Saturday, October 27, 2012

Pitching, Pitching, Pitching

The San Francisco Giants are one win away from the championship after suffocating the Detroit Tigers tonight in Game Three. Ryan Vogelsong, Tim Lincecum, and Sergio Romo kept the pressure on and threw the big pitches when they needed them and the Giants made an early 2-0 lead stand up. Anibal Sanchez threw six superb innings and one bad one (the 2nd) and that was all it took. The Giants also played excellent defense despite an error from Brandon Crawford on a tough play. He'd made a ridiculous stop earlier and had a huge 2-out RBI hit as well. Otherwise the outfielders ran everything down and the infielders pulled off two big 4-6-3 double plays and caught everything that came their way. The result was another shutout, the first time an AL team has been shutout back-to-back in the Series since the 1919 "Black Sox." And those guys were throwing the games! It was another brilliant effort by the orange & black--their sixth consecutive post-season win. Gregor Blanco had the other big hit, a triple to drive in Hunter Pence (who had a good night) in the fateful 2nd. He's doing it with the glove and the bat, and might have been robbed on his infield chopper. He and Pablo Sandoval (who had two hits) are the hitting stars in the Series, but who are we kidding? This Series is about pitching, pitching, and more pitching. The Giants have allowed just three runs in 27 innings, overwhelming a very good lineup with both power and guile. Prince Fielder and Miguel Cabrera are 3-19 and have stranded a heapin' helpin' of runners in the three games. Keep it rolling, boys, keep it rolling.

Matt Cain goes tomorrow in a potential clincher.

GO GIANTS!

--M.C.


p.s. Vogie getting Cabrera to pop up was my favorite moment--what was yours? And how about Big Time Timmy Jim? Did he look good or what?



3 comments:

nomisnala said...

I thought before the big DP by Fielder in the first, that Vogey was squeezed quite a bit. I thought the 3-2 pitch was a strike and not a walk. I also thought he K'd Cabrera. Of interest Scutaro was called out on a pitch that was probably even further outside. As much as it would be nice to win at home, I prefer taking it tomorrow vs. Detroit at Detroit, and the guys can have an excellent plane ride home.

JC Parsons said...

So many great moments....I guess anything with Tim was my favorite. Especially his three pitch domination of Fielder, that was sweet. Three different pitches all untouchable. His fastball was dancing like Fred Astaire, in perfect control.
The ump was a big factor last night. In the pre-game, Kruk said he was a batters ump with a tight zone. Boy was that wrong. He really wanted to call strikes last night! High, way outside. Check the gameday, ask Blanco and Pagan, they got rung up on tough calls. The Giants kept looking and being patient, which led to many K's, but the Tigers started going out of the zone (like Fielder). Bottom line: we get another ump like that and Matt will be a happy boy.
The bases loaded pitches to Cabrera were perfect as well. In fact, if anybody wants to cling to the Giants get all the breaks crap, this game should have dispelled that. WE MAKE OUR BREAKS, WE ARE NOT LUCKY, WE ARE DOMINATING

M.C. O'Connor said...

Blanco's catch of the foul ball in the 9th was awesome, too.

Lots of big swings by the Tigers that resulted in high fly balls that looked good off the bat but had no legs and came down into Giants gloves.

Tim sure had his good stuff working! Giants have three good starts by four pitchers: Zito, Bumgarner, Vogelsong, and Lincecum.