Bay Area Sports Blogging

Jose Castillo had not hit a homerun in 450 previous at-bats, but he was able to crank one into the left field bleacher seats against Ryan Speier which eventually became the winning run. Incidentally, Speier struck out Castillo on the same type of pitch two games ago.

Fred Lewis made a fantastic diving catch to keep the Giants up 3-2 on the Rockies in the 7th inning. He totally laid out for the ball, an all-or-nothing play as mentioned by the announcers. The play made it onto ESPN's Baseball Tonight's Top Five Web Gems in the #1 slot.

Jonathan Sanchez was not as sharp as in his previous game. He averaged 20 pitches an inning and was only able to last 5 2/3. The five walks he gave up did not help either.

The pitchers on the Giants' staff seems to really feed off one another both positively and negatively. When the previous starter is sharp, the next guy is sharp and vice versa. Cain and Lincecum had to work through control problems in their games and Sanchez had to do the same in his.

This game was one of the few games that we can say the Giants won by the long ball. Aaron Rowand hit his second of the year off Ubaldo Jimenez to give the Giants the lead and Castillo hit his first to solidify the win. Sandwiched in between was an RBI single by Randy Winn to score Lewis.

If a game ball had to be handed out to someone, it would definitely have to split among the bullpen members. Whenever the Giants take the lead into the late innings, the bullpen seems to shut the door on the opposition. This game was no different.

After Sanchez left, Merkin Valdez came into the game throwing heat. Valdez's fastball hit the high 90s and he was able to paint them on the corners. If he keeps it up, he will definitely see the role of a closer in the future.

Tyler Walker has been consistent. Every time he comes into the game, I always get worried though. I don't know why. He just seems to be effectively wild. But, he has been money this season, notching his sixth hold of the season working the 8th.

Brian Wilson is getting the job done, tallying up his 9th save in 10 chances. My only complaint would be to see him make the save without having to put runners on. They guy has the ability to locate his cut fastball at the knees on either side of the plate, but he just seems to get into full count situations way too much.