
BTW, I thought both Lowe and Timmy benefitted from a generous strike zone.
Matt Cain takes the mound tomorrow night against Tommy Hanson. If Cain pitches like he did against the Rockies two weekends ago, and if the Giants hitters keep having good AB's, making the pitcher work for his outs, the Giants should win.
Go Giants!!
PS: I won't be able to post the game wrap for tomorrow's game until Saturday night.
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Timmy's pitch location was somewhat sloppy during Heyward's final at-bat in the 9th, but he prevailed in the end! I guess the Braves hitters were a bit to antsy tonight and fanned at everything Timmy threw.
ReplyDeleteYeah Giants!
ReplyDeleteGo Giants!
What a game! Giants may have benefited but the umps owed us for the Mets game!
generous, but consistent k zone
ReplyDeleteas long as the ump is calling the same balls and strikes throughout a game...ive got no prob with that....the prob comes in when he decides to change it up
ya...posey was out....but i think the ump was just dazzled by his attempt
i was surprised when cox over managed regarding walking panda..the kid was swinging at everything.
was more surprised when bochy didnt ph for panda when cox turned him around...
on call during the playoffs? sacrilidge
Bobby Cox has a long history of over managing in the post season.
ReplyDeleteAgreed it was a consistent zone but very generous. Amazingly, the Giants hitters were much more disciplined than the Braves, forcing Lowe to work a lot harder for his outs than Timmy, or Timmy may have been doing a better job of disguising his pitches.
Yes, I did notice that a couple of Tim's pitches in the 9'th didn't exactly go where Buster put his glove. Do you think they ever do that on purpose just to make sure the hitters aren't peeking at where the set up is?
tonite, cox did his players a favor and got booted in the second
ReplyDeletetoo bad bochy didnt follow suit
cuz his pen management, and bench management left much to be desired
hey...here is a brilliant idea...lets have our closer, who has never had a 6 out save...especially with runners in scoring position....try it in the lds
here is a better idea...despite his awful performance in game 1...lets leave pablo in game 2.
and here is an even better idea...lets pull a double swtich with fontenot...then when it comes his time to bat...lets ph rentwreck for him....making sure that we have no more ifs on the bench
its pure genius i tell you
even the doofus one couldnt top tonite....beats the hell out of having gardner ph for himself.
and dang...farnsworth...the guy in the pen that the atl never wanted to touch the ball, throws 2 innings and gets the win.
manager of the frackin year
Well Bacci,
ReplyDeleteI see you are getting your licks in early. I'll have my say in my belated game wrap. Summary: I have no problem with Bochy's managment of the game. This was a failure of execution all the way.