Giants Come From Behind to Beat Astros, 3-2

The San Francisco Giants had a ‘come from behind’ win last night over the Houston Astros. Not that beating the Astros is really some proud accomplishment that deserves credit. However, the Giants did do a few things with the bats of the pinch hitters last night. By the way, the Giants are atrocious at pinch hitting. Prior to last night’s game, the Giants pinch hitters were hitting .177, which put them dead last in the National League when it comes to pinch hitting.

Last night was a different story though. With the Giants down 2-1 heading into the 9th, Joaquin Arias and Hector Sanchez were able to knock in the tying and winning runs as pinch hitters off the bench. Given some of the other bats we have, it was two somewhat unlikely heroes in an even more unlikely scenario.  Angel Paganalso homered in the 5th, his 8th, to score the first run of the game. When the night was all said and done, there was a familiar team on the field; a team most fans aren’t crazy about that was 1-for-12 with runners in score position and 8 left on base. The hits were coming (9 on the night), but the runs were hard to come by.

Matt Cain, who is more than familiar with lackluster run support, was fairly solid. He pitched 7.1 innings, giving up 2 earned runs. His costliest error of the night came in the top of the 8th, after allowing runners on 2nd and 3rd. Cain threw a wild pitch to Tyler Greene, allowing Jimmy Paredes to score from 3rd. Santiago Casilla came in, promptly caught Greene on a steal attempt of 2nd base, issues a walk, and got the final out of the inning. Romo closed out the 9th after Arias and Sanchez did their work. Casilla got the win and Romo got the save. The Giants also got to sleep last night knowing they didn’t blow the opening game of a series against the Astros.

Lest we forget though, Pablo Sandoval and Brandon Crawford made what was no doubt the play of the game, if not one of the top plays of the season for the Giants. Sandoval bobbled a pop up, using this glove to pop it back up in the air and Crawford made a diving catch of it. I’m not sure there is any writer alive that could accurately describe what the play actually looked like, and how amusing and amazing it was, so I’ll leave you with this: Crawford’s Awesome Grab