Be completely honest, even though the San Francisco Giants were playing the second game of a three-game series in Tampa Bay against the Rays, you were thinking about Tim Lincecum's start against Oakland.
You don't have to lie, this is a safe place. While scrolling down the Twitter timeline, a picture of Big Time Timmy Jim donning the Los Angeles Angel red in the middle of his signature windup probably popped up.
The lingering thought in my head while the Freak was finishing up his excellent start was how great would it be to have him in back in a San Francisco uniform, especially considering the uncertainty of the back end of the rotation. I mean if he can pitch six innings of one-run ball against the not-so-Moneyball A's, he can surely do the same every start, right? Right?
However, that's a conversation for another time. Let's discuss this winter.
What we can discuss is the here and the now, and while Lincecum-mania was taking over the Bay the day before Warriors-mania occupies the entire country, those Giants continued to show the Majors why they're one of the best teams in baseball and on pace to win 99 games.
Donning throwback jerseys from the 1970s, the Giants extended their winning streak to seven games with a 6-4 win behind the clutch batting of San Francisco's middle infielders Brandon Crawford and Joe Panik.
Crawford set the stage for Panik by knocking in Buster Posey in the top of the eighth to tie the ballgame at three apiece.
Panik not only came to the plate with runners on first and second in the ninth inning, but he stepped to the plate two at-bats from having been plunked in the back of the head and collapsing to the ground via a Matt Moore 92 MPH fastball.
It was a scary moment that everyone wanted to forget, especially the birthday boy Moore, who immediately bent down and buried his head in his glove so as to show that the errant pitch was by no means intentional.
The second baseman immediately popped back up and started jogging towards first base, and Tropicana Field let out a sigh of relief, although a little distraught that Panik being plunked meant that a runner would score.
Four innings later, Panik made the hearts of the Tampa Bay crowd drop in a different fashion.
Matched up against Alex Colome, who hadn't allowed an earned run since May 1st, with two runners on, the All-Star launched a 0-1 slider into the right field bleachers, triggering a flurry of Giants fans to fill the Trop with cheers. Panik would finish the day with four RBIs, which tied a career high for RBIs in a game.
Crawford and Panik helped overshadow what otherwise would have been a game to forget on both sides of the ball.
Albert Suarez, who has been filling in for Matt Cain, had his shortest start of the season, pitching 4.2 innings while allowing three earned runs on five hits and two walks, albeit it was only his third.
This afternoon's start was Suarez's first appearance against the Tampa Bay Rays, the organization which signed him as a Venezuelan free agent in 2006. Suarez pitched for the Rays' minor league affiliates from 2008 to 2014, but never pitched higher than Double-A.
The defensive effort for the Giants was also a little suspect, as both Angel Pagan and Brandon Belt had errors which both gave Tampa Bay a free 90 feet. Belt's error was his 6th on the season, a year after only having three at first.
The inability to knock in runners was the most demoralizing aspect of the game before heading into the later innings, as even with the clutch hitting by the Crawnik combination, the Giants as a team hit 3 for 14 on the afternoon with runners in scoring position.
The same problem made an appearance during the Milwaukee series, as during San Francisco's 3-2 victory over the Brewers, the Giants bat 2 for 12 with runners in scoring position. The Giants did drop ten runs the following afternoon, so maybe the orange and black are in for more of the same in tomorrow's series finale.
With Madison Bumgarner, Johnny Cueto, and Jeff Samardzija averaging eight innings in their past starts plus an off-day to travel to Tampa Bay, the conundrum that is the San Francisco bullpen came into the game well-rested with enough juice to eat up 4.1 innings while allowing only one run. Cory Gearrin recorded his second save of the season in place of Santiago Casilla, who is currently on paternal leave.
Trevor Brown made the most of his opportunity to start due to Buster Posey being the designated hitter, racking up three hits in three at-bats and drawing a walk while scoring a pair of runs.
Posey had a pair of hits as well, which put his hitting streak at five games. The All-Star has started to find his hitting stroke in June, batting .306 in the month. Gregor Blanco continued to heat up as well, getting a pair of singles to put his own hitting streak to five games as well after an 0 for 26.
Matt Duffy knocked his fourth home run of the season in the second inning, his second of June after not having hit a bomb in May.
Yorumlar