When the Giants Come to Town, It's Bye-Bye Baby

04.24.2008
4/23/08: Last Man Standing

Giants 3, Padres 2, 13 innings: The Giants had their Croix de Candlestick for the die-hards who stayed to the end of an extra-inning night game. The Padres should give out free fish tacos.

Question: Why in the hell were the Giants hitting-and-running in the 11th with Steve Holm on first base, Molina at the plate, and a pitcher (Kevin Cameron) on the mound who had walked 6 batters in less than 5 innings? Dumb. Another tidbit that makes me wonder: In the 13th, with a run already in, Bochy let Yabu, with one major-league at-bat to his credit, hit with one out and Lewis on second. There were no more position players on the bench, but Yabu was coming out anyway. Why not send up one of the other starting pitchers who at least have more batting experience?

Last night’s game is an interesting example of the usefulness of WXRL (see yesterday’s post). Brian Wilson didn’t pitch well, but because the situation was highly leveraged, he still added slightly to his total. He’s now 16th in the NL. Tyler Walker didn’t get a save, but his two perfect innings bump him to 13th. Jack Taschner is now 22nd.

PLODAG: Gotta be Bengie. For a guy who never, ever walks, he has some of the toughest at-bats I’ve ever seen. The Hoffman change-up Molina hit out to tie the game in the 9th was inside instead of outside, but it was still below the knees. Molina must have been looking for it.

The Upside: Manny Burriss. He doesn’t look overmatched, does he? He would have had another hit in the 10th but for a nice play by Padres pitcher Meredith. 
Also on the Network:



[April 24, 2008 6:48 PM]  |  link  |  reply
delorean said

Burriss looked solid last night, and was charming in his postgame interviews! Lots to like about this kid.

[April 24, 2008 7:43 PM]  |  link  |  reply
Lars said

"The Padres should give out free fish tacos."

Padres fans should pin those free fish tacos to their caps.

[April 25, 2008 12:15 PM]  |  link  |  reply
obsessivegiantscompulsive said

I wondered about Yabu too, but you can't hit for him always, if he's going to be our long man, he's going to hit sometime. With a run in already, only one out, and our two middle hitters coming up, I'm OK with that.

Also, given our poorly our pitchers hit, except for Lowry who's on the DL, it makes me wonder if Yabu might be more qualified: don't know how Japan works, but given their fanaticism over fundamentals, if pitchers have to hit there, he might be more qualified to hit than our pitchers, particularly if he continued those habits here.

I would maybe cut Bochy some slack on the hit and run, the pitcher might have 6 walks, but he still did get some outs, he's not an automatic walk. Is he a ground-ball pitcher? If so, that should play into it more than the walks. If he is a flyball pitcher, then I can see your point more. If he's neutral, again, chances of groundball probably more likely than walk, though at 6 in 5 IP, this could be the tipping point.

Given all the bad hype I're read on him - no power at all - I was pretty shocked he got a double. Maybe the Brian Trust knew what they were doing calling him up?