I wanted to throw this post up tonight really quickly before I go to sleep. Tonight’s topic: Madison Bumgarner is awesome.
Thoughts before I turn in:
* Bumgarner was simply brilliant. The left-hander’s line: 8 IP, 0 ER , 3 H, 6 SO, 2 BB. If my math is correct, that’s a Game Score of 80. Bumgarner was in the zone all night long and the Rangers seemed a little passive against the fastball. The Rangers took 18 called strikes out of 44 four-seam fastballs from Bumgarner. Part of that might been the zone, but Bumgarner isn’t Jonathan Sanchez and a more aggressive approach might have made sense.
* I can’t give Freddy Sanchez enough credit for his defense. He was all over the place tonight and made several very nice plays. Great game from Freddy.
* Andres Torres put together an excellent game. The Giants’ spark plug went 3-5 with 2 doubles, 1 RBI, and a run scored. He also stole a base in the 1st inning.
* I like the OF defense when it’s Ross-Torres-Schierholtz. It might be a little light on offense, but the outfield ran down just about everything in the game. If I had my druthers, I would move Burrell to DH tomorrow against Lee and leave the OF setup as is.
* The hitters did a good job against Tommy Hunter, making him throw a lot of pitches early in the game. He threw 21, 23, and 25 pitches over the first 3 innings. The Giants fouled off a ton of balls to drive up Hunter’s pitch count. By the end of the 3rd inning, Giants’ hitters had fouled off 17 pitches — including 10 in the 3rd — of 69 total pitches.
* Posey had an impressive at-bat against righty killer — Darren O’Day — in the 8th inning. Posey homered on 2-2 changeup that landed over the center field wall. O’Day held right-handed batters to a .542 OPS with just 5 home runs over the regular season. In the World Series he has already given up 2 home runs to RHBs.
Terrific game to win. The biggest advantage is that it ensures that the Giants will head back to San Francisco — if needed — with a series lead. Tomorrow the team will get another tough assignment in Cliff Lee. The Giants will counter with Tim Lincecum.
One more win.
