Giants 6, Rockies 5: Call it the Education of Brian Wilson. When you get all geeked up trying to close a game in the ninth, throwing harder harder harder doesn't necessarily work. He nearly blew the save because he overthrew and missed location on two pitches, both with two strikes. One went for a two-run homer, the other just missed going out. An easy save became a nail-biter. We'll take it.
But the interesting news tonight, just reported in the post-game show: Eugenio Velez has been sent to Fresno, and Travis Denker is now a big-leaguer. It could be this year's theme song: Do you know the way from San Jose? The Giants got him last summer for Mark Sweeney and he spent the rest of the year raking for the Little Giants. He started this year at Connecticut, didn't do much but got promoted to Fresno anyway. Denker hit well there, and now he's a Big Giant.
Anyone watching or listening to Monday's game figured Velez's baserunning gaffe was the last straw. Denker could be even more raw, and the usual complaints will be raised about starting his service clock unnecessarily, but hey, it's kind of fun to see all these guys. It's like hanging out at Kraft and tasting all the weird new food concepts as they come out of the lab.
PLODAG: Jello Roll Molina.
The Upside: Brian Wilson. Coors Field is where three-run leads in the ninth go to die. Ask Robb Nen. Wilson made bad pitches but finally struck out Atkins with disaster looming. When you can snatch the pebble from my hand, grasshopper...
