No, he's all too human, and sometimes closers blow saves. That was a hell of a streak he had going, and it was bound to end at some point. The Giants could not solve Carlos Villanueva, that was the real problem today. It was great to see the struggling Brandon Belt get a clutch hit, and the team was poised to pull off another big comeback win, but Starlin Castro spoiled things with a clutch hit of his own (his second big blow of the day). Villanueva was once a Giant--he was signed as an amateur free agent back in 2002, the year the Giants drafted Matt Cain. Speaking of Matty, he found himself in an all-too-familiar spot, pitching well but not getting the run support. That didn't happen much last season and he racked up a pile of those "pitcher-wins." The only ones I care about are the ones that show up in the standings, and usually the Giants get one of those when they get a good start. A Game Score of 59 ain't bad, but the big fella averaged 60.6 last season, and 58.9 the season before. So, seven innings, two runs, and six strikeouts is merely average for no. 18, which is hard to wrap my mind around. The guy's good. He had the worst outing of his career last weekend! How many other pitchers give up nine runs in an inning and everyone goes "no worries, just a bad day" instead of freaking out? Not many. The Cubs have Jeff Samardzija going tomorrow, and he's the one I was thinking would give the Giants trouble. Let's hope they swing the bats a little better behind Madison Bumgarner and get the team back in the win column.
--M.C.
1 comment:
The positive take-away is that we once again came from behind and took the lead in the 9th inning. If Romo hasn't blown/lost it we'd be going nuts with joy over that fact.
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