Lincecum Dominates and Burrell Plays Knight in Shining Armor...

Nothing like team work.

I was more than a little worried when the game started today because Lincecum gave up a home run on the second pitch to the first batter he saw. However, it's no doubt that he warmed up quickly. Though the Diamondbacks managed to score 1 in the first, Lincecum managed to keep them there until the fourth, when our offense decided to kick in. 

Aubrey Huff singled, and Buster Posey drew a walk. It's always like that, if Huff's got flow, Posey's got flow. Pat Burrell comes up to bat, and he hits a home run to score himself, Huff and Posey, giving the Giants a two run lead. (3-1 Giants)

Andres Torres also played tonight's game. He had a hit, and he even stole a base. He also played a phenomenal outfield as always, making catches like nobody else can.  I have to keep reminding myself that he just recovered from surgery.

Pablo Sandoval also seems to be getting back in the groove, and gaining some patience.

Maybe he spent some time meditating in the outfield with Barry Zito.

While Pat Burrell is obviously a hero tonight for Giants fans, I'd say that Lincecum is the man of the hour. Originally, Lincecum was slated to pitch tomorrow and Bumgarner tonight, but instead they flip-flopped and Bumgarner will be pitching tomorrows day game. Unfortunately, I'll be missing that day game due to school. I'll sneak a couple peaks at the scoreboard during passing periods for sure. Lincecum struck out 11 batters throughout the 7 innings he pitched. He took a little to warm-up, but all in all, it was an excellent night for the two time Cy-Young award winner. 

Seeing solid pitching is always a good thing, especially during this time of year. 

It's necessary to have a solid pitcher on the mound, and Lincecum no doubt demonstrated his ability to dominate tonight. 

Bochy went out to have a talk with him the 7, fearing that his ace was getting tired. After a brief discussion on the mound, Bochy returned to the dugout without Lincecum, and the crowd cheered. Bochy's decision to let Lincecum finish the inning was a good one because he struck out the batter he was facing, earning his 11th strike-out of the night. 

Speaking of decisions by Bochy...it's a wonder to me why Scheirholtz is in right field again. He's not a favorite of mine. Seeing him do a pinch hit or two is always good, though in terms of pinch hitting he is, in my opinion, second to Travis Ishikawa. Also, we have Cody Ross who also plays right field. I'm not saying this because I'm biased, but because Cody Ross has been a hot hitter. While we're talking about hot hitters, where in the world is Freddy Sanchez? It's the second night we've seen Fontenot out there. I wonder if they're just resting him for the Padres series.

We had to fight tonight, and frankly, I think it's good for the team. We're still scoring on home runs though -- AGAIN.

I'm just worried about how that would turn out for us if we make it to the post season.

Wilson tonight earned his 47 save of the season.

I think the Giants are indeed taking it "one game at a time."  

(thanks my former-marlin-giants-outfielder-best-friend)

It's a good motto to be playing by right now,

we need to be able to focus on the game we're playing now.

Not the game yesterday, or the game tomorrow, or post season.

What happens NOW is infinitely more important than all that, and I think the Giants are finally understanding that, thank goodness.

2010 Red Sox and Mike Lowell

When I think about the 2010 Red Sox season, I think about half the roster on the disabled list. Then I think of Terry Francona trying to make a play-off team out of players there were...for lack of better wording, very fragile. 

2010 wasn't the best year for Boston baseball, but like any good Red Sox fan would say,

"There's always next year."

We'll give the boys the winter and whatever's left of fall to piece it back together.

Despite the frequent visits to the doctor's office, we had some pretty great moments this year. Before Pedroia's foot got smashed in San Francisco, he hit 3 home-runs in a 5-hour game against the Colorado Rockies JUST SO we could walk away with the win.

Clay Buchholz will be coming out of this season with one of the lowest earned run averages in all of Major League Baseball.

Jon Lester, my hero will likely find himself (like he has a majority of this season) on the list for most strike-outs in all of MLB.

And who can forget about my favorite fighter rookie who hit a grand-slam on his first Major League at-bat, Daniel Nava (other hero)? 

Today, Josh Beckett will pitch for the last time in the 2010 season. The worst part about this time of year is that there are so many, "lasts."

Speaking of lasts,I realized today, that this is the last week that Mike Lowell will play for the Red Sox, as he is retiring at the end of this season. I realized this in the middle of math class as I looked out the window out at the midsummer-esque weather and thought about summer. Summer makes me think of baseball, and then I thought about Boston, and Fenway, and it hit me that Lowell wasn't going to be back next season.

Lowell will take the field as a Red Sock (...) and a major league ballplayer for the last time this Sunday at Fenway park.

Lowell came to the Red Sox from the Florida Marlins, sort of a package deal with pitcher Josh Beckett. In 2007.

The 2007 season turned out to be one of Lowell's best, in which he set career bests in hits, RBI, batting average, OPS, and played a key role in helping the Red Sox win their second World Series in four years. One of the early highlights of the season came on April 22 when Lowell was one of the four Red Sox players to hit consecutive home runs against the Yankees. During the first half, Lowell hit .300 and led the team with 14 home runs (tied with David Ortiz) and 63 RBI. This performance helped earn him a spot on the 2007 American League All-Star Team as a reserve player voted in on the player's ballot. 

- lowell's wiki bio



Each player has an influence on their team of course, but also on the fans, and the ball park in which they play in. Each player leaves there mark on the fans. The Red Sox will honor Lowell on October 2, 2010 in Boston. Fenway will never be the same again, it's never the same when a player walks off that field for good.  

There's nothing really left to say except for,

Mike Lowell, you will be missed. 

Wild National League West.

If I could live in anytime, I would definitely go and live in the wild west. How cool would that be? Shoot outs in saloons, cowboy hats, rodeo shows...

It was probably not as cool as it is on TV,

nothing is as it is portrayed on television. Things are tampered with, bleeped out, edited. There are retakes...oh and of course, 99% of that stuff is pure fiction, or at least a fiction alloy.

The television, however, can not hide a bad start by pitcher Jonathan Sanchez.

I turned on the television, and he walks the first batter.

Great.

Following that, I turned it off.

He started on the wrong foot, but you know, I wasn't ready to pray that Bochy start warming up the bullpen just yet, after all it was the top of the first. 

Sanchez has been a pretty solid pitcher; now is NOT the time to start playing games.

I know that they're playing through a heat wave.

Yup, amidst the end of September, the 90 degree weather in the usual cool and foggy San Francisco.

But it's not an excuse to let them score in the 2nd inning. I can't say that it's all bad news, considering the fact that as long as I'm doing my elementary school math correctly, we still have 7 innings left. After a long road trip, I hope that our offense isn't sleeping-in, because believe me, this isn't the time to be hitting the snooze button repeatedly.

With Torres back in, my unofficial right hand man (not Zito), Ross, is not in tonight. Can't honestly say I'm not happy to see Torres back in again though. The dude needs to take it slow.

Luckily, we are getting men on base...

Un-luckily? Unfortunately, we aren't getting those men home, which logically means that no runs are scored for us. Boo-hoo.

More unfortunately, the Diamondbacks are playing just fine, homering off Sanchez in the third.

Now would be a great time to call up the bullpen. Again, it's only the 3rd, we have 6 innings to come back. Maybe we're so used to be in nurtured in a fog cloud of mild weather that the heat is screwing with our brains. The Diamondbacks on the other hand, are after all, from Arizona, so this heat, it's not even making them sweat.

Speaking of Torres, he hit a triple out to right field in the 4th, and was knocked in one pitch later by Mike Fontenot. It's good news that we're no longer depending on only on home runs to score. Especially on a night like this, with minimal wind. However, it's not that home runs are bad. Juan Uribe tied the game at 2 in the bottom of the 4th inning with a solo shot. It'd be a lie to say that home runs are bad.

Looks like we're getting used to the heat.

This whole summer was sans the heat. A cloud basically smothered the city, and save for a few warm days here and there, the Giants played in the fog.

We HAVE to be getting used to the heat because we're HAWT. I'm not a huge Schierholtz fan. I like seeing him up at the plate every once in awhile for a pinch hit or two. Today was good for example, since he knocked in the tie-breaking run (Sandoval coming home to score.) You know what I want to see? I want to see Cody Ross...I know his specialty is center field, but he's slightly flexible right? By slightly flexible I mean, he isn't Aaron Rowand. I mean, Guillen isn't being all that productive, so we should just put Cody in, but I might be a little biased.

I guess in the end, it doesn't matter so long as we won, which we did 4-2. It wasn't really an easy win.

While everyone else is busy clinching their divisions, the situation in the NL West is a little more complicated

It's a tight race and each win and each loss has an unbelievable magnitude in the standings.

All in all, it's good to have a win the first night back here at home...during a heat wave. It was good to see the lights at the park come on again and swarms of orange and black getting on BART. It's almost a relief.

It's maybe a little bit of a sad day today because the Red Sox are officially done. Even though I saw it coming, it still hurts a little bit. They had a good run, and I think it'd be GREAT for them to get some rest and heal those wounds; battle scars. I am no doubt excited for the first Red Sox pitch next April, and I will be so happy once spring training starts.

For now, I've turned my attention to my home team, the Giants. With five games left, things are looking up. They'll finish the season through the heatwave. Personally, I like to think that they're return into San Francisco caused it.
The weatherman would likely disagree, unless he was a Giants fan too.

Last Away Game of the Season and Bobby Thompson

One day in the clubhouse, someone must have said,

"Hey let's make it so that this last game on the road a memorable one."

Even a psychic couldn't have called this one. The Rockies were hitless up until the 8th inning when Payton hit one down the middle and Uribe had trouble getting the ball out of his glove. Thus, Payton singled, ending the Cain's no-hitter. Earlier in the game, there were men on base, one on a walk and one on an error, but that was it. Cain allowed just 3 hits. In the bottom of the 9th, the Giants were leading 4-2. Cain gave up one home-run to Mora in the bottom of the 8th. Matt Cain allows one hit in the 9th, but ends his complete game on high note, a strike out. The Giants taking the last of the series.

After the offense had a sleepy series with the Brewers, it looks like they're back on their feet. The offense hasn't missed a beat. However, we are still scoring on home runs.

Like I said yesterday though, we are improving. Today Pat Burrell scored Aubrey Huff on a sacrifice fly. The game began with pitcher De La Rosa issuing a walk to lead-off man (and my best friend, he just doesn't know it yet), Cody Ross. Speaking of Ross, he's been having a very good several games and has been a key asset on the road. Must be something to do with the high altitude or something. He hit his first homer as a Giant against the Cubs during our crazy rally game that ended 13-0. He also hit one yesterday, and a solo shot today.

I think I figured it out. I'm mad at the Marlins' management for just handing Ross over like it's nothing. I have my own little fanbase for him, and my friend who's a Marlins' fan, she was talking about how they chant "CO-DY, CO-DY," and I think I just might have to carry that tradition across the country. He's like my adopted Giants' best friend. Whatever the reason, he's been great for the team, great to have, and he seems to be taking things quite positively.
In short, I hope he just keeps doing what he's doing.
I'll bet they miss him like hell in Florida.
But here in San Francisco, he's got me.
Cody, dude;
I love you, man.

Back on track, Freddy Sanchez also homered today. He isn't particularly known for sending balls into the stands, but hey, he's been doing a lot of that recently. Anyway, Freddy homered in the 1st to score himself and Ross. If anybody deserves a fielding award it's Freddy. It's unarguable. In fact, it's so unarguable that I'm not going to even argue it. It's just a fact. Freddy Sanchez deserves a fielding award.

Speaking of awards, Aubrey Huff had better walk away with that team MVP.
That man has carried us through this season. He's been a hot hitter, and great fielder. He is the team's mother fucking linchpin I swear. I know Buster Posey is a contender, I love Buster Posey, but I think he should get the rookie of the year award, not team MVP.

That pretty much sums up the game. Short and sweet, Matt Cain dominating as usual, and our offense backing him up. I like the way things are looking. The Giants are in first for wild-card right now, after the Braves lost to the Nationals, and if the Reds can hold on to their 4 run lead against the Padres, we'll be up for first again.

It's a tight race here in the NL West.

Here in San Francisco and the Bay Area world of sports, there's a lot going on. The hockey pre-season on it's way and the Sharks trying to find the dynamic they had last year sans their goalie. The Chronicle is reporting that Alex Smith was just rated 11th smartest quarter back (that rating got lost on it's way to the Sunday funny pages).

But it's basically October, and this is the time of year that baseball fans love the most. With Halloween approaching somewhat soon, everything is turning orange and black anyway. The weather here in the bay is sporadic, it feels more like mid-summer, but it's a delusion that the players can't be fooled by. There are high hopes for the post-season and fans can not wait to have their team back in town after their 6 game road trip.

For me, this is the most amazing part of the season, where every play, every pitch, every run, every base steal, every pop fly, ever catch made, ground out, -- everything counts for something bigger. Concentrating in school is become almost secondary (this is where I'm thankful that baseball season does not last all year). Everything that happens in October is second to baseball.

The ballpark in San Francisco has been dormant for about six days, but it will no doubt come alive again as the Giants start their last six home games against the visiting Arizona Diamondbacks and the San Diego Padres. Whatever happens, this is going to be one helluva week.

There's nothing much left to say about the rest of the regular season. We're out there obviously playing well and playing hard. We know how to play like a championship team all we gotta do is, well, do it. It's so much easier said than done.

In times like these, I like to think that we have what it takes to repeat Bobby Thompson, Ralph Branca and the "Shot Heard 'Round the World." I wish I could have been alive to see it all play out. That moment will never die. Russ Hodges' radio call will never be forgotten.

"There's a long drive... it's gonna be, I believe...THE GIANTS WIN THE PENNANT!! THE GIANTS WIN THE PENNANT! THE GIANTS WIN THE PENNANT! THE GIANTS WIN THE PENNANT! Bobby Thomson hits into the lower deck of the left-field stands! The Giants win the pennant and they're goin' crazy, they're goin' crazy! HEEEY-OH!!!'' 

 - Russ Hodges, Oct. 3, 1951

I like to think that we can do something like that again.
Maybe 2010 will be our year.

It's hard to believe that it's already fucking October, but here we are. Six home games left to play and the post-season just looming in front of us, but it's so far from over.

With that said, and Bobby Thompson, Ralph Branca, and Russ Hodges' on our minds,

I just want to say,

Welcome home, Giants.

A Conversation on the Rockies Game.

Sorry, I'm well aware I just posted 3 different posts in one day.

Anyway, post game commentary:



just to clear things up, when i refer to throwing in Gillaspie, i meant at third base.

Kudos to the Rockies for the Fight

Good news or bad new first?

Since it's classic to give the bad news first, I'm going to pretend to be a non-conformist and go with the good news first. Truth is, the bad news is just a little too depressing to start with.

Good news is that our offense is very much alive, as today's game against the Rockies proved. We even scored two runs on a non-home run. Yes, it's true, we did, but the rest of the runs we scored depended on our boys playing long ball. Freddy Sanchez homered in the first to put us on the board, but the Rockies came back with two runs quickly against lefty Barry Zito. The Giants then put two more runs on the bored on two solo homers. One by Andres Torres who just recovered from an appendectomy (he didn't play the whole game today), and one from Aubrey Huff who has been struggling on the road.

Pat Burrell singles, and this is one of the runs we scored on a non-homer.

The Rockies topped us again (they seemed to be one step ahead of us) before we pulled Barry Zito out and threw in Chris Ray from the bullpen. Tulowitzki homered after Gonzalez tripled, making the score 4-5. Don't worry, I'm still talking good news here, but Tulowitzki would come back later to haunt us.

So after the Rockies score some more (4-6 Colorado) we got some men on base. Travis Ishikawa comes up to hit and he singles to score Uribe. This is the other non-homer run.

The next homer by Cody Ross (whom by the way I was cheering for in the kitchen while doing something like the can-can) scored Fontenot and Ishikawa, giving us a big boost...which we evidently couldn't hold on to. We scored one more before Colorado went off on us, but it wasn't a very exciting run scored...Freddy came home on a wild pitch by Dotel. 9-6 Giants, but we still couldn't hang on to that 3 run lead.

The Rockies must really want in on the post-season.

Anyway, that ends the good news.

Three solo shots, and a three run homer by Ross shows that our offense isn't dead yet, even if it is Barry Zito out there on the mound.

Okay the bad news.

So we lost.

Brian Wilson who really barely ever blows saves, blew it. He gave up a double to Tuloswitzki who I said would come back to haunt us, but that's not EVEN that last we'll see of him. Anyway, his double ties the score. We go into extra innings, but just one. In the 10th, Tulowitzki doubles again to score Gonzalez and we lost 9-10 Colorado.

Oh wait, some more good news.

Despite us being 0.5 games behind San Diego, we are tied with Atlanta for wild card.

Even though we lost today's game, it was reassuring to know that we can hit those balls. We can score runs, and we can score runs even when were behind, or when we're ahead. The Rockies were just better tonight. Tomorrow we'll pull it together and do it all over again. No biggie.

Matt Cain will pitch against De La Rosa.

We'll let his pitching do the talking, and we'll also let our offense speak for itself.

Hopefully, our offense will have our backs.

(Ross, Freddy, Huff, Uribe, Torres, Burrell, Ishikawa........just to name a few).

We can't be dependent on the Reds to beat the Padres or the Braves to lose.

We're back to hangin' in there.

But we're hangin' in there with Matt Cain pitching tomorrow and an offense that wants to fight, so it's a good kind of hanging in there.

A quotation of inspiration from the most genius poet of all time

(when you can't find words that rhyme, make 'em up):

I have heard there are troubles of more than one kind.
Some come from ahead and some come from behind.
But I've bought a big bat.  I'm all ready you see.
Now my troubles are going to have troubles with me!
 -- Dr. Seuss

Red Sox and Giants Notes

I didn't have a spiffy title, so...

So I have this odd tradition of wearing all Red Sox gear for each of the days that the Red Sox play the Yankees. However, I also promised myself I'd be wearing something Giants oriented every day up until the post season. Dilemma much? I think yes. 

So decidedly, I drew the SF sign on my hand and wore a Red Sox shirt to school. Now at home I'm all dressed up in my awesome onfield jacket that makes me match with the coachs'  =D

Anyway, on to more important stuff.

A brief overview of the weekend. The Giants will play the Rockies who are trailing 3.5 games behind the Padres for the NL West. However, they are games and games and games away from being a eliminated. Since Tim Lincecum pitched today against Colorado's Chacin, we will see Barry Zito tomorrow, and Matt Cain the day after. Luckily for us, the Rox aren't so hot right now plus we won't be seeing Ubaldo Jiminez. What a relief.

The Red Sox are not seeing the last of the Yankees. Tonight Boston played in New York. Josh Beckett pitched for the Red Sox against New Yorks' Pettitte. There are SO many 'T's' in his name. Since Beckett pitched today, lefty Jon Lester will pitch tomorrow against someone named Nova. Haha, we have a Nava. Baseball players have such similar names sometimes. Anyway, he's 1-0 and I've never heard of him in my life, so I can't really have an opinion there.

Alright, I'll start with the Red Sox game.
It's always good to score in the first inning, you know, get that early lead on them, the head start. Lowrie homered out to left field to score Ortiz and Lowell to start the game. A step in the right direction. Lowrie's been doing well anyway, a very valuable asset to the team. Granderson returns the aggression from the other side in the third, sending a solo homer off of a pitch by Josh Beckett. I feel like this would frustrate Beckett as he doesn't giving up homers and runs in general...but so early on...?
BUT LIFE GOES ON.

The score at 3-1, Boston just doesn't like the way that looks. With Lowell, Ortiz and Lowrie on base...not exactly in that order, Darnell McDonald decides he's gonna do something about that score, so he doubles making the score 5-1. It occurred to me today that Boston tends to take the first game of series against the Yankees -- or at least it's been that way this year. As I recall, Josh Beckett threw the first game of the season, which was against the Yankees and we won that game...but the Yankees took the remainder of the games. 'Course...when Beckett was on that slippery Yankees mound in, what, June? June 3rd...I only remember because it's a month after my birthday; he slipped, fell and uh, his playing sort of stopped for a long time.
BUT HEY. LIFE GOES ON (AGAIN).

speaking of birthdays, check out this almost totally unrelated picture of some cake:

Buchholz and Lester went on to basically be co-aces this season, there is no doubt however, that if I were to pick an ace it'd be Lester, even though he's the one with the higher E.R.A and such, he is third with strike outs in all of MLB, usually one or two behind or ahead of San Francisco's Tim Lincecum. Yay Timmy and Jonny. I just feel like Lester has more dominance, more of an ability to command.

In terms of the game last night, it was good that we had something of a 9 run lead before they started scoring on us, because by the end, the Yankees offense also stepped it up. Luckily, with that lead, we were able to make it out of that game with a 10-8 score.

Most of the Giants game was scoreless.
The Rockies did end up scoring however, to make the score 1-0. At this point I was a little nervous, thinking that our offense was playing dead again. Luckily for us, Pat Burrell sent a two run shot out into the bleachers late in the game to save our asses. Burrell seemed to be in a slump recently. Awhile back, he was hitting a ton of late game saves, which seem to be his specialty. Does this mean his slump is over? Who knows, I'm just glad we managed to get that late come back. The Reds were ahead of the Padres for a bit last night, at least when the Giants game ended they were. Unfortunately for Giants fans, the Padres managed to come back and steal the win.

The good news is that Andres Torres is back. Yes, after something along the lines of an exploded appendix, he made a speedy recovery and is slated to play today, 9/25 against the Rockies in the lead off position. Right back to the way things where. I'd say that our offense is doing alright, but with Andres Torres is back, I feel like he'll ignite the batting line up, and uh, for lack of better wording, we'll be on fire.
Barry Zito will be pitching today. He did win his last start against the Brewers. He pitched well before that too, but the offense was lacking support. This evening he will pitch against Hammel, who isn't doing as well as he normally is. The best we can hope for is that the team steps the offense up (something like the game against the Cubs would be spectacular...but you know, if not, I'll be okay) and Zito continues to assert his dominance.

I pointed out in another post that the Giants are favoring scoring on home runs, at least recently they have. It's been better recently, the Cubs game for example, but still, a lot of those runs came on homers. Let me do the math (*takes out calculator*) Uribe scored 2 on his first home run, then he homered again in that same inning to score 4, totaling up to 6. Then Posey homered, make that 7, and Cody Ross also wanted to play long ball, so that's 8. 8/13 runs were scored on home runs.

The problem we had when we faced the Cubs at home a long time ago (my time is all over the place) was that we couldn't get our runners home. We could have runners on first, or in scoring position, or even have the bases loaded, we just couldn't get those runners home. For now, I don't see a problem with scoring pretty much on home runs, but if we do make it into the post-season, I'm not sure that would work so well for us.

With Torres back in the line up, Cody Ross will be sitting on the bench and Guillen and Burrell will play the other outfield positions. By the way, the Rangers have also clinched there division.


ALRIGHT.
RED SOX.

HELLO OFFENSE!
It's really, really good to see you.
Two games straight against the Yankees, the offense has been phenomenal. I'm not saying it never happens, it's just impressive.
Just like they did yesterday, Boston got a lead early on, giving Lester a bit of support before he started pitching. Speaking of Jon Lester, let's just say he gave up a grand total of 2 hits, 0 runs and issued just 3 walks throughout the innings he pitched. I mean, Lester no-hit the Yanks for five frames, what a beast.  Lester, like I said, has been a savior this year (like Brian Wilson's been the Giants savior this year), especially as we saw the Red Sox each go limping to the doctor's office. Yes, call the doctor and break out the bandages. Luckily, much of our line up is back, Josh Beckett, Varitek, Martinez, etc, etc. Ellsbury was back for a little while, but then he apparently fell on the same place he was injured...so he's now back chillin' out in the dugout with Youkilis and his thumb injury and Pedroia and his foot. Lester managed to stay healthy, Buchholz as well (save for an injury during the all-star game). Dice-K was out for a little bit with a forearm strain and I was already thinking to myself, "here we go again."

(Giants update, Freddy hits a homer in the first off Hammel, 1-0 Giants after Torres grounds out. Aubrey Huff singled and goes to second on a wild pitch, and on a throwing error that sailed over the head of the Rockies' second baseman advanced to third.)

Luckily for our bullpen, we had a lot of runs to cushion them with. We saw Daniel Bard and Hideki Okajima today. A rather solid pitching job by both of them, though they did allow 3 hits, but those three hits just weren't enough for the Yankees to close the gap. With that said, the Red Sox are now just one game away from sweeping their rivals in New York.

Mathematically speaking, the Red Sox are still in the race. In the American League East, the Red Sox, the Yankees and the Rays. In order for us to see the Red Sox in the post-season, the Yankees pretty much have to lose every game they play, the Rays have to lose every game they play, and the Red Sox have to win every game they play.
 But hey, who am I to say that it can't happen?

As-it-Happens Summary and Notes on the 9/24 Giants Game.

As I type this is what's hapenning: 

Two seconds ago, Uribe lost the ball, but still managed to throw out Castro at 3rd. Tonight, we have both Freddy and Fontenot. Fontenot playing out at 3rd instead of the usual Sandoval. Madison Bumgarner is on the mound for the Giants.

Tonight's line up:

as you can see, I might be getting just a little bit lazy.

This as-it-happens talk is quite difficult. Jose Guillen came up to bat and was hit by a pitch landing him at third. Juan Uribe, originally 0-2 count managed to hit one out of the park scoring himself and Guillen giving the Giants a 3-run lead in the 2nd inning.

Cody Ross struck out, with one down. Bumgarner came up to bat, the ivy wall at Wrigley field just barely preventing Bumgarner from getting a home run. Fukudome, having a very strong arm threw the ball straight to second, holding the pitcher at first base.

Okay.

Talk about a fast paced game, PAUSE, let me breathe.

Alright. I'm alright.

Fontenot doubles into deep left field sending Bumgarner to third base.

Freddy Sanchez hits a ball out to right field, sending Bumgarner home. Score:

Aubrey Huff was caught looking, 2 outs, and Buster Posey came out to bat. Posey gains himself an RBI as the ball that he hit brushed the glove of Castro and Fontenot came home and Freddy Sanchez went to 3rd. During Burrell's at-bat, Dempster throws a wild-pitch and Sanchez comes home on that wild pitch.

Burrell walks and Guillen gets hit by a pitch -- again.

The bases are loaded again as the Cubs, in the second inning, put in a new pitcher, Thomas Diamond. Uribe gets ANOTHER at bat in the 2nd inning.

This has been a CRAZY 2nd inning.

It's odd because I remember seeing Dempster pitch for the Cubs when they were in San Francisco. When the Cubs were in town

URIBE HITS ANOTHER HOMER A GRAND SLAM. HOLY SHIT. HOLY SHIT. 6 RBI's in ONE INNING. TWO HOME RUNS IN ONE INNING HOLY CRAP.

SOMEONE PINCH ME

Ross singles, and Bumgarner singles.

The inning ends FINALLY as Fontenot flies out, leaving two men stranded.

Breathe time.

Alright. Time to reflect on one of the most EPIC innings every played by the San Francisco Giants. They sent home 9 runs. Alright, quite honestly I didn't turn on the game hoping for much. I was a little nervous after last nights loss and our sleepy offense, but OBVIOUSLY, our offense woke up, and apparently, our defense has too. Both Guillen and Ross made some nice catches out in the ivy today. My faith in Uribe was something like...none. Tonight's line up was rather surprising to me, but not in a bad way. I just saw that it was a bit unusual, Bochy changing things up a little. I'm okay with that...considering I like to see both Fontenot and Freddy in the line-up. Unfortunately, Huff isn't 100% today, as it seems that his leg is bruised.

WELL HELLO THERE BUSTER POSEY...

HOME RUN IN THE 3rd?! YES!

Soriano basically just said...I'm not even gonna bother with that one.

Due to a hefty amount of reading I had to do for econ (yay price ceilings), I didn't actually turn on the game until pretty late. Fukudome had hit his home run centuries ago, and Chris Ray was pitching. Speaking of our bullpen, I'm pleasantly surprised that I no longer have to close my eyes every time Bochy calls upon the bullpen. There was a short while, the month of August when the bullpen was not dependable. Unfortunately, neither was our pitching rotation in August. In short, when we needed to turn to the bullpen early on in the game, they essentially weren't there to support us; our back up, couldn't back us up. We gave out runs like Santa gives out presents.

Thank goodness both our bullpen and our pitching rotation are back on their feet. Bumgarner tonight is pitching phenomenally. As I write this, he's busy striking out two Cubs in a row. Huff sits, and they will send Travis Ishikawa out to play first. While I'm a HUGE Aubrey Huff fan, I think that sitting him would be a good idea. Just for tonight though. It's hard to say I've seen the Giants play like this EVER; not on the road and not at home. This is more than the team just 'hanging in there,' this is a game that basically SCREAMS "DON'T FUCK WITH US."

I'm still not comfortable with the consistency.

All teams "have their days," but I feel like the Giants are beyond that...it's more like...spazz. We'll do really, really well...then we'll just die out, flat. Not that I'm saying anything, knock on wood.

Top of the 5th right now, Travis Ishikawa batting with Freddy Sanchez out at 2nd with a ball that just got lost in the ivy. Ishikawa walks. While he isn't a considerably solid starter, I do like seeing him in the line-up every once in awhile. He is a very good pinch-hitter, and when Aubrey Huff needs an off day (a serious off day, not a 'let's put Huff out in right field' day), Ishikawa fits nicely right into the line up. He seems to take a lot of pitches, has a good eye for sure. Rowand is also in the game, replacing Pat Burrell. Rowand hasn't been in the starting line up for quite awhile now. Since Rowand is...coughpickycough, he moved out to play center field, sending Ross to left field. Nate Schierholtz also in to replace Jose Guillen in right field. Basically, we replaced our outfield except for Cody Ross.

I never really had an opinion on Nate Schierholtz...or Jonathan Sanchez, but that's not the point. I see why he isn't in the starting line up, but there's no doubt that he makes a good pinch-hitter and his defense isn't bad either. The last time I talked about Schierholtz was probably the game against the Diamondbacks in Arizona that was scoreless until the 11th inning when Schierholtz tripled to knock in the tie-breaking run. At that moment, I'm pretty sure he was my best friend.

Update:

(my best friend whom I cheer obscenely loud for,)

Cody Ross hits an out of the park homer, his first as a Giant.

That's weird, individually are they Giants...I mean..."a Giant?" It's like the Red Sox. Individually are they...'a Red Sock?' So confusing. Yankees is an easy one. Yankees...a Yankee...Cubs, a cub, Marlins, Marlin...

ANYWAY,

Eli Whiteside comes in to play catcher in place of Buster Posey. Buster Posey gets the rest of the night off...a real night off, not playing at first. Bumgarner is still pitching well, putting away a usually threatening part of the line up (not so threatening tonight) away, 1-2-3.

The Padres game has not started yet, but just like this is a crucial game for the Giants, the Padres will play a crucial game tonight -- the fight for NL Division continues. Freddy takes a break, replaced by Burriss who comes out usually as a pinch runner. We need pinch runners out there since Torres is out. Ford is also a good pinch runner and I expect that we will be seeing more of him in the last several games of the season -- at least until before Torres is back. The Giants are warming up the bullpen, it is currently the 7th inning.  Our defense may be spacing out a little bit, coughFontenotcough, and the umps might be spacing out a little bit too.

Well, I just learned that no 'Giant' has been hit by a pitch twice in the same inning, well isn't that a fun fact.

Well, well. I stepped away for a little while and missed hit number 19 of the game. Pablo Sandoval pinch hitting for Juan Uribe gets an RBI by lining a ball out over the head of the 2nd baseman and sending Eli Whiteside home.

Valez comes in to pinch hit for Madison Bumgarner, with Schierholtz on third and Ross at first. Schierholtz could be considered an asset of speed for the team, but he's not Jacoby Ellsbury, so he's not likely to steal home anytime soon, though that would be some crazy game. Anyway, Mota will come out to replace Bumgarner in the end of the 8th as Valez grounds out leaving 2 men stranded. I mentioned the bullpen being more reliable these days. We'll let their pitching do the talking.

Some more defensive changes. Valez taking Cody Ross' place in left field. Sandoval also remains in the game to play third. Basically, they just changed everyone except for Fontenot. Though he's no longer play 3rd, and instead moved to shortstop.

I'd really love for this game to be a shut out, since the Cubs shut us out last night 2-0.

We can shut them out 13-0...taking some SERIOUS revenge.

Dan Runzler comes out from the bullpen to replace Mota. The last time I saw Dan Runzler play he did a backwards somersault (unintentionally of course) and then required knee surgery.

The Padres and the Dodgers are warming up to play their game. As a Giants fan, I am forbidden to say anything that sounds like "Go Dodgers," unless I'm quoting someone. In this case however, I won't be saying the actual words, but I'll just say...I hope the Padres lose and something along the lines of, but not, "go Dodgers." For the record, I'll never say those words ever again, or type them or anything. I swear.

this is when fans feel like a part of something bigger.

With a strike out from Dan Runzler to Micah Hoffpauir the Giants end on helluva game the final score, 13-0.

this is how the Giants get revenge on the Cubs for shutting us out last night.

Like I've previously said, in tonight's game there was certainly some history making, but it doesn't stop here -- tonight was only the beginning.

4 quotes from ball players and such to guide us through the rest of the season.

With only...13 games to go in the season, the Giants and their fans need some inspiration. While I could start talking a lot of mushy encouragement and , "I believe in you talk," I'm going to let the players speak for themselves. Then maybe I'll throw in a word or two and some words from someone who did something great a long time ago and felt the need to say something great about it. 

before I get started, brief note on tonight's game:

There was about a 1 hour rain delay out in Chicago today. The weather was a little shaky, but luckily in the end we weren't rained out. For the most part, the wind had calmed down during the game, preventing a few well hit balls in the first several innings (one by Soriano in the 2nd caught just barely by Jose Guillen and one by Huff in the 3rd caught by Byrd out in center) from sailing right into the stands.

The Giants lead-off Cody Ross had pitcher Cashner working hard early on. In the 2nd the Giants got a rally going, loading the bases. After one out, Burrell walked, then Guillen got the second out on a foul tip. Sandoval singled, and Uribe singled right after loading the bases with 2-down. I originally expected Burrell to come home after Uribe's single, but the ball went right to Fukudome. Fukudome is known for having a somewhat crazy throw, so Burrell (who isn't a speed demon anyway) chilled out at third. It was a bad time for a rally anyway seeing as Matt Cain was next up at-bat with two outs. Despite being a phenomenal pitcher...he managed to end the inning, stranding three men on base.

Speaking of Matt Cain, he pitched very well tonight as expected. He has good numbers against the Cubs anyway.  The game was for the most part 0-0 and it was Buster Posey who homered to end the scoreless game. Brain Wilson secured the save -- his 44th of the season.

Onward!

Quotation #3

"You've got to ride the highs as long as you can. The lows, they come every now and then, so we've just got to keep going."

- Giants' first baseman, Aubrey Huff

What's there to say? Huff is just an eloquent first baseman. Savor the winning streaks, ride the tube (if you know any surf terminology). We've seen some lows for the Giants...the pitching staff in August is a wonderful example, but we got through it didn't we? I mean, our pitching staff is solid now and they've been a huge part in helping us snag first place from the Padres.

Quotation # 2:

"...Keep battling all the way down to the end. If you're down 7-0 or 1-0, just keep going, and this team has a lot of character, a lot of fight in them."

- Giants' first baseman, Aubrey Huff

Yet another few words from Aubrey Huff worth quoting. Though recently I indirectly called the Giants wimps out of anger, I can't say that in the end they don't have what it takes. All teams are going to struggle and sometimes the "baseball gods" just aren't in your favor. Maybe the team is just incredibly unlucky, or the wind hates them, or things just weren't going their way. It takes character to fight. It takes a lot of it to keep playing like you mean it even if it's the bottom of the 9th and you're down 17 runs.  It takes even more character to come back the next day and play your hardest again. If the players don't give up, the fans don't give up, and maybe, I don't know, but maybe, it work the other way around, too. 

I'm starting to believe that the Giants can fight, and they can fight hard. I've seen them make some incredible come backs; I've seen them decide that losing isn't an option.

Let's just hope that the baseball gods are in their favor.  

Quotation # 3

" From here on out we've got to [follow] the old cliche 'one game at a time,'" Ross said, "We're in control. It's ours to lose right now. We're in first place and we've got to keep playing the way we know how to..."

- Giants' outfielder, Cody Ross.

Ross, # 13

Well said, Ross.

'One game at a time.' Concentrate on the game you're playing and the game you're about to play, everything else, it hasn't come yet, so for now, it doesn't matter. It is INDEED yours to lose, but it's is yours to have as well. It is right there in front of you, but you have to fight for it, earn it. The team just need to keep doing what they're doing and they'll be headed in the right direction.

There's nothing really to be added, as this quote just sums it all up.

"It ain't like football.  You can't make up no trick plays."

- Yogi Berra

It's all straight forward from here.

A strike is a strike, a ball is a ball. A home run is a damn home run. There's no fooling anyone.

A win is a win, and a lose is a lose.

This is a chance to make history, which is what so much of baseball is all about. Baseball cherishes the 'yesterdays.' The players today, they have legends to live up to. History is made out on that diamond. What happens out there, that's all that matters right now. Making history is flat out making history. One can't argue becoming a legend. I hate the Yankees and guess what, A-Rod, he's gonna be remembered for a very long time. This is our chance to be a part of something that'll last forever. It's the one sport that never stops looking back, but make no mistake, there's a lot to look forward to too.

A Light at the End of the Tunnel (a.k.a. giants 9/19)

Sunday, 9/19/2010.

status: living in a large fog cloud. 

in other words, it's gloomy and I am COLD.

activities: arguing with the parents, and volunteering at a concession stand at a horse show.

consequences of doing so: Missing a solid pitching job by Barry Zito via radio (LOVE YOU KNBR 680, you complete me <3) and the Red Sox game via radio...WEEI BOSTON!

and more importantly stomach ache.

Working at a concession stand is some serious self discipline because...there's just ALL THIS FOOD and it's all in front of you..so you JUST KEEP EATING!

working concessions.

if you look closely i have my "let Tim smoke" shirt on,

it's my two cents for the upcoming vote.

Moving along to bigger more important things:

first off, anyone notice that Bruce Bochy pretty much stole my line up?
Just kidding.
He's the superior here, and I'm sure he came up with it all on his own...

secondly,
Jose Guillen, where the hell did you pull that grand slam out from?!

Outfielder Jose Guillen hit his 19th grand slam during the bottom of the first inning. A powerful hit that just sailed right past left field. Before all that, let's talk about the start of one heck of a game. Cody Ross (who I dubbed lead off man in my blog post Saturday night) hit a hard ball out to left field. Unfortunately for him, left fielder Ryan Braun was having a damn good day and made an incredible catch to rob Ross of his home run. Don't worry, Ross, I still think you're pretty cool.

Anyway, that almost homer sort of got the rally going. Freddy being a hot hitter recently anyone singled. With two outs, Buster Posey doubles and now we have men on 2nd and 3rd. Pat Burrell comes to bat, hoping to knock in a scoring run or two. However, being smart, he takes ball 4 on a full count and walks to first, loading the bases for our hero Jose Guillen. Smart move since we already had two outs.

Basically, we know what happenned during his at-bat.

So we had an early lead, finally showing some offensive support for the unrewarded Barry Zito. =(

In the bottom of the 5th Guillen earns himself another couple RBI's by scoring our duo Aubrey Huff and Buster Posey. (6-0 Giants)

Like I said, Zito pitched real solid game shutting out the Brewers until the 6th inning and FINALLY he was rewarded for his excellent pitching job.

The two runs for the Brewers came in the 6th when Braun, who I mentioned was having a good day, homered to score Corey Hart. (6-2 Giants)

The Giants didn't stop there though.
They completed their rally in the bottom of the 7th. Pat Burrell came up to bat with, surprise surprise, Buster Posey and Aubrey Huff on base. Burrell homers out to left field (folks sitting there had a lot of home run balls coming their way). (9-2 Giants).

Anywho, 9-2 was the final score.

I was thinking that this was like, the light at the end of the tunnel. After Friday and Saturdays game I could sort of see a dim light in the distance fading away into darkness as the Giants looked like they might trail the Padres again. Luckily, something when through their heads (and Bochy's head in terms of the line-up) and they came back in a manner that just screams, "we're not going down without a fight."

It's interesting to me that in the past few weeks, or just this month in general, the Giants have been scoring a lot on home runs. This concerns me just a little because it makes me wonder about our ability to get men on base home. It's been a problem for the team in the past and I wonder if it'll become a problem later. However, it's hard to say that grand-slams and home runs are bad things...seeing as they AREN'T...and we'll take those wins any way we can. It's crucial that the Giants widen the gap between themselves, the Padres and the Rockies. That would require consistency, and when you talk about the Giants and consistency, everything sort of goes grey-ish.

But like I said.
We'll win however we can, and wins are good, so just keep 'em coming.

Meanwhile, in my opinion, the world of baseball was a little whacked out yesterday. Numbers didn't seem to...influence anything. The Orioles beat the Yankees in an 11 inning game. The Angles beat the Rays and the Dodgers came back from a...i think 6 run deficit to beat the Rockies. The Athletics beat the first place Twins. The Red Sox (with Jon Lester pitching) shut out the Blue Jays. The Astros beat the Reds. The Tigers beat the White Sox also in an 11 inning game and the Mariners beat the Rangers.

The Oakland Raiders also won their home game, and take my word for it, that is very unusual.
As for today, the Giants have the day off before playing the Cubs in a three game series that Matt Cain will kick off. The Red Sox are at this moment playing the Orioles, Dice-K pitching and the 49ers football team will play last years champs the Saints here in San Francisco at Candlestick Park.

It's time to break out my optimism piggy bank, but between this year's Red Sox season and the constant need to save some for the Giants and late hockey season with the Sharks...I don't think there's much left in there.

Short and Angry Blurb on the Brewers Vs. Giants 9/18

DEAR GIANTS,

ARE YOU NOT COMFORTABLE IN FIRST PLACE?!

WOULD YOU RATHER BE BACK IN SECOND?! THIRD?!

No...? well, I didn't think so. 

Oh and that's not all I have to say.

A quick summary of the game: both the Giants and the Brewers both put in a few hits. The difference? The Brewers managed to send 2 men home whereas the Giants could only send one home. On some crappy fielding, the Brewers loaded the bases and sent a ball out to deep right field and scored two of their base runners.

As for the Giants, we'll get on base any way we can. Sandoval hit what looked like a pop-up but ended up dropping in fair ground, earning him a single. We loaded the bases after that. Unfortunately, after scoring Sandoval, outfielder Cody Ross was left stranded on third. There were no runs scored for the Giants after that and the final score was 2-1, Lincecum stuck with the loss.

view from our seats tonight in section 109.

Let's cut to the chase.

The problem tonight:

(in my opinion)

Line-up, Line-up, Line-up

LINE-UP

The first thing my friend said today after they announced the starting line up was, "What the hell kind of line up is that?" At the time, I didn't think much of it. I felt confident that the Giants could beat the Brewers. In my mind, the Brewers was supposed to be an easy series. Of course, it didn't turn out that way at all.

The series for the Brewers was going to be a cushion. A cushion before we played the Rockies and the Padres. With only 14 games left, it's time for us to get serious. (haven't I been saying that the past billion posts?) Instead, we're falling more behind and now we are back in that lovely place, you know, being tied with the Padres.

Tonight's line up began with Fontenot, since our usual lead-off man, Andres Torres is out for a short while due to something along the lines of a burst appendix. My first thoughts were, "where's Freddy Sanchez?" Since both him and Fontenot play second base, having Fontenot in naturally meant that Freddy was not in. The thing is, Freddy is our hottest hitter right now.

Like I said, I didn't think much of it. Fontenot was then followed up by Uribe, which is also strange. Uribe does not usually bat in the top of the line-up, but rather towards the end. This did stick out to me, but I wasn't worried quite yet.

Huff batted third followed by Posey.

Recently this has been working for the team, the two pretty much in sync. Pat Burrell was next,

then Sandoval, then Guillen, Cody Ross,  and finally Tim Lincecum (who successfully bunted today, by the way). The end of the line-up didn't look so weird, but nevertheless in the end it was the problem.

In my mind, it works like this.

The perfect Giants line-up right now would look like this:

Torres, Freddy, Huff, Posey, Sandoval, Guillen, Ross, Uribe, Pitcher.

Unfortunately, Torres is out, so ideally, I would want our line-up to look like this:

Ross (I thought he served as a good lead-off man), Freddy, Huff, Posey, Burrell, Sandoval, Guillen, Uribe, pitcher.

Tonight the problem was that there was NO RHYTHM in the line up.

Fontenot starting out wasn't entirely bad, but having him in the line up means we can't have Freddy. Oh opportunity costs how you burden me.

Uribe is the most choppy part in the line-up. It was almost as if Bochy forgot to put him in and just stuck him in the second place because it was so last minute. He did nothing. There was no energy flow, and the energy flow is always at the top of the line up. Huff wouldn't be as productive as he usually is because he's lacking the energy that Sanchez usually seems to give him.

The down side to having in sync batters is that when one sucks the other sucks as well, and that seems to be the case with Posey and Huff right now. Huff had no drive tonight, so Posey had no drive. The logic behind it? Aubrey Huff has bad at-bats, Buster Posey has bad at-bats. So the whole tophalf of our line up is...just angry and frustrated at themselves.

Burrell came next. The thing is, Burrell usually doesn't play the whole 9 innings. He comes in every once in awhile, a pinch hit here or there to give us a boost, but that's about it. I guess since we were missing an outfielder we needed him. He's sort of a little jolt in the line-up as well. Sort of a yield sign, but not a stop sign like Uribe was.

Anyway, after we yielded during Burrell's at bat we move on to our third baseman Sandoval. Pablo has been slumping recently, though he did conjure up a hit tonight, which is good. While he isn't usually at the top of the line up, he usually isn't this far towards the end either. He's normally right around where Uribe is, so it was odd seeing the two of them bat at such different times instead of one after the other.

He wasn't a large problem, though like I said it was just a bit odd to see him at the end of the line up. Our outfielders bat next, Guillen up first. Guillen homered against the Dodgers recently, but didn't seem in the mood to give us a hand tonight. His at-bats generally went quick as he took a couple balls and strikes, maybe fowled a few before grounding out, lining out, popping out, or striking out. The problem with all those words is that they end with "out."

Cody Ross was up next. He seems to jump around in the line-up a lot, but usually sticking towards the end. Sporting a new shiny bald cut, the former Marlin produced some good at-bats today and found himself standing on third at one point -- only to be stranded there. He, like Guillen wasn't quite a problem, that seemed to flow just fine. At one point though, Ross was so mad after his at bat, he stabbed the ground with his bat, threw off his helmet and his gloves and all walked off into the outfield with the home plate ump shaking his head in the background; oh and of course the poor ball boy who had to collect all of his equipment!

It's hard to explain, but the line-up just LACKED FLOW.

there was no ELECTRICITY.

Nothing to get the rally going.

And this is such a bad time for Bochy to be playing with the line-up. In my opinion, it's so important right now to just play STRAIGHT GAMES. No funny moves or strange line ups. Put the hot hitters in and move the non hot hitters towards the end. An important note: Do not put Juan Uribe second in the line-up.

I'm really starting to understand that phrase: So close, but oh so far away.

Tomorrow is our last game against the Brewers before we see the...Chicago Cubs I believe, the Giants will be on the road again. Tomorrow, Barry Zito will pitch and instead of making some remark now about how we can't let the Brewers sweep us and our offense needs to step it up right now for Zito and for the sake of everyone out there; I'm just going to let his pitching tomorrow do the talking.

the most I can say right now is just...

Hang in there boys.