Giants Win Actual Game, Somehow Beat Mets 7-6

Published by on May 3, 2011 | 4 Responses

Pat Burrell creepily approves...

Well now, this game had it all:

* Mike Fontenot hitting third and driving in a couple of runs. I was shocked to learn that this wasn’t the first time in Fontenot’s career that he has batted third, previous to tonight’s game, he had 14 career at-bats in the three hole.

* Brian Wilson had a clean 9th, for the most part. He gave up a single to Jose Reyes with two outs, but quickly rebounded to make some good pitches to Daniel Murphy to end the game. Wilson has looked shaky at times this season, and for the Giants, getting back the vintage Wilson from 2009-2010 would be a nice boost.

* Ryan Vogelsong didn’t look very sharp. The journeyman pitched just four innings while giving up five earned runs. In the first inning, Beltran knocked a three-run home run off of Vogelsong. Following the first, Vogelsong battled control problems — issuing four walks on the evening — as his pitch count elevated to 83 pitches before exiting the game. Unlike his Pittsburgh start, Vogelsong didn’t strike out many hitters, just two in the game. For most of the night, the Mets made good, solid contact against him.

* The bottom of the 9th inning might have been the most single frustrating inning this season for the Giants on offense. The Mets brought in Francisco Rodriguez to start the inning and Emmanuel Burriss reached first base on a weak infield hit. Burriss then proceeded to steal second base and he was followed by a Darren Ford bunt single. On Ford’s bunt hit, Burriss raced to third with no outs. The Giants then put together the following sequence: Rowand pop-out to first base (Ford moves to 2B), Tejada pop-out to second base, Fontenot intentionally walked, Posey flyout to center field. Walking Fontenot to get to Posey was a weird move, but it worked for the Mets. Awful sequence of events.

* The Giants took the lead in the top of the 10th inning when Aubrey Huff launched a solo home run into the RF seats off of Taylor Bucholz. Huff is now batting a cool .190/.254/.314

* Next to Huff, maybe the biggest play of the game belonged to Javier Lopez, who while pitching in the 9th, loaded the bases with just one out. Lopez recovered to get Josh Thole to hit a weak tapper back to the mound which went 1-2-3 for the double play to end the frame. Bochy might want to reconsider letting Lopez pitch to too many RHBs this year — they own a career .797 OPS against the LOOGY.

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Damon T
Damon T

The top of the 9th was beyond frustrating. Is anybody else baffled as to why Tejada, when the game is on the line, seems to have only two plate approaches? 1) Fight off pitch after pitch, generating an epic at-bat in which you hope to somehow, anywhow, get the runner in (e.g. Colby Rasmus dropping the ball). 2) Swing at the first pitch at your ankles.

hairball
hairball

Worth noting that in the 9th, the Rowand and Tejada pop-ups were both either first or second pitch shenanigans, if I'm not mistaken. Totally unacceptable.

Rory Paap
Rory Paap

I was thinking the same thing in the ninth, but it sort of made sense to have Lopez pitch. Well, it was a neutral decision anyway. Wright is a righty, sure, but Beltran is a switch hitter with minimal split (slightly better as a RHH, which I was surprised to learn). Ike Davis crushes righties, and Bochy presumably wanted Lopez for him with Affeldt and Runzler already burned. Thole is left-handed too. Romo might not have been a better choice, when you think about it. Oh ya, and it worked. I'm hard pressed to believe Huff busted his slump on one swing during a 4-44 skid.