Well, that sure started out fucking ugly. Like, Courtney Love after a night of bindge drinking and cocaine use, ugly. Her I mean, not you – unless you’re into that type of thing. And if you are, then well, I don’t think she’d look ugly….
Um, yea, anyway – Tim Lincecum was hit hard and he just looked very un-Lincecum like. Twice, once during warmups and once during an at-bat, Lincecum had the ball come flying wildly out of his grip. He nor the Giants brass seemed all that concerned at the time – Timmy Jim even cracked a smile, but it certainly had me thinking a recurrence of the blister problem that plagued him earlier this year. His command and velocity were both off but he warrior-ed through the game as best he could.
The game itself was pretty wild. Lincecum hit Matt Kemp which Kemp, of course, took offense to. Considering the score and situation, I don’t think Lincecum was trying to hit Kemp. But I’m sure the whole stealing late with a 5-run lead Kemp pulled earlier this year against the Giants was in the back of his mind as to why a fastball came his way. Along with the bean ball war between Lincecum and Kershaw, we had a big time error that lead to a Giants rally in the sixth when they put up three runs, tightening the score to a 5-4 defecit.
It stayed that way until the bottom of the 9th when all hell broke loose and Bruce Bochy, well, he fucking owned. I know I get on Bruce a lot (and rightfully so), but tonight he shined.
With Jonathan Broxton on the mound, the Giants forced a mini rally after Juan Uribe singled and Edgar Renteria walked in an impressive at-bat. Aaron Rowand was the next batter and he laid down a perfect sacrifice bunt. Yes, I was just as shocked as you were, if not more. Aubrey Huff, who didn’t start last night was called up to pinch hit and the Dodgers promptly walked him to load the bases with one out. And this is where it gets fun…
With Joe Torre out of the game, Don Mattingly took over duties of handling the club. So after Broxton walked Huff to load the bases, Mattingly came out to talk to his pitcher and walked off the mound after a 10-15 second meeting. But then he stopped, as either Broxton or a member of the infield said something to him and he proceeded to walk back onto the mound for maybe two to three words and went back into the dugout. Moments after, Bochy comes running onto the field…talks to the homeplate umpire and they all have their fantastic umpire like pow-wow. After a short discussion, it was decided that Donnie Baseball had indeed made two trips to the mound, a no-no. Once you leave the mound, you can not return – and Mr. Baseball did exactly that.
The umpires quickly told Broxton he was out of the game and the Dodgers needed to bring in a new pitcher. And that pitcher, George Sherrill had about 8 pitches to warm up. It looked like it. Andres Torres hit a bomb into the left-center gap knocking in two runs. Buster Posey then followed with an RBI single. Jeremy Affeldt came in and closed the door for the over-worked Brian Wilson and the Giants, somehow, left the ballpark last night with a win…all thanks to a technicality.
So, good on you Boch – that was a wonderful eye that changed the course of that game.