Monday, July 26, 2010

Game Recap: FLA 4, SF 3

It's interesting that even when the Giants are hot, they never go on winning streaks. Even during this stretch where they've won 16 of 21 games, their longest winning streak has been 5 games. Maybe that's a good thing because it means they've been consistently good. But tonight, they were not very good and it was mostly the fault of the offense.

Specifically, the offense was terrible in the first 6 innings, never even getting close to scoring a run. Ricky Nolasco shut them down. But as soon as Nolasco came out of the game and I tweeted this, magic was in the air. Aaron Rowand came in to pinch hit for Travis Ishikawa, which seemed like a questionable move to me, but he proceeded to hit a two-run homer to cut the Marlins lead down to 3-2. Let me break it down for you: Aaron Rowand saved the day. Amazing. The Giants were still losing, but there was hope.

Unfortunately, the bullpen was not very good again. In the top of the 8th inning, Guillermo Mota allowed a run scoring double, giving the Marlins a 4-2 lead. It'd be nice to solve that problem. Soon.

In the bottom of the 9th inning the Giants tried really hard to come back, but ultimately failed. Andres Torres grounded out to bring a run home, but then up came Edgar Renteria. Up to that point in the game he had been 0-for-4 with 2 K's. Well, he struck out to end the game with a runner on 3rd, so make that 0-for-5 with 3 K's. Ouch.

Barry Zito didn't pitch great: 6 1/3 IP, 8 H, 3 ER with 1 BB and 3 K's. But he wasn't terrible either, and when a pitcher only allows 3 runs through 6 innings, a good offense will get that pitcher the win. You've gotta feel a little bad for the guy, and Zito's hard luck continued as he fell to 8-6.

A win would've been extra sweet tonight because not many teams have beaten the guy who is pitching for the Marlins tomorrow. Josh Johnson has a 1.61 and a WHIP under 1 and he is the leading contender for the Cy Young Award this year (screw Ubaldo Jimenez). Fortunately for San Francisco Giants fans everywhere, 8thInningWeirdness will be at the game tomorrow night and we have an impeccable W-L record. Believe it. Even though it's not true.

5 comments:

  1. Congrats on being the 2nd fastest post-game in Giants baseball!

    Screw Josh Johnson we have an offense that consists of Edgar Renteria.. ENOUGH SAID.

    ReplyDelete
  2. What's your record for Giants games?

    And I expect updates from the Phonebooth!

    And yes, screw You-Bald-Oh.

    -- @brocean

    ReplyDelete
  3. Well, before this blog was started, we went to games and weren't too successful.

    But ever since 8thInningWeirdness was started, we're actually 1-0!

    ReplyDelete
  4. The award is Johnson's to lose. Jiminez has hit the Earth hard.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Yeah he really has. It seems like the only way he'd be able to win it now is if he got like 25 wins and the voters somehow thought that was impressive.

    ReplyDelete