Monday, September 3, 2012

Game Wrap 9/3/2012: Giants 9 D'Backs 8

Not sure where to start with this one.  If the Giants go on to win the NL West and more, they and we will probably point to this game as the one where we all knew they were on a mission and were going to refuse to lose. There is just no way the Giants win this game earlier in the season.  They jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first and Barry Zito looked like he might be pitching one of his gems, but it came all unraveled in the 6'th inning when Zito started throwing batting practice for the D'Backs and 2 relievers couldn't stop the bleeding.  D'Backs up 7-4 and the game looked like it might be over.  The Giants offense, though, picked up the pitchers and outscored the D'Backs 4-1 in innings 7-9 before Marco Scutaro hit a walk-off single in the bottom of the 10'th inning.  Oh, and what a fabulous day at the ballpark.  I don't think I've ever seen it more beautiful than it was today despite all the ridiculous Star Wars costumes in the stands.  Key Lines:

Marco Scutaro- 3 for 6, 2B.  BA= .285.  I've liked Scutaro for a long time but he's surpassing my expectations for him.

Pablo Sandoval- 3 for 5.   BA= .289.  All singles, but hey, gotta start somewhere and I'll take 3 singles from Pablo any time.

Buster Posey- 2 for 5, 2 2B.  BA= .330.  Another day at the office for Buster.  He played 1B today and is looking better out there the more he plays.

Hunter Pence- 1 for 4, 3B, BB.  BA= .262.  Pence drove in 2 in the first with a triple off the wall in Triples Alley.  Pence is hitting .324 over his last 10 games with a .405 OBP.  He's hitting .310 over his last 19 games.

Hector Sanchez- 2 for 5, 2B.  BA= .267.  The Hector has remained remarkably consistent over the course of the season.  Again, what an inspired decision to go with him as backup catcher over Whiteside and CStew!

Brandon Crawford- 3 for 5, 2B.  BA= .246.  Crawford got the start against the LHP when Arias came up lame.  I'm pretty sure he added to his WAR total today!  He started the winning rally in the 10'th for good measure.

Barry Zito- 5 IP, 7 H, 4 R, 0 BB, 6 K's.  ERA= 4.51.  Zito started out the game on fire and looked like he could easily pitch a CG shutout.  Things started going south in the 5'th when he gave up a HR to Chris Johnson and when he allowed the first two batters to reach base in the 6'th, Bochy had seen enough.  This time, though, the bullpen only added gas to the fire.  Not sure what went wrong for Zito.  I know he was working up in the strike zone even when he was cruising and that's always dangerous against a longball team like the D'Backs.  A lot of his hits were given up after getting 2 strikes on the batter.

Penny, Machi and Romo pitched scoreless innings with Romo getting the W.  The other remarkable aspect of the game was Romo was the only bullpen mainstay who didn't get a rest.  Bochy was able to keep the D'Backs at bay by throwing the gun fodder out there until the offense tied it up.

With the win, the Giants increased their lead on the 3'rd place D'Backs to 11.5 games.  Meanwhile, the Dodgers are tied with the Padres late in their game.  I will post an update on that later.

Ryan Vogelsong takes the mound against Ian Kennedy who always seems to give the Giants a tough game tomorrow evening.  Go Giants!!

PS:  Dodgers come back to win over the Padres 4-3 in extra-innings to remain 4.5 games behind the NL West leading San Francisco Giants.

17 comments:

  1. The Giants were 9 for 15 with RISP!!!! The Giants of June would never have done that.

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  2. DocB, couldn't agree more.

    Don't quit. Refuse to lose. This is just the kind of game you win when you win the division. The Giants wanted it more.

    The value of extra pitchers to back up a Bad Zito start was proved out today, even though they poured gasoline on the fire. They bought innings for the offense today.

    Can't say I've enjoyed the Giants winning this much since September 2 years ago.

    For Ian (departed from this blog, I think), the Giants are dead last in MLB dingerz and in first place.

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    1. There is certainly something to be said for dingerz, and I do wish the Giants hit more of them, but that Ian, AKA Titomac, and his sock puppets just took it to ridiculous extremes.

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  3. The Giants have come from behind in 4 of their last 6 wins.. I like the momentum that this team seems to be gathering..

    I think veterans like Scutaro continue to play the game to be in a pennent race, thus they step up their game! Love how he seems to give a lot of quality abs.. Didn't he have like a 12 pitch ab the other day in Chicago?

    It might benafit the Giants to keep tomorrows game close as well.. The Dbacks bullpen was worked pretty hard in 4 close games against the Bums over the weekend with another tough game today.. Putz, Hernandez, and Ziegler have now worked in 4 of their last 5 ballgames..

    Drb, I'm curious about your thoughts on the Nats plans to shutdown Strasburg? I wouldn't be happy if I were a Nats fan

    LG

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    1. The Nats have a long term investment and asset in Strasburg. If they have internal data or medical information that has them convinced that there is an innings threshold above which the risk of re-injury goes up significantly, then the prudent thing to do is shut him down. I actually applaud them for thinking long term, big picture rather than thinking all they have is a 1 year window.

      Now, having said that, it seems like maybe a smarter thing to do would have been to have him skip starts here and there throughout the season so as to preserve his availability into the postseason, especially after it became apparent they had a team capable of winning it all.

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  4. A passing measure of how good the Giants have been: only two teams in the NL (Cincinnati, Washington) and one in the AL (Texas) have more wins than we, as of Labor Day. And this reckoning reminds one of what may be a happy harbinger for the next month, that our chief rival in the NL (now 4.5 games behind us) is going to have to play a dozen of its remaining 26 games against the three strongest teams in the league, 3 each against both Cincinnati and Washington as well as, of course, a half dozen games against us. Another four are against their Wild Card rivals, St Louis. If the Snakes' bullpen got a workout last weekend, what might this schedule do to the D----rs'?

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    1. Good point on the strength of remaining schedules being tougher for the Dodgers. The loss of Billingsley and Jansen is going to outweigh the addition of their big $$$ acquisitions in the end. Still, the Giants are going to have to keep on grinding out victories. They seem better equipped to do so than the Dodgers.

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    2. The tea leaves would seem to all be pointing to a Giants win in the NL West. I've been following this game long enough to know you can't always depend on the tea leaves. Still a long ways to go. The Dodgers have a lot of talent on that team. Personally, I'm still in one game at a time mode.

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  5. I have to give it up to Shankbone about Scutaro, wish we had him from the beginning, but I don't think we could have gotten him from Boston for Culberson. Don't matter, we got him now and hopefully can sign him to a Franchez type deal.

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    1. I've always liked Scooter and would have been happy for him to come to the Giants any time in his career. He is 37 yo though. Not sure even a 2 year deal is wise at this point.

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    2. A 2 year would be silly, but a stealth one year like Freddy kept getting wouldn't be the worst thing in the world. There are not many internal options, and the FA market is pretty grim. 1/6MM could work. BTW Jamey Carroll just ended his HR drought, speaking of scrappy MIs. The Twins have him for another year, he is even older than Scoots.

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    3. That's (two years) not what I was trying to say, but didn't get it out right, I had recalled Shankbone saying a one year deal at Franchez money. So it sounds like we are in agreement. And he seems to be enjoying playing with Sandoval.

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  6. why was yesterday star wars day?

    star wars came out on 5-25-77....not labor day

    bums grabbed us gymnastics team...second...but giants should have the inside on the woman's soccer team and hope solo as she went to u of wash...have timmy call her...time to fight fire with fire

    love how the added wc team has added more teams into the mix....not really

    do not like the 2-3 setup for lds...this is the same sort of setup that killed the giants in the past...although since the team has been playing better on the road, may help them if they do make post season

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    1. I have no idea why yesterday was Star Wars day, Bacci. I really don't care either. I never really got the Star Wars thing myself. To me, most of the movie was endless scenes of robots peeping and muttering in the desert. The fans really seemed to be getting into it, though. If it helps the Giants continue to sell out those seats, I'm all for it.

      I'm OK with the second WC. The way it's set up, it gives more teams a chance to contend for the post-season yet maintains a huge incentive to win the division.

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    2. BTW, I've never seen any of the Star Wars movies except the first. I hated it so much I never had any desire to see another one.

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    3. DocB, it was a Stars Wars kind of game. Back-n-fourth between the villains and the good guys. And the good guys won! Giants couldn't have scripted it any better.

      Posey = Luke Skywalker
      Brian Wilson = Chewbacca
      MadBum = Han Solo
      Tommy Lasorda = Jaba the Hut
      Amy G = Princess Lea
      Rags = Yoda

      Any ho, it was fun at the park.

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  7. I like Cain's statement from the other day. He stated "We are not trying to repeat, we are trying to win it." This Larry Krueger who did that rant about 3 years ago must be choking on crow. This cast of Caribbean gentlemen is pretty awesome. The Southern gentlemen are a public relations delight with skills.
    The '54 WS was something special because they beat one of the best teams ever in MLB, but that 2010 gang of misfits was truly a Van Gogh. I was more tense than the rice paddies of Nam. That 2010 win took about 50 years of stress of off my shoulders.
    If Sabean and Bochy pull this off this year, they can name their own price at whatever they want. This year is a scratch and claw bunch hitters with quite less a pitching staff than 2010. A very unlikely bunch of good guys going for the gusto. It will not be only pitching that carries the Giants this year.

    I am hoping the Reds have finished their peaking now. Momentum is such an important ingredient for WS winners. I can't ever remember a team limping into the WS and win it all.

    TBox

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