It's Sunday night, the Giants just won 7-4 and with one better bullpen inning Saturday would have won a second straight series against a good team. Without the implosion Saturday from The Big Sweaty, we're talking a 5-2 homestand. No recriminations against Walker; it's one bad outing against six perfect ones so far.
I liked a lot of things I saw this weekend. John Bowker, of course; but how about Walker's bounce-back effort today? Or Brian Wilson starting the ninth with two hits, then striking out two hot bats (Ludwick and Duncan) to quell the threat? It's only fair to give Barry Zito a nod for pitching darn well Friday night. A little less Ray Durham butchery, and Zito probably would have thrown six innings with only one run scoring.
But my player of the weekend -- indeed, of the week, a.k.a. the PLODAW -- is FreddieLoo! He went 9-for-17 against St. Louis, with at least one extra-base hit in each game. I'm quite curious to see if Bochy lets him start against The Large Ugly tomorrow night or plays the lefty-righty matchups by the book and starts Rajai Davis or Daniel Ortmeier, who homered off Johnson last year. Beware: Rich Aurilia is almost certain to play, as he's 16-for-47 with three home runs against Johnson. That's some VSC (Veteran Savvy Clutchness) Bochy won't be able to resist.
The runner-up for PLODAW is Lincecum, who threw two solid ballgames this week. It's nitpicky to say that his pitch counts are getting too high, too fast, and preventing him from going deeper into games. But I'd love to see him go into the seventh and eighth to spare us the bullpen drama.
See, Boch and Sabes? Isn't it fun when the young guys get to play?
