What a freaking game! Just when you think you know this Giants team through and through, a weird, out-of-the-blue, what the hell kind of day like this comes along.
After the second inning of this game, I was ready to give up on the Giants and was prepared to put another one in the L column. Down 4-0 to the freaking Reds, Lincecum wasn't looking very good, we couldn't score runs as usual, and bad breaks were seeming to haunt the Giants once again. Even after Bochy got ejected in the second inning after arguing that foul ball hit by the Reds pitcher (which ended up being a hit and cost Lincecum and the Giants two runs), I was thinking "Why is he doing that? Is he just trying to hit the showers early to avoid watching another crushing lose to a lousy Reds team?"
However, something was different about this Giants team tonight. After Uribe's homer, I had this strange lingering feeling the Giants had something in the tank that was going to prevent this from getting out of hand like the Matt Cain game against Cincy in San Francisco. In many ways, it was the kind of game Giants fans were used to seeing, only flip-flopped. In the past month, it was us striking first blood early and then getting content and losing the lead because our offense kind of just went in the tank thinking the game was done. That was the case tonight for the Reds, not the Giants. It was the Giants, not the opponent, that slowly chipped away and tied the game in the sixth. It was the Giants coming through with opportunistic hits off of the opponents closer, and not the other team mashing Wilson when the game was on the line.
To be perfectly honest, this was one of the most satisfying wins for the Giants this year. It was very atypical of Giants wins we have seen this year as Giants fans. Usually, it is the pitching holding the team together in a close one, or the Giants simply out powering the opposing team from the get-go.
But a comeback win? When down four runs? When Lincecum is pitching poorly? You think the Giants would have deflated and this game would have ended 8-0 or 9-1 in favor of the Reds.
Yet, the Giants beat the Reds 8-5 in extras. I still can't believe it myself. It really doesn't make much sense if you've watched this team all season.
On another note, I've been experience a very uncanny occurrence lately. The last couple of articles I have written for Bleacher Report have really had a "reverse jinx" effect on the Giants. On Sunday night, I published an article about how the Giants need the struggling Winn or Rowand to start improving so the Giants would have some stability in Centerfield. On Monday, Winn and Rowand both rake with a combined seven hits in the Giants' 10-1 win over the Mets.
Today, I published an article about how Ryan Garko has been a Trade Deadline bust so far for the Giants. What does he do today? He goes 2-for-5 with four RBI, and hits a double that ends up driving in the winning runs in the top of the 10th against Reds closer and All-Star Francisco Cordero.
After the game, I got this tweet from the Bleacher Report-Giants profile:
"Hey can you write a story on Molina being a bust? Hehehe just playin' :)"
Seriously, I'm thinking about it. This is bordering on supernatural in my opinion. The only problem is that I don't know who to reverse jinx next. Molina was bound to have an off day after hitting so well as of late, so I'd feel wrong trying to reverse jinx him since he really doesn't need it (after all, he got two walks today! That's probably as many as he had in the past three weeks combined).
Ummm...how about Barry Zito?
Here it goes:
Barry Zito gets no run support ever. He should sue the Giants offense for every outing he has for the rest of the year. How the Giants hit a Cy Young winner in Johan Santana, but can't score a measley run off a former reliever who's on a 75 pitch count is absolutely atrocious.
The television show "The Contender" has been more successful with television audiences than the Giants offense has in terms of giving Zito run support this season. I don't know. I just think that Zito is cursed and won't ever get more than three runs of support in a game this season, and perhaps for the remainder of his career in San Francisco. If Barry ever wants to think about getting a .500 record this year, he better pray St. Louis is stupid and designates Albert Pujols for assignment, because this Giants offense sure as heck isn't going to give him a decent enough amount of runs in a game he pitches.
Let's see how that one works.
Postgame box notes:
Winning pitcher: Bob Howry (1-5) 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 0 SO.
Losing pitcher: Francisco Cordero (1-3) 0.2 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 1 SO.
Giants standouts: Eugenio Velez, 2-for-5. Randy Winn, 2-for-4, 2B (29). Ryan Garko, 2-for-5, 2B (1), 4 RBI. Juan Uribe, HR (6). Fred Lewis, 2B (19).
Reds standouts: Laynce Nix, 2B (24). Joey Votto, HR (18). The First-Base Umpire, 2 RBI.
Probable starters for next game: Zito (8-11) vs. Arroyo (11-11).
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment