Crawford Single Wins in Walk-Off; Giants 3, Padres 2

Things happen in the first inning and ninth inning of this game and there was a good pitching duel in between. Madison Bumgarner pitched 7.0 innings of 2 run ball. Somewhere in between, quite possibly the best double play happened. Angel Pagan caught a Carlos Quentin fly ball in the left center field gap. Pagan relayed to Brandon Crawford, who threw a strike to Brandon Belt (at first) to double off Chase Headley who was half way to third base. The play was amazing and you can watch it here: Angel Pagan Double Play

Madison Bumgarner pitched 7 innings and gave up two runs in the second inning. Ironically he gave up the game tying hit to the opposing pitcher, that’s got to be the biggest annoyance of the whole game. Oh wait! There were other annoyances, such as the umpire who missed the Brandon Crawford double yesterday was behind the plate tonight and his strike zone looked like the twilight zone opening credit.

The Giants started off the game looking good getting two runs on three hits. Nate Schierholtz started the game with a double followed by a Ryan Theriot single. Melky Cabrera grounded out and Schierholtz scored the first run of the game. After Buster Posey grounded out, Pablo Sandoval doubled to get Theriot home. Then the bats went silent for seven innings, there were walks but, no hits to get the runners home.

Bottom of the ninth, Brandon Belt leads off the inning (for the injured Pablo Sandoval, see below.) Every Giants fan including myself thought *sigh*. You could hear a collective “UGH” in Northern California. Then the count went 3 and 2, and there was another collective “UGH.” Next were two fouls balls and I was thinking strike but, Brandon Belt proved me wrong and he had a leadoff walk. Then Angel Pagan singled Brandon Belt over. Runners on first and second, no outs and Brandon Crawford to the plate. He was instructed to bunt, but something special happened, a passed ball. Pagan and Belt advanced to second and third base respectively. Next pitch a single up the middle, Belt scores, Giants win. Bring on the sweep tomorrow!

In other news Melky Cabrera got a hit. I don’t know if he has a streak but, I think since the all star break he’s hit in every game. Pablo Sandoval injured his hamstring on another double play in the third inning, basically doing the splits.

Tim Lincecum goes for the sweep tomorrow. Sweeping teams has been difficult for the Giants this year and it was mainly due to the aforementioned pitcher. Lincecum has done well in his last two starts so, hopefully he can complete the sweep of the Padres and have good momentum when facing the Dodgers on Friday.