Baseball Lifer

An old-fashioned pitcher’s duel—or actually, After the offense once again sputtered throughout most the game, the Giants were able to catch a huge break, and beat the Rockies, 2-1, in 10.

GAMEBALL:

Alex Wood

As Doug Hayes, a founder of Giants Chatter, pointed out, Alex Wood had yet to pitch into the sixth inning this year. Tonight, Wood have up just a run over seven innings, and he really set the tone of the game. Plain and simply, the Giants don’t win last night without him.

Wood’s had a rough go of it this season, but let’s not forget that this is the guy who gave the Giants a great start in Game 3 of the NLDS at Dodger Stadium last season. He’s a solid fourth starter when he’s on.

TIP OF THE CAP:

Ruf & Thairo: Ruf doubled with one out in the fourth; Thairo knocked him in; game tied.

Dominic Leone: Gave up a hit, but pitched a solid eighth.

Tyler Rogers: A 1-2-3 ninth. Other than three really bad outings in May that have completely inflated his ERA, Rogers really is having a good season. Same thing happened with Sergio Romo in 2009. He missed the first two months of the season, and had two really bad outings in back-to-back games in July, which completely ballooned his ERA. He was way better than his 3.97 ERA that year, and he had a damn good year. As for Rogers, as long as Kap keeps him in a consistent role, he’ll have a great season.

Camilo Doval: Going into extra innings with the fake runner at second-base after our offense had sputtered all night, I was certain the Rockies were going to score three in the 10th. Thankfully, Kap brought in his flame-throwing closer; and Doval threw a 1-2-3 inning to make me think that he delayed the Rockies’ three-run inning until the 11th. All Kap needs to do is look Doval straight in the face, and tell him that he is the closer going forward, PERIOD.

Joc: Camilo of course got some help from his Left-Fielder, who took away a go-ahead double from Ryan McMahon with a great over-the-shoulder catch at the base of the track for the second out.

Luis Gonzalez: A very-close second to Wood for the Gameball. First, he had a great “at-bat” in the eighth, in which he fell down 1-2, and then fouled off three sliders and worked a walk. Then, of course, he had what proved to be the walk-off hit in the bottom of the 10th.

With Belt, LaMonte and Duggar set to return soon, the Giants will have to make some tough choices on who to send down, but if you send down Gonzalez, you’re nuts, and will destroy the morale of this team. Gonzalez is very possibly going to be in the running for Rookie of the Year, and we will finally have him, Belt and LaMonte in the lineup together for the first time. I don’t care if you have to cut Tommy LaStella, who the Giants are set to pay $11,000,000 next season; you don’t send down Gonzalez, PERIOD.

Yaz: Went unnoticed, but nice 3-for-4 night for Yaz.

Joey Bart: I hammered Bart a few weeks ago, but I am a bit bummed that he’s going down to Sacramento. It has to happen, but the guy is a talent, and a very smart man, who will click on all cylinders with some seasoning. Best of luck, Joey; can’t wait to watch you here in Sac, and can’t wait even more for you to be a big part of our run later this season.

Phillies: Yes, they swept the Angels, but they are on fire and kicking ass right now, as they have won the first two of a three-game set against a good Brewers team in Milwaukee.

JOKER:

Joe Maddon

Yup, this egotistic clown. The biggest attention-seeking manager in the in Baseball History was shown the door after the Angels lost their 12th-straight. This shouldn’t surprise people at all; the guy has always made everything about himself, and he certainly has never been the “great manager” people think he is.

Let’s start out with 2008, when the Rays shocked the Baseball World and got to the World Series. His bullpen managing was atrocious, and he continuously stuck with Dan Wheeler, even though he kept getting lit up. This was the start of a trend by younger managers to not only admit to mistakes, but to double down, and keep making the same terrible moves in the hope that it will work out, so they can gloat and say, “See? See? I made the right move.”

Then came Game 7 of the 2016 World Series, one of the greatest games in Baseball History. Game 7 of a World Series featuring the two teams with the longest championship droughts in the Cubs and Indians. It was Shakespearean, rally. The Cubs got off to a 5-1 lead, and Kyle Hendricks was dealing. But then he walked Carlos Santana with two outs in the bottom of the fifth, and BAM, Maddon pulls him for Jon Lester, who was completely rusty. He gave up a base-hit to Jason Kipnis, and then allowed two runs to score on a wild pitch to Francisco Lindor. Lester eventually settled down and pitched two and a half solid innings, but he walked Jose Ramirez with two outs, and Joe needed more attention, so he pulled Lester for Aroldis Chapman, whom Madden had already completely taxed the entire Postseason, before bringing him in in the seventh inning of a five-run game in Game 6. So what happens? Chapman walks Brandon Guyer, and then gives up the famous game-tying three-run home run to forever Giant, Rajai Davis. The Cubs’ players were devastated beyond all belief, but they rallied in the 10th DESPITE Maddon to win it. Even after Cubs reached the Promised Land, some players seemed to still be quite bitter about what Maddon had done, and it showed over the next three years.

I’ll just be blunt: I am so happy he was thrown out on his ass, I hope he never manages again.

SMACK OF THE STICK:

Joc at the plate: Let’s just get this out of the way: Joc himself gets a Tip of the Hat, but 0-for-4 with the Golden Sombrero at the plate, sorry, Joc. Bad games always happen. He still made a great catch, is a great man, and has been carrying this team in recent week. He should be feeling great right now.

Chuck Nazty: Just flat out overran the ball on Gonzalez’s base-hit to allow Walton to score the winning run. That’s gotta hurt.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

As I mentioned above, the Giants are going to have some tough choices to make when Belt, LaMonte and Duggar are ready. Bad teams, mediocre teams, and even 85-win teams generally don’t have this problem. I really do believe that when these guys come back, and Belt, LaMonte, Yaz and Gonzalez are in the lineup together everyday, this team is going to take off.

Stephen