Not much time today, but remember Mike Krukow’s words of wisdom: Don’t get into a slugfest with the Nationals.
After my Matt Cain disquisition yesterday, he pitched a beautiful ball game until Nick Johnson hit a home run in the seventh. It came on a 2–1 fastball that was down and toward the outside corner, not a perfect pitch, but not a meatball either. Johnson hit it 400 feet the opposite way. You don’t see that much in our ballpark from people not named Barry Bonds. Or Ryan Zimmerman.
If Barry Zito can shut this team down this afternoon, color me impressed.
I'm actually rooting for Zimmerman to get a hit today. I believe if he gets 1 more hit, he ties the Expos/Nats hitting streak record. Only bright spot of their (already) dismal season.
How about some love for Panda, ELM? He actually worked the count and laid off that first pitch. Granted, Joe Beimel wasn't exactly the master of control, but a win is a win.
I'm not sure "he worked the count." He took the 1st 4 pitches, two strikes, two balls. I follow along on gamecast and couldn't believe we ran into the third out at 3rd base -twice. I did see Panda's collapse on the highlights later but it should never, ever be close at third in that situation. stop at 2nd. What happend on Winn's play? Also w/o details I saw on gamecast that Bengie scored from lst on a double?? How did that happen?
BigO, it was a good play on Winn's part, he drew the throw, got in a run down allowing Benji to score, then got tagged out. Sandoval had a 3b but just fell down between 2d and 3d, not a bad decision, just bad foot placement (he tripped over a blade of grass).
ELM, how many days ago was it you were wondering if we could ever make up that 6 game deficit to the Dogs? Them Dogs have lost 3 of 4 since fertilitygate.
Following up on the Cain thread below, I do think he’s getting better at situational pitching. Spotted an early lead, he threw a lot of strikes, let the Nats hit the ball to the defense, but really bore down with runners on. He visibly tired in the 7th, and lost command of his breaking ball. There was no wind last night and the ball was actually carrying pretty well for AT&T. On a typical ATT night, Johnson’s HR is caught and the low, outside-halfish pitch was the right pitch to a LH in that situation. Cain really needs a better changeup.
On the flip side, you could also say that the difference between ’07-08 Cain and ’09 Cain was that the bomb he gave up in the seventh made it 5-4 Giants, whereas, in ’07 or ’08 it would’ve made it 4-2 Nats. Regardless, and in spite of his lower FB velocity (which, I predict, will increase as the season wears on), I think Cain is maturing. Particularly impressive how he finished the 7th quickly after the HR, allowing Bochy to PH for him in the bottom half.