Friday, June 17, 2005

Giants win! G-g-g-g-g-g-g-Giants win!

Vying for the two most annoying homer announcer calls must be Ken Harrelson of the White Sox with his, "You can put it on the boooooooard...YES!" crap, or John Sterling and his "Yankees win! The-uh-e-uh-e-uh-e-uh Yankees win!" call to conclude...what else? Yankees victories.

Could be that my seething hatred for these two ballclubs could have something to do with it...nah, nevermind. Those calls just suck, that's all.

Anyhow, go, look, and be amazed at the 2nd Giants win in a row; a 14-7 victory over the Minnesota Twins. ESPN's headline reads, "Giants offense comes alive with 18 hits...", ignoring the fact that they just had 14 hits two days ago.

I'm a much happier camper. The Giants have beaten a good team in the Twins on the road in two out of three games, and the Royals have swept the Yankees and Dodgers in the last couple of weeks. It's almost enough to make me wanna...go make a sammich. Ham sammich.

From last night's game:

  • Somebody get the water hose, because Omar Vizquel and Son Alou are on fiya. Vizquel has gone eight for his last 11, raising his batting average 21 points in two games, and Moises is trying to be the single most important hitter on the ballclub, with seven singles in his last eight at-bats (his batting average rose 27 points). Omar's driven in six runs over the last two games.
  • Pedro Feliz is trying to snap out of his slump, as he went 3-5 last night, but he still looks lost most of the time...ah, nevermind. Feliz reached 40 RBI with the three in yesterday's game. Yep, that oughta fetch sumthin' in a trade...Pedro Feliz, RBI Man!
  • Ray-Ray Durham is trying to heat back up again like some Memorial Day BBQ. He got cold in the last week after his hot streak, but now is heating back up, and none too soon for Brian Sabean to shop his 7 million dollar makin' ass around. Course, trading Durham would make my nicer Giants jersey obsolete...2-5 last night for Ray Ray, and that SLG has finally reached .400. May it never dip below .400 again. He needs to clean up the freaking defense, though, after a silly whiff on a well deserved out served up by Yorvit Torrealba on a steal attempt at 2nd base. Perfect throw, and Durham just missed it. Yech.
  • That was a bunch of bullpen! Jason Christiansen (who is starting to piece together a serviceable season, I must admit), rookie Jack Taschner, and Grizzled Vet Jeff Fassero all pitched well to keep the Twins from scoring again after Brett Tomko showed all of you why I say he's Jeckyll & Hyde on the mound -- 4.2 innings, 9 hits, 7 earned runs allowed. Definitely Doc Jeck last night.
  • By the way, I thought this merited it's own bullet -- kudos must be given to Sabes for hanging onto Fassero. He's turned out to be one useful dude.
  • Torrealba with the good day at the plate...hey, seems like a good time to ask this. Has anyone seen Mike Matheny do anything this year that Yorvit couldn't? I mean, really? Matheny hasn't exactly failed expectations, but then, I wasn't expecting much to begin with.
  • Another rookie, Adam Shabala, picking himself up a couple RBI's in his first major league game, in addition to a couple of towering fly balls that he barely missed sending out of the park. Seems to have some pop, he does.

And the Giants actually gained a game in the standings, as the Padres were swept as well as the Dodgers. The NL West has been getting pimp-slapped by the AL Central thus far, going a collective 15-30 against the supposedly weak division of the AL (which really isn't true anymore). The Giants are 3-6, the D-Backs and Dodgers went 4-5, and the Rockies and Padres both went 2-7.

Ouch.

I hate to even mention this, but with the struggles of the entire division, well, it's a thought...of the Giants next 20 games, 10 are against the 1st and 2nd place teams in the division (seven vs. Arizona and three vs. San Diego), and another seven games are against teams with poor records (the A's and the Reds).

The Giants would have to rum rampant through all that, going something like 14-6 and winning almost every game against Arizona and San Diego, but...well, it's there. Feeble, cold, hungry, and tired -- but it's there.

I can't always be the Harbinger of Doom, can I?


1 comment:

Matt Morea said...

That's Sterling's win call. His home run call is wayyy more annoying: "It is HIGH, it is FARRR, it is GONNNEE!" At least you don't have to put up with that in between his 4,000 hypothetical managerial moves and sponsorship of things like the 15th out (to remind you that 15 minutes can save you 15% on car insurance).