Friday, July 15, 2011

Huff the Magic Dragon

Just when all hope seemed lost--you know you've lost all hope when you beg each successive hitter from the 6th inning on to jack one--Aubrey Huff planted a Heath Bell pitch in the right field seats to tie the game. It was another crazy Giants moment in a season of crazy Giants moments. It got better in the 12th when the Giants loaded the bases off Luke Gregerson with no outs and quickly turned it into a more familiar bases-loaded two-out situation. I remember begging for a wild pitch at the time. Silly me, a four-pitch walk to Mike Fontenot was a much lower-risk, higher-probability event. The lads tacked on a few more as the Padres bullpen went into meltdown and the Giants had a big win to start the second half. The brown-clads managed to get the tying run up against Brian Wilson in the bottom of the inning, but that's just part of the script, nothing to get excited about. They also wasted a fine effort by Aaron Harang (Game Score 70), but Madison Bumgarner wasn't too shabby, either (Game Score 58). The Giants bullpen gave the team six innings of two-hit, one-run ball with two walks and five strikeouts, while the Padres hacked up six in their five innings of work on four hits, three walks, and a big error. The Giants game plan of wait until the other team screws up worked to perfection. If nine innings aren't enough, just keep playing. Eventually runs will be handed over. It's like camping out in the used-car lot until the salesman finally gets sick of you and gives you the damn junker. Who's complaining? It works. The Giants are 53-40 while the Padres are 40-53. So much for the evil 2010 San Diego mojo, although it looked like it was back in the first eight frames. Huff's blast was a gift from the gods--I keep wondering what they will demand down the road. The virgins have been sacrificed, the collection plates runneth over, the tithes have been tithed, and the fruit baskets are starting to smell. Oh, and Eli Whiteside got three hits.

--M.C.

3 comments:

Ron said...

So many things to comment on from last night's game. First, some unfinished business on my plan for Giants' domination:

- The whole thing is unlikely to happen any time soon, but it's nice to think about having the best right-handed & left-handed hitting Catchers in the game on your squad at the same time. It's like having Ted Simmons, but getting to bat him twice every time through the line-up.

- 'No Trade' clauses are broken all of the time, as relationships between Players & Teams change or as superstar Players get stuck on crappy Teams. However, I don't truly expect Mauer to want to leave the Twins any time soon.

- I would not trade Lincecum, Cain, or Bumgarner straight up for Mauer of as part of any package. That wasn't my proposal. My proposal was J. Sanchez, OF prospect (Brown?), & other dudes.

Now, to last night's absurd game, which, unlike most others, I watched from Pitch #1 to Pitch #598 (at least it seemed like that many):

- Does anyone else realize that Innings #1 through 11 took 3 hours to play, while the 12th Inning took an entire hour to play? I know, because, with a big day today at work, I really needed to get to sleep, but didn't want to miss the end of the game. That inning was excruciating. It was my last inning, end of game or not.

- Can you believe that, after watching Gregerson throw 8 consecutive balls to Ross & Crawford, both Tejada & Torres swung at the first pitch? What clowns. I really didn't expect that from Tejada - I was sure that he would look at one or two, then deliver a big hit. Torres is still a mess, so his AB didn't surprise me. When Fontenot took the first pitch, I thought 'now, there's some hope - he's going to make him throw a strike'. Of course, he never did, & Fontenot's reaction after Ball 4 was an 'uh-huh' little clap directed at the Giants' dugout.

- Two simultaneous facial expressions after the top of the 8th told a big story. Bumgarner left the dugout with a 'fuck you guys & your stinking lack of run support' look on his face, walking directly past Huff, who had a 'sorry, Madison, but I really, really suck' look on his face. The fact that, soon afterwards, Huff cranked one to tie the game gave me some hope that the exchange of facial expressions had had an impact.

It was a weird, wonderful win. Bumgarner, Ramirez, Romo, & Casilla were fantastic. The Panda is really seeing the ball. Crawford made several tremendous plays & that really helped.

M.C. O'Connor said...

Crawford makes it look easy. Tejada moves closer and closer to DFA every day.

I'm not worried about the Giants TRADING Lincecum, I'm worried about the Giants SIGNING him. I'd rather see $184M spent on Tim--not Joe. And why would the Twins trade Joe Mauer? Are they desperate?

Zo said...

Or, put another way, would YOU trade Joe Mauer for Sanchez and Brown and some other dude? No, then neither will the Twins. They do not get to be a good, but low budget team by making losing trades.