J Russell Mikkelsen's San Francisco Giants fan blog

Giants up, facing Billingsley.

Nate Shierholtz is pinch hitting for Medders. Groundball to third. He looks safe to me and it is called SAFE! Replay shows that it was as close as a play can be. He may have been out. But it is way too close to tell. Great hustle play by Schierholtz.

Lewis is fighting but really he should have had a hit by now. Many of these pitches are missing up and over the plate. Billingsley is finally showing signs off weakness. Double play. Strike out, throw him out. Lewis whiffed and the play on the steal attempt wasn't even close. Disappointing at bat.

Winn is going to strike out on the same inside slider that he's swung through five times already today... Yup. I was right.

Continue reading "Dodgers at Giants, Bottom of the Seventh"

Dodgers up, facing Medders.

Manny leads off and works it to a full count from 0-2. Aaaaand opposite field double... again. He's good. Tell me why the Giants didn't pursue him again?

With one out, the Giants are walking Eithier to get to Kemp. I do not understand this. Kemp lines it to center. Bases juiced. Tell me again, why did we walk Ethier to get to Kemp? 

Medders is pitching so well. He is working the corners but the Ump isn't giving him much at all. He can get us out of this. Medders loses control of a 3-2 pitch. Way outside. Dodgers walk in a run.

Blake chops it back to the pitcher. 1-2-3 double play.

DODGERS 3 GIANTS 2

Continue reading "Dodgers at Giants, Top of the Seventh"

Giants up, facing Billingsley.

Ishikawa's been struggling, but he just took a pitch that was initally behind him, right in the ankle. Hey, any way you can get on base is okay by me.

Uribe's up. Why don't they save us some time and change the sides right now? Eat my words? Don't mind if I do!! Uribe nails it to center field, well over Kemp's head. Ishikawa is held at third. Wise decision. He hesitated off the bat and so didn't have a chance.

One out, runners on second and third, Burriss at the plate, and the fans are chanting BEAT LA! BEAT LA! BEAT LA!

Burriss smokes one towards right. Loney nabs it and doubles up Ishikawa at third all the way across the diamond. Rookie mistake. Let's hope it doesn't cost us the game.

Continue reading "Dodgers at Giants, Bottom of the Sixth"

Dodgers up, facing Justin Miller.

Matt Kemp wisely tries to steal. Bengie Molina throws well, well off the bag towards first base. But Kemp is so absurdly slow that he still got tagged out. He got tagged so far from the bag that he hadn't even begun his slide yet, and never bothered. That is the first runner I've seen Molina throw out this year out of maybe 15 attempts. I don't know what his actual stats are. Those are just the ones I've seen.

Line drive just gets passed Uribe. Had he jumped more than 0.5 inches off the ground, maybe he would've caught it. Did I mention I wish Uribe weren't a Giant? 2 on, one out.

Perfect bunt by Billingsley, towards first, dies after 15-30 feet, puts them at second and third with two outs.

With the count at 2-0 to Furcal, Bochy (and I) is fed up. Miller's out. Brandon Medders (who I like) is coming in.

Continue reading "Dodgers at Giants, Top of the Sixth"

Giants up, facing Billingsley.

I hate the Dodgers. Sandoval wanted a hit and Loney makes a great doving stop of a hard, low grounder that's hugging the line. It looked like a hit the whole way, but Loney got there and made the play. Impressive.

Bengie just struck out swinging on a ball in the dirt. His last cut connected for a foul ball that broke his bat so he went and got a new one. He put some "stick 'em" as Krukow explained on the handle before getting in the batter's box. I'd never heard of it, but apparently it's needed and Bengie didn't use enough because on the strike out swing, he lost hold of the bat completely and it ended up at third. Maybe losing the bat distracted him because the ball squirted well away from Martin. He could have made it to first but instead he walked straight to the dugout. Oh well.

Continue reading "Dodgers at Giants, Bottom of the Fifth"

Dodgers up, facing Jonathon Sanchez.

Two change ups in the same spot, back-to-back, strikes out Furcal. Good pitching. 

Sanchez is still missing the occasional pitch anywhere from 4-6 geet off the plate, usually high and away. Hey, if it works for him...  Manny took him to town, though. Good thing it's impossible to hit home runs in this stadium because that off the wall, opposite field double is gone almost anywhere else.

Martin walks and Righetti is talking to Sanchez. Kuiper says, "Dave is going to challenge Sanchez to finish this inning." Sanchez answers. Slow groundball to second. Great sliding play by Burriss who stops the ball with his ches, throws from his knees and makes the play.

Three gone. Still 2 to 2.

Continue reading "Dodgers at Giants, Top of the Fifth"

Giants up, facing Chad Billingsley.

That was such an uneventful inning; it just ended and I already forgot everything that happened.

Continue reading "Dodgers at Giants, Bottom of the Fourth"

Sanchez just let one of his 6 feet off the plate pitches get too far out of Molina's reach. Ethier is at second now.

Randy Winn is great in right field. He caught a fly he's supposed to catch but he positioned himself and timed his run so well that Ethier didn't dare go for third. That's an important 90 feet because that was the first out of the inning.

Ishikawa can't pick up a throw at first in the dirt and Ethier scores. Uribe, supposedly a veteran, had plenty of time to make the throw and didn't throw hard, but still can't make it without abounce. Please get this failed athlete off our team. Somebody. Please.

Casey Blake hit one hiiiiiiiiiigh to left and I bet you Lewis was thinking, "Don'tdropit.Don'tdropit.Don'tdropit.Don'tdropit." I know I was. He didn't.

Continue reading "Dodgers at Giants, Top of the Fourth"

Fred Lewis just got beaned in the foot on a super sliding slider. The pitch did not look like it was going to be within 6 inches of him. It broke hard. As long as he misses that much, I don't mind.

Randy Winn got a hit through the hole on the right side because James Loney was busy holding Lewis on the bag at first. Now Lewis takes third on a ball in the dirt that Martin stopped. But Lewis was so ready for it that he got there.

SAFE!! Sandy (Pablo) hit a squirly grounder up the middle. I don't know what part of the bat he made contact with, perhaps he just got a small piece with the end of the bat. But it took some unnatural turns once it hit the grass. And Sandoval took his whole bowl full of jelly and beat out the throw. RBI for Pablo. 

With the bases loaded after walking Rowand, Ishikawa gets the Giants another infield hit. Every base hit in this inning has come on a ground ball. This one was up the middle and 2B Hudson made an impressive dive to get to the ball but couldn't get it out of his glove. Everybody's safe.

Continue reading "Dodgers at Giants, Bottom of the Third"

Furcal, like many speedy hitters, tries to bunt it to third because Sandoval's reputation of being a slow third baseman spread through the NL as quickly as his waist line at Thanksgiving dinner. But his bunt was terrible. It went up and floated to Pablo on one bounce. Furcal still came close to a bunt single though, that's how slow Sandoval is.

Sanchez just missed two pitches to Russell Martin by about 6 feet. Next one was in the strike zone and Martin is out on a groundball to third.

Continue reading "Dodgers at Giants, Top of the Third"