Giants 3, Pirates 2: The older I get, the more baseball rules I want to change. For one: Why should Barry Zito not get the win for tonight's game? Bruce Bochy made a great move to get him out after 5 2/3 innings, Sergio Romo shut the door on a Pirate rally with a strikeout, and the Giants went ahead to stay the next half-inning.
Romo bailed him out, but Zito did the lion's share of tough pitching tonight. When a starter doesn't go five and a team wins, it's the official scorer's discretion which pitcher gets the actual W. Why not give the scorer discretion all the time?
And the older I get, the more I realize things happen that we can't foresee no matter how clever we think we are. Like, say, Eugenio Velez coming back to the bigs and providing great D in one crucial victory and two power swings in the next night's win. Yeah, that Eugenio Velez. I figured he was buried in Fresno the rest of the year. Cue Joaquin Andujar: Youneverknow.
Great game tonight, and I give the lads credit for doing just enough damage against a young guy throwing well. From the left-field bleachers, Charlie Morton looked serious with an easy arm action, a mid-90s fastball, and a biting slider. One performance that might be overlooked: Andres Torres in the outfield. A few shallow fly balls looked like trouble off the bat, but Torres closed ground in a blur and, even better, took charge the way center fielders should when defenders converge toward a pop-up. Andres Torres: My favorite Giants' utility guy in quite a while. I also dig the fat silver chain. Very 1984.
SMALL PRINT UPDATE: Randy Johnson has a tear in his rotator cuff and is on the 60-day DL, which clears space on the 40-man roster for Ryan Garko -- who, by the way, hit two screamers into outs tonight. Johnson won't be back until September at the earliest. Nate Schierholtz is now on the 15-day DL, clearing space for Garko on the 25-man.
With Rowand still hurting and Renteria's elbow needing surgery after the season, according to Baggs, the Giants are seriously banged up, which makes the last two wins all the more impressive.
