Saturday, September 4, 2010

Step one a little shaky

Chad Billingsley is a good pitcher. That's a fact. Getting beat by a good pitcher happens to all teams, not just slop-hacking also-rans. That doesn't take the sting out of last night's loss in the LAtrine, though. Barry Zito got himself in trouble, then worked his way out of trouble with strikeouts, only to bury himself and the team with 2-out, 2-RBI hits. The HR by Rod Barajas wasn't just more of that Rod Barajas Has Our Number stuff--it was a fat pitch over the plate that he was obviously looking for. I figured the Giants could scratch back the two runs, and they did with a clutch hit by Buster after some Dodger-esque dink ball. But the hit by Billingsley was an abomination, not just because he raked a fastball (a Zito fastball, not the other kind) on a two-strike count, and not just because it was a fat fastball (a Zito fastball, not the other kind), but because I thought our RF would catch it. I mean, the pitcher was up, the OF is playing in, it's just the kind of line drive that gets cut off in that situation. But our RF was Jose Guillen instead of Cody Ross or Nate Schierholtz and he lumbered over in his concrete galoshes and clanked it with his iron glove. Thus were the good guys doomed. Barry Zito needs to have a Tim-like resurrection soon, or he'll keep dooming us. And blown play at AT&T or no, I'd rather have Ross out there.

Mr. Consistency goes tonight. Let's hope he brings his A-game. GO GIANTS!

--M.C.

2 comments:

Brother Bob said...

Last night was the first time in a while I was free to sit down and watch a game from beginning to end. Yuck. Two lousy hits. The first pitch 2 RBI single by Posey was great, but after that, nothing.
I'm delighted to announce that I will be attending a Giants/Padres game at DogFood Park, Sunday Sept 12, with my daughter, son-in-law and grandson. They moved to SD a couple months ago.
I sincerely hope this will be a meaningful game. Of course if the Giants lose you will all blame me. That's okay, I'll blame myself also. Either way I'll have a grand time. The joy of attending baseball games in person always outweighs the reaction to the outcome of the game.

Anonymous said...

It's okay. We got Chad and Zeets out of the way. Things look up for today. Go Giants!