Timmy gets his K on!

GIANTS 6 - DBACKS 3

Tim Lincecum struck out 10 Dbacks in 6.2 innings of work last night.  Over his last 2 starts and 14 innings he has struck out 20 batters.

That is the Tim Lincecum we all know and love.

The offense scored six runs , behind 3 homers, in support of Timmy and allowed him to get his team leading 13th win.  What makes that so special is the fact that they scored all of their runs off of the impressive rookie Barry Enright who had allowed no more than 3 runs in any of his 12 starts to begin his big league career.  The Giants welcomed him to the big leagues properly tonight!

Not too much else notable went on in the game last night.  Pablo Sandoval was benched and Bochy hinted that he may be benched more on the road where he is batting an atrocious .208 compared to .336 at home.  I couldn't even begin to tell you what the problem is there.

Steve Decker joined the Giants coaching staff.  Of course they are saying that it is to help with the young kids.  Hopefully it leads to some kind of managerial change next season or the season after!

Nate Schierholtz got in the game but didn't get an AB.

Hey Remember me?

GIANTS 2 - DBACKS 0

His name is Nate Schierholtz for those of you who forgot and he has been up with the Giants since opening day. He wasn't some mid season acquisition or September call-up.  He is a guy who has been there for every one of the team's wins and losses.  He hasn't been given a whole lot of opportunity, he has only had 3 ABs in a game once since July 23, and to be fair he hasn't really taken advantage of the few opportunities he has been given.

But he took advantage of this one.

It sure didn't look like he would at first.  When he was called upon in the 7th inning to pinch run for Pat Burrell Nate was picked off and the inning was over.  At a point in the game where the team was desperate for runs they could ill afford to have a runner picked off.  But he did get picked off and, in making one of the few good decisions he has made all season,  Bochy actually left him in to play the outfield.

In the 11th inning after the Giants got runners on first and second with two outs Nate got his second AB of the game, he lined out in the 10th inning,  and delivered.  He fouled off the first pitch he saw from Dbacks reliever Aaron Heilman and then smoked the next pitch into the right-centerfield gap to score Buster Posey and Aubrey Huff.

Ballgame.

So does this mean that Nate will get more PT as the season winds down?  Doubtful.  But hopefully he will continue to make the most out of any opportunities that he happens to get from here on out.

Did you know that the Giants' pitchers are working on a 25 consecutive scoreless inning streak?  It started in the 5th inning of Saturday's game against the Dodgers and has continued through tonight's 11 inning affair.  I think it's safe to say that the starting rotation's slump is over.

Lincecum vs. Enright tonight.   Seems as though Enright has not failed to go at least 5 innings in each of his 12 starts this season or give up more than 3 runs.  Tonight would be a good time to put an end to one of those streaks.

And then there was one........ Game between the Giants and the Padres

GIANTS 3 - DODGERS 0

Is there anybody out there that still thinks the Giants should have traded Jonathan Sanchez at the trade deadline?

Jonathan Sanchez took his perfectly shaped eyebrows to the mound with him in Los Angeles and shut the Dodgers down.  He went 7 sparkling innings, struck out 9, and walked only one batter!

The walk stat is huge because that is the one thing that has been keeping Sanchez from reaching the next level and becoming a more consistent pitcher.  He has walked 3 batters or less in each of his last 6 starts including tonight.  If he can keep his walks down the rest of the year then he will be tough coming out of the #4 spot in the rotation down the stretch.

Juan Uribe.

What can I say about this guy other than I hope that ball he took off the shin isn't too serious. (I think it wast the Mercury News that said he is expected to be OK tomorrow)  His homerun in the 7th inning was huge.  A 1 run game in the 8th and 9th can be lost so many different ways, ask Cody Ross, but a 3-0 game takes a little more work.  Uribe has hit so many important homers for the Giants this year and this one basically put a nail in tonight's game and probably the Dodgers' season.

Nothing wrong with that.

2 more quick links:

The Mercury News makes a good point as to why Brandon Belt won't be up this season.  Although I do wonder why guys like Brett Pill don't get the call but I'm not the GM.

Lastly this video is hilarious.  It's a Dodgers' fan otherwise it wouldn't be as funny but since it is I am laughing every time I even think about this clip:



Oh, I almost forgot we had a Sergio Romo sighting tonight:

Giants have an odd one in Brian Wilson

DODGERS 4- GIANTS 2 

The Giants were only able to manage two hits last night and Zito gave up 4 runs in 4 innnings.  I t didn't really hurt them that much in the standings since the Padres lost their 8th game in a row, but it is frustrating on a number of levels.  Barry Zito continued his slide, the Giants offense struggled once again, and they failed to capitalize on the Padres misfortune.  The fact that they could only manage two hits and wouldn't have scored at all if they didn't have Buster Posey on their team just made matters more unbearable.

So instead of wasting any more post time to the subpar effort of our favorite team I am just going to link some clips from the Giants weird closer Brian Wilson.  I don't know really what is up with this guy but he is really weird.  The guy who is most famous for wearing orange spikes to the mound in the All-Star game and then getting fined $1000.00 by MLB for wearing them in an actual game, sporting a mohawk on the mound, edge of your seat saves, and the overuse of the word delicious turns out to even weirder than I ever suspected.




In this video Brian Wilson lets us in on the location of the Gimp.  You gotta wait until about 6:30 into the clip to see it but it is worth it to watch the rest.



This clip we learn the reason Wilson was fined $1000.00 by MLB was because he had too much awesomeness on his feet, what kind of smartphone Wilson uses, and what he carries in his back pocket.

Since I couldn't find the embed code on foxsportsnet I will just link this video with  Wilson playing the Didgeridoo and high fiving Matt Downs.

Lastly, here is a link to a collection of clips from Wilson's short lived Comcast sports net reality show the Life of Brian.

I really can't explain the guy.  Hopefully it takes your mind off the Giant embarrassment from last night.

Lincecum outduels Jimenez. Suddenly the world feels like a better place!

GIANTS 2 - ROCKIES 1

That's right Tim Lincecum outdueled the 2010 Cy Young front runner.

Boy that feels good to say.

In case you were under a rock last night here is his line from last night: 

         IP             H        R         ER       BB         K       HR            ERA

8.0

5

1

1

1

9

1

3.68

Isn't it beautiful?

Yes it was vintage Lincecum last night.  The only mistake he made all night was to Carlos Gonzalez who blasted his 30th homer of the season, can you imagine where the A's would be right now if they had this guy and Anre Eithier still instead of having both of them terrorizing the Giants in the NL West?  People say that Brian Sabean can't make good trades. 

Back to Lincecum.  Whatever he did to fix his delivery, stop tipping his pitches, or throwing strikes.  It worked.  Nobody knows what Tim did because all of the beat writers wanted to talk to Darren Ford who, while he did score the winning run, didn't do much more than be in the right place at the right time.  Lincecum's 9 strikeouts were the most that Timmy has had in a game since July 30th and his 8 IP were the most since July 25th.

It's not like he all of the sudden just got better.  Sure he was knocked around a bit in August and he lost his last 5 decisions, but his last start did give some glimmers of hope.    In that game, against Arizona, Timmy gave up 4 runs in 6.0 IP and struck out 6.  He did give up that massive bomb to Adam LaRoche that prompted the tipping pitches question.  He also gave up 4 walks.  That game, while not great by any means showed an improvement over the last few outings Lincecum had.

I'm sure there are some Giants fans that are upset about the Giant offense last night.  While the offense is still a concern, I just don't think there is much more they could of done against Ubaldo Jimenez. The guy had only given up 130 hits in 176.1 IP coming into last night's game.  He was routinely throwing the ball at 99 MPH and the fact that the Giants were able to get anything at all off the guy is really a testament to this team.

Bring on the Dodgers!

September call-ups:

The Giants are really giving us a glimpse into the future!  They called up...... Dan Runzler and Edgar Renteria? now they did call up an actual minor leaguer in Darren Ford but that seems to be a mistake since they didn't call up anybody else.  No Brandon Belt, No Brett Pill, No Connor Gillaspie, No Eric Hacker, No Thomas Neal.  No minor leaguers other than Ford.

Now since the AAA season doesn't end til Monday the Giants could just be waiting until then and then they will bring up some more guys.  But right now it looks like Belt will be headed straight to the AFL.  This move, if true, makes no sense at all.  Some have argued that it's better for him to continue to develop as a hitter rather than sit on the bench in September.  

That notion is garbage.

Buster Posey did just fine after spending most of last September on the bench.  Plus, the Giants have the opportunity to get Belt some exposure to a pennant race without having to rely on him to carry the team.  He can soak all of this September baseball up and the Arizona Fall League will still be there when the season is over.

I hope the Giants realize this.