Giants 5, D-Backs 4: Hey Brian Wilson, here's the bill for my hospital stay. You nearly gave me a heart attack, and I spent the night with my ass sticking out the back of a little blue gown.
I don't blame Wilson. From the left-field bleachers in the 1-3-8, I saw Wilson dealing despite his grueling work the night before in Colorado. I was convinced he wouldn't pitch tonight, but after Ishikawa hit his Ode-to-Joy home run in the bottom of the 8th to go up 5-2, there was Wilson, greasing up in the bullpen.
Come the top of the ninth, Wilson looked great for three batters: ground out, strike out, and two strikes on Ojeda....who offered an emergency swing and dunked one into LF that Fred Lewis probably should have caught. Then two walks, one on a fastball at the knees to Steven Drew that I guess the umpire thought was low. It would have been strike three.
Then a bases-loaded single, and Sergio Romo had to make the rescue, with Chad Tracy up and the go-ahead run on second. Of course, Tracy hit it to Velez. Oh God, I thought as the ball came off Tracy's bat. Not to Velez. Hey, no problem!
So don't get steamed at Wilson, please.
One more note about tonight: Go look at Gameday and the pitch/fx data for the pitch Ishikawa hit into the bleachers. Lazy? OK, I'll do it for you. It was an 87-MPH hanging change-up at the waist. Ishikawa has proven one thing this year: he'll punish the hanging off-speed crap. He'll slap the 88-MPH fastball on the outside corner into left field. Now, if he can adjust and every so often turn on the 92-MPH heat middle-in, and lay off the high fastball, he'll turn the corner.
SMALL PRINT UPDATE: Ryan Rohlinger comes up from Fresno to replace F. Sanchez. I thought it would be a reliever after Monday night, but the Panda's calf injury makes the infield more depleted than the bullpen.
