I went to Sunday's game, and enjoyed another strong outing from Brad Penny - this time against his former team the Dodgers in a 7-2 Giants' win. Penny is now 3-0 in the orange-and-black. After two disastrous games Friday and Saturday, the Giants finally got the offense going with seven runs on fifteen hits; knocking Chad Billingsley out of the game after just four-innings. Juan Uribe really set the tone with an early two-run home run that barely cleared the wall in left. Uribe and Travis Ishikawa each banged out three hits, while Sanchez, Sandoval, and Winn each contributed two hits. It was nice to see Sanchez come through with a clutch two-run single to cap off that four-run, sixth-inning rally. Billingsley hasn't been at his best over the past month or so, and L.A. fans had better hope he rights the ship in time for the play-offs. It was odd that Torre pulled him after only 70 pitches and six K'S through four. However, it was Jeff Weaver who gave it up in relief, allowing four earned. Once the real strength of the Dodgers' bullpen got the ball, they shut things down the rest of the way. L.A.'s starting rotation may be questionable, but that bully is rock solid, especially with the trade deadline acquisition of extra-closer George Sherrill from Baltimore as a set-up man for Broxton.
Some observations about the atmosphere Sunday. I can't remember the last time I went to A.T.& T. Park with both my sunscreen and rain gear. It did sprinkle a bit and was quite dark most of the day, but the sun did make a couple of brief cameos. And when I would actually begin to apply some sunscreen, inevitably, the sun went back into hiding behind the clouds. Also, it's amazing how many Dodger fans were at the yard. It was interesting to hear the back-and-forth cheers out in the bleachers: "let's go Dodgers" would be drowned out by "let's go Giants." A lot of blue everywhere, including the two guys who were sitting next to me. Fortunately, they were not the obnoxious-type, and we had some good baseball discussions through the game. In fact, I was commenting about Russell Martin's season-long offensive slump, and BOOM - a two-run shot to left-center. It was the second homer in as many days for Martin, and I wonder what kind of advantage he had at the plate Sunday after serving as Penny's catcher for two years. It was the only real mistake made by Penny, who was able to consistently wiggle out of trouble and keep the Dodgers at bay. Penny was obviously pumped-up, and didn't have the best control, falling behind in many counts. And despite only striking out two hitters through seven-innings, he made the pitches when he had to, and made the Dodgers get themselves out most of the time.
Anyway, it was nice to finally shut-up all those L.A. fans after they crowed at the top of their lungs through the first two games of the series. And to top it off, the Rockies actually lost a game Sunday; setting the stage for the HUGE three game series here in San Francisco beginning tonight. All indications point to Tim Lincecum making his scheduled start after skipping last week's turn in the rotation with lower back stiffness. After Matt Cain and Jonathan Sanchez failed to get the job done over the weekend, let's hope that Penny's role as "stopper" Sunday will turn over a new leaf for the starters. The Rockies are due to cool off a bit, and San Diego did help stop their momentum, as they also tripped us up last week. Let's keep the positive trend going tonight and pick-up some ground.
