Giants 5, Braves 1: How about that? Barry Zito is the stopper of the rotation. Barry haters had no excuse for explaining away his success today. It was a smokin’ hot Braves’ lineup, a smokin’ hotlanta day, a hostile crowd making stupid chants, and he was pitching to his least-favorite batterymate Bengie Molina. Plain and simple: He pitched great with the odds stacked against him, right when the Giants most needed it. Which begs the question: YOU COULDN’T DO THIS AGAINST THE F8*%k&N PADRES AT HOME TEN DAYS AGO WITH THE BEST MOMENTUM OF THE SEASON SWIRLING SWEETLY AROUND OUR BAYSIDE YARD? WTF?!?!?!?
Barry Zito: A man who needs to be challenged. Speaking of challenged, critics of the Giants’ olympically special offense can certainly say they got lucky. In the crucial eighth inning with the game tied 1–1, the Giants bunted twice and the Braves never got an out. With Schierholtz on first and no outs, first baseman Kotchman should have gotten an out on Ishikawa’s sac bunt, but he hesitated toward second then threw late to first. (Scored a base hit.) Then Uribe bunted back to the pitcher, who thought about third (no chance), spun and threw to first — off Uribe’s helmet. Schierholtz scored from second, Uribe was safe at first on the error. Two strikeouts, two singles and another error later, it was 5–1.
And congratulations to Mark Buerhle on his perfect game. If you haven’t seen it, you must watch this. Hey! If you didn’t just click on that link, go back and do it. It’s perhaps the best catch in baseball history, and it definitely bumps Aaron Rowand’s catch to save Jonathan Sanchez’s no-hitter down a couple notches. Sorry, Aaron.
