Giants Win Home Opener (and Raise the Banner!)

Today was perfect and exciting to kick off the Giants Home Opening…maybe a little TOO exciting. It looked to be a beautiful day at AT&T Park. The sun was shining over the bay and the Giants got to hang their 2010 World Series Champion banner. It was a beautiful sight, especially seeing Brian Wilson run it across the field to somewhere near the scoreboard where all the flags are raised.

To complete the day, the Giants beat the St. Louis Cardinals by a score of 5-4 in 12 innings. I had some stuff written up when I thought the Giants were going to win 3-2 before Wilson blew the save in the 9th and allowed 2 runs. You can read that below, but after leaving a few runners stranded on 3rd base in extra innings, Aaron Rowand, yes, Aaron Rowand, got it done on Opening Day…just like last year. I take back most of the bad stuff I said about him, as long as he keeps playing like that.

This game was dramatic….and yes, torturous.

Jonathan Sanchez was on the mound and despite a slow start walking the first two batters he faced and allowing a stolen base, he pulled himself together by the 4th batter. In the 5 full innings he pitched, he struck out 7 and allowed 1 run on 4 hits.

The Giants defense looked better than in LA and Sandoval turned a nice looking double play on Pujols that he wouldn’t have made a year ago. Tejada has his first home run as a Giant, evening up the game 1-1  in the 3rd. Freddy Sanchez added an RBI double that inning to give the G-Men a 2-1 lead.

In the bottom of the 6th, Pat Burrell went long for a homer right over  center field. If you are keeping track, that’s his third home run in only 4 hits this year. His batting average sucks right now, but chances are, if he gets a hit, it’s going out of the park. Brandon Belt also got his first hit in AT&T Park, a double, right after Burrell’s home run.

The Giants should have won at this point. But Wilson loaded the bases in the 9th and blew the save. I’ll cut him some slack since he’s just off the DL, but boy does he keep it interesting. The rest was just pure torture until Aaron Rowand nearly hit the ball out of the park with 2 outs and runners on 2nd and 3rd in the bottom of the 12th. You knew when he hit it, it was possibly gone. It wasn’t, but luckily, it hit the wall and the fielders couldn’t make the catch. It allowed plenty of time for a runner to come home.

Runzler gets the W; Wilson gets the BS. Go figure.