Bay Area Sports Blogging

The Giants were able to experience a sweep on both ends.  Sweeping the Nationals brought ultimate joys while getting swept by the A's brought only misery and disappointment. 

Tuesday, June 3, 2008 :: Giants 6 - Mets 9

The Mets bounced back from the shalacking they received the night before on Pedro Martinez's comeback start.  Martinez even had a few RBIs to help his cause as the Giants' Cy Young winner loses yet another game. 

Wednesday, June 4, 2008 :: Giants 3 - Mets 5

The path to Barry Zito's win was tough for the team, having to endure a six-game losing streak. But, it was all worth it when Zito finally was able to get his first win of the season, against the same Marlins that gave Brandon Webb his first loss of the season.

Monday, May 12, 2008 :: Giants 3 - Astros 7

Barry Zito had a quality start against the Astros, limiting them to 3 runs in 6 innings. The bullpen was unable to hold the Astros down afterwards, giving up 4 runs in the next two innings. Lance Berkman was the star of the game as he has been for the entire season. He jacked a two run homer to chase Zito out of the game thus ensuring Zito would not get his first win against the Astros.

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.

With the game tied 2-2, Bengie Molina called for a timeout. The home plate umpire, crew chief Gary Darling, called out timeout and raised his arms to stop play. Tim Lincecum stopped his pitching motion and stepped off the rubber. Darling then calls balk and the run from third scored.

Up to that point, Tim Lincecum pitched a decent game. His control was not as good as in his previous games, but he was able to get out of jams unscathed.

The last victory Matt Cain had was in last August against these same Colorado Rockies eleven games ago. In the span of ten games between the wins, he had a 0-5 record and the San Francisco Giants scored an average of 1.4 runs per game in support.

This night started well for Cain on the offensive side of the ball. Emmanuel Burriss, making a start at short, bunted for a single in the bottom of the first and moved to 2nd on a balk from Franklin Morales. Ray Durham singled him home and promptly stole second. Aaron Rowand drilled a single over Troy Tulowitzki's outstretched glove to score Durham giving Cain better than average run support to start the game.

The Colorado Rockies completed a four game sweep of the Arizona Diamondbacks in the National League Divisional Series to punch their tickets to the 2007 MLB World Series. Combined with the Rockies' three game sweep of the Philadelphia Phillies in the opening round, the Rockies have not lost a game in the post-season. In fact, the Rockies have won 21 of their last 22 games. When you consider how the Rockies were one of the worst teams in the league last year, things become glaringly clear.

The Colorado Rockies made a pact with the Devil. It is unknown at this point who signed the deal, but most low level demons are saying Helton. Todd Helton, the family man, would not seem to be your typical Devil dealer. Helton entered the 2007 Major League Baseball season as the active player with the most games played without reaching the playoffs. Helton has a career batting average of 0.322, but that number is tainted with the thin mountain air and hitter friendly park in Colorado. Helton played his entire career with the Colorado Rockies, a farm system for the rest of the league. His chances of reaching the World Series legitimately were slim to none, until he saw wicked red flames...