Monday, May 11, 2009
Giants Win Series Against Dodgers; Casey Blake Is Apparently a Total Prick
All the Manny madness overshadowed the Giants taking two of three from the Dodgers this weekend. It ain't pretty, but as long as the wins roll in, who really cares? I know one thing, and that's that I've probably had my fill of bases loaded, none out situations where the Giants can only plate one runner, and that coming on a slow chopper.
Friday: I got a good laugh when Juan Pierre was gunned down trying to steal third with Andre Ethier at the plate early in the ballgame. I could just picture Dodger fans everywhere exercising their gag reflexes watching their Manny replacement piss away a rally in an act of unbelievable stupidity.
Do we dare to believe that Barry Zito is back? He's now strung together four straight solid starts, his velocity is up, his changeup is looking mean, and his control has been terrific. What's going on here? The whole Zito is overpaid/sucks punchline has been the flapping dickey go-to joke for many a Giants blogger for more than two years now. Suddenly he has his stuff together? What are we to do?
Seriously though, I say a little prayer every night now begging for this to be the Zito norm for the rest of this season and, hell, the rest of his contract. I'm just too terrified to get my hopes up, though.
Saturday: Jonathan Sanchez walked a lot of batters and Eric Stults did his best Tom Glavine impression. Wait, that's not fair. Against this Giants offense, vintage Tom Glavine probably would have pitched a perfect game, so I guess this is just Stults impersonating any mediocre, soft-tossing lefty when he faces the '09 Giants.
Sunday: It was an epic kind of game, but I missed the last half due to Mother's Day stuff. Brian Wilson blew his second save of the year when he served up a tomater to Casey Blake in the 12th inning. The Giants won the game in the next inning, but the story didn't end there. Apparently Blake got back to the dugout and started mocking Wilson's endgame salute to his late father. The two teams don't meet again until August, so any potential animosity will probably have been cooled by then.
All right, so Blake is a dick and it clearly didn't take long for the evil Dodger symbiote to engulf his body. I will say one thing to those who want to see some broken rib cage action in future encounters: Wilson only comes in to close out games, obviously, so if he drills Blake and puts a runner on in a save situation it's pretty damn dumb, no matter how justifiably pissed off he may be. Wilson is better off just striking Blake out and yelling at him to go eff himself or something.
Two of three from the now Manny-less* Dodgers, with the Giants now returning home to face the crappy Nationals. Before we get too complacent, though, the Nats aren't that bad. Their pitching is atrocious, but they have a solid lineup that can plate runs. They're seen as a joke, but they won't be pushovers.
*My favorite part of the ManRam saga is when one source claimed that the substance Manny tested positive for was simply prescribed to him to treat sexual dysfunction. As a friend of mine remarked: "I think I'd rather be known as a steroid cheat than a guy whose dong doesn't work."
Friday: I got a good laugh when Juan Pierre was gunned down trying to steal third with Andre Ethier at the plate early in the ballgame. I could just picture Dodger fans everywhere exercising their gag reflexes watching their Manny replacement piss away a rally in an act of unbelievable stupidity.
Do we dare to believe that Barry Zito is back? He's now strung together four straight solid starts, his velocity is up, his changeup is looking mean, and his control has been terrific. What's going on here? The whole Zito is overpaid/sucks punchline has been the flapping dickey go-to joke for many a Giants blogger for more than two years now. Suddenly he has his stuff together? What are we to do?
Seriously though, I say a little prayer every night now begging for this to be the Zito norm for the rest of this season and, hell, the rest of his contract. I'm just too terrified to get my hopes up, though.
Saturday: Jonathan Sanchez walked a lot of batters and Eric Stults did his best Tom Glavine impression. Wait, that's not fair. Against this Giants offense, vintage Tom Glavine probably would have pitched a perfect game, so I guess this is just Stults impersonating any mediocre, soft-tossing lefty when he faces the '09 Giants.
Sunday: It was an epic kind of game, but I missed the last half due to Mother's Day stuff. Brian Wilson blew his second save of the year when he served up a tomater to Casey Blake in the 12th inning. The Giants won the game in the next inning, but the story didn't end there. Apparently Blake got back to the dugout and started mocking Wilson's endgame salute to his late father. The two teams don't meet again until August, so any potential animosity will probably have been cooled by then.
All right, so Blake is a dick and it clearly didn't take long for the evil Dodger symbiote to engulf his body. I will say one thing to those who want to see some broken rib cage action in future encounters: Wilson only comes in to close out games, obviously, so if he drills Blake and puts a runner on in a save situation it's pretty damn dumb, no matter how justifiably pissed off he may be. Wilson is better off just striking Blake out and yelling at him to go eff himself or something.
Two of three from the now Manny-less* Dodgers, with the Giants now returning home to face the crappy Nationals. Before we get too complacent, though, the Nats aren't that bad. Their pitching is atrocious, but they have a solid lineup that can plate runs. They're seen as a joke, but they won't be pushovers.
*My favorite part of the ManRam saga is when one source claimed that the substance Manny tested positive for was simply prescribed to him to treat sexual dysfunction. As a friend of mine remarked: "I think I'd rather be known as a steroid cheat than a guy whose dong doesn't work."
