Another game, another nail biting win for the San Francisco Giants to extend their win streak to three games.
Jonathan Sanchez was dealing tonight against the Cincinnati Reds, striking out ten batters in eight innings putting him into a tie with Tim Lincecum for the team lead. Sanchez was not even laboring through looking for the strikeouts either. His pitch count was very economical, heading into the ninth inning he had thrown only 99 pitches.
The one blemish of the night for Sanchez was the homer he gave up to Brandon Phillips in the ninth inning. Although, Bengie Molina should take equal blame in that at-bat. Phillips was on top of Sanchez's fastball throughout the entire at-bat, but Molina kept on calling for it again and again.
However, I understand where Molina was coming from. All night long, the Reds' hitters swung through Sanchez's fastball. Nine of the ten strikeouts were swing through strikeouts. The number of swing through on his fastball for Sanchez was close to 20. David Ross and Joey Votto were three time victims and even the great slugger Ken Griffey Jr. struck out twice.
There may be a little criticism with Bengie Molina's love for calling the fastball, there can be no criticism for Molina's clutch hitting with RISP and two strikes/two outs. Molina did it again in this game, twice in fact. The first came with two outs and two strikes with Velez at 2nd. Molina doubled him home, if he were a bit faster that well may have been a triple. The second came with Velez at third and two strikes. Avoiding the inning-ending double play, Molina popped the ball out to center field to score Velez giving the Giants a much needed insurance run.
Brian Wilson has been money lately in a save situation. He was brought in again tonight to attempt his 3rd save in as many days. With a man on, Wilson struck out Jerry Hairston Jr. with a nice cutter on the inside corner, induced a groundout from Griffey and popped out Erwin Encarnacion. Wilson's 8th save on the season puts him in a tie for the NL saves lead.
Molina's clutch hitting and Wilson's tough save are both highlights, but Sanchez's outstanding pitching performance was the gem of the night. Hats off to the kid!
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