Giants 6, Braves 3: This was somewhat akin to the pasting the Dodgers gave the Giants in early April, though not quite as lopsided. None of the games were really that close, thanks to strong pitching and timely clutch hitting. Who woulda thunk?
And all without Pablo Sandoval, who has more or less been the best Giant hitter this year. And all without Bengie Molina, who played all three games but is mired in a funk no one has seen since Bootsy Collins did the duty to someone's booty back in 1973. Lessons to be learned? I thought Bochy & Co. did a nice job with the pitching staff this series. They recognized Sanchez's meltdown in Game 1, got him out of there, and brought in the secret middle-relief weapon Justin Miller. They let a cruisin' Lincecum go 122 pitches to get that extra inning, the 8th, and give the bullpen a little breather. Then tonight, even though the Big Unit only threw 79 pitches through six innings, Bochy took him out instead of letting him try for one more inning. Smart. Even if the bullpen blew it, which they nearly did thanks to Emmanuel Burriss's 7th inning error, it would have been a good move.
Speaking of Burriss, he made up for his error with a huge RBI single to pad the lead in the bottom of the 7th. As Krukow said recently, he's now swinging with both cheeks. He's still no power hitter, but he's hitting the ball harder these days.
Last note: Dave Flemming on the post-post-game show just dropped a Baseball Prospectus shout-out, noting that prospect guru Kevin Goldstein just wrote that with the Orioles' Matt Wieters and the Rays' David Price getting their call-ups to the bigs, the Giants' Madison Bumgarner is now the best prospect in the minors.
I'm tired and going to bed, but with the off day tomorrow, I leave you with one titillating thought: Friday night, Matt Cain, Albert Pujols. Like my man Jimmy says out in the state's capitol: Ahhh yeah.
