Balance or lack of same
OK I love the 2012 version of Giants and their balanced LU. We get contributions up and down plus off the bench and no longer have to play station to station all the time. Sure we have an MVP, but there is so much more. And while I admire the steadiness of posey and the consummate professionalism of Scutaro at the plate, that’s not today’s theme. It’s the unbalanced ones, 3Ps–Pablo Pence Pagan.
Pagan did not have much love from this corner at the start. His early days at leadoff coupled with some misadventures in the OF did not make for happy times. After the AS break, tho everything changed. He solidified leadoff and CF position and ran the bases like a demon. He says all the right things and brings that latin fire and respect for the game I love. El Caballo still gets a little Loco at times but I also did the energy he brings, and not just to the leaping end of game celebrations.
Pence is just odd. Awkward might be an improvement. From the way he roams around RF to his batting stance to his gyrations in the on deck circle, it is just a trip to watch this guy’s unconventional approach to everything. But he has tremendous power, hustles his butt off, and gives pre game exhortations that would make any Texas HS football coach proud.
Pablo has been here for years now but some people just can’t adjust to what he is. He’s big…which has zero to do with how well he can hit. Hell he hit .300 last year when nobody else did jack. He can swing at anything, but is also capable of hitting any pitch he can reach off a wall or over one. He is great teammate who interacts animatedly with one and all.
So that’s my guys the 3 Ps
You get the good the bad and the ugly in equal parts
But that’s the whole Package
Which ain’t always gonna be Pretty
but sho is Productive
BLANCO!!!!!
Yes.
How sweet!
Back in it baby!
The Shark bites back!
We here come Cards!
LET’S GO GIANTS!!
Guess they heard our bitchin’ about their bats, huh….. i
No shit and ’bout time.
Now THiS is some fight I wanted to see
Gregor set that fart blazing…
I disagree with saying that Bochy made a huge mistake starting MadBum. As SI pointed out, this move was made out of “the product of necessity rather than strategy” (due to the prior series going so deep). Sure you can disagree with it, but for my money, you put the blame on the players, not the manager. It was a sound move in my mind, considering that fucking Madbum had significant rest.
Regardless, I am betting that the position players make good on this comeback and win this frickin’ game.
Tim will have his chance to make an impact on this game.
Tim shuts em down for 4, I like our chances with their pen.
Well after a huge run inning and now we bring in Timmy, and if he rocks it, we’ll just build off that momentum…
Blade, there were other options–Timmy, Voggy… The only reason to go with Bum is if you had a reason to expect he’d rebound from his awful September. He did not. Failure decision by Bochy, IMO (and a failure for me for talking myself into Bum being good to go tonight)
Noted. 🙂
Hell of a play.
That matching G-men 4 runs pulled the wings off these Birds…. I don’t notice a lot of smiling in the Cardinal dugout…
Well, we got a game.
Fuck yes.
I do agree with ewisco’s point – it’s unequivocal now that MadBum is kaput, finished, done, for this post season. I don’t see a scenario where he gets another start after that fiasco. See ya in spring training snot rocket.
totally. He can mop up at this point. He’s done.
He’s good for an inning. Bum to the Pen for the rest of the POs.
Twin talked about this earlier today and if I now understand him correctly, I’ve been saying something similar for a while now. If you have 4 SP’s who are unreliable then you can’t have a “Kontos” ready to stop the bleeding. My idea was to have Voggy be this guy but Timmy is an even better choice because of his aura and, of course, his recent dominance.
It doesn’t matter if you’re ahead or behind if you have momentum and Timmy got brought into this game with our momentum in full swing.
Look, you all can say what you want. But I disagree completely with what I understood twin to say. That Bochy would be fired for not starting Tim.
Boch had it right, he’s the guy who looks in the pitcher’s eyes, he’s the one who get’s input from Rags, Sabes and whoever is more of an expert than twin or anyone here. Boch kept Tim as his option if he needed it, that is brilliant in my mind. With the starters not able to even get into the sixth inning, having a pitcher (Tim) that can warm up on 10 pitches AND give you four innings. Again, brilliant on Bochy’s part (IMO)..
This needs to be said – Pence has zero RBIs in the post season. He needs to get off the “Inspirational Lecture Circuit” and start hitting. That fucking pitch was in his wheelhouse and it’s about time he starts backing up his talk, with a little bit of walk.
What is it about 6-nuthin’ leads that are getting knocked down this post season? (obviously I am counting my be-atches before they have hatched, but still….)
No runs in the 5th but the Giants keep the line moving and the Cards burn a couple of more pitchers.
Hold the line Timmy and break the confidence of the Cards offense…
Nice catch Gregor!
The Cards pen is decent, no better. If Tim holds the Cards we should be able to win this…
Having one LHer in the pen and using him in the 5th is odd, IMO.
A little surprised Tim is out already but I guess that sets him up for a start…. Bochy’s wheels are turnin’….
We really can, must, should, may, WILL win this game. C’mon, Gigantes! #believe
I hate Buck and McCarver, as most do, but from what I’ve seen so far, he’s actually saying more “good” things about the Giants…. I don’t remember him EVER saying anything good in 2010, like he was rooting against them.
I hate the ‘what might have been” game. but it’s hard not to play it after MadBum’s outing.. now let’s make it academic. And who better than Tony Bennett to get it going?
Funny, I think that’s what you wanted all along twin (a “what might have been game”). But hey, if we win in five Bochy’s job is cool right?
It’s a funny thing, if we lose you’re right, if we win you’re right.
Well I hope you’re right about the win.
Go Giants.
Never said anyhing about wanting a “what might been” game. I did say that starting MadBum was wrongo and did say if we lost the series without Lincecum having a significant role, Bochy would be in trouble.So I’m only one for one so far and I’m totally confident we will win the series…
See, whether I wanted MadBum to start or not, I wanted him to succeed.There seems to be some confusion about whether I want the team I’ve rooted for for 38 years to do well.
Agreed, I was confused by that, I truly believed you wanted Madison to fail. For some reason, I still believe that. My bad. I’ll tell you what I think is a good idea, I’ll ignore anything you say and if you feel the need, you can ignore me. Sound good?
Cheers.
When MadBum had a 1-2-3 first I aready had my apology ready for ever doubting him or Bochy for using him. But how anyone who has paid any attention at all would doubbt my allegience to this team is a true mind boggler. Hope you’re doing well…
I live in SF …..this city is stunned
Fuck st. Louie
Wow.
Mujica was untouchable. Sigh.
Anibal earlier today, Mujica just now. What few Marlins fans there are must be sick watching this.
I guess with “torture” baseball, you have to wait until the 9th inning, 2 outs, 3-2 count before knowing the result.
Wow, Casilla didn’t come in and screw the pooch. There’s still hope
Cards pen blew 22 save opportunities with a 66 percent success rate. Those are poor numbers and they’re blowing us away. Well, there’s still Motte.He was 42 for 49.
the look on Casilla’s face was fight, the look on Madison’s face was worry.
or fear. Very disappointed to hear the gfans booing Beltran before his HR which is the difference in this game.
WE SCORE WE WIN
Kontos came in one batter too late, but we have battled back.
Get your rally caps on, people.
There’s something happening here
What it is ain’t exactly clear
we like Mijares, the pen getting it done again tonight
so far all the 6 run loser games have been off the BP, getting to Motte is the task
Go Giants!
channeling barry bonds
will we see Huff? Hector or just hell yeah?
We’ve already seen Huff. He walked, I think.
Pagan needs to get it going atop the lineup for the team to win, it seems…. Hopefully that starts tomorrow.
Or maybe it starts tonight….
Best of 7 series plus the G’s ability to win on the road… no worries. Tomorrow will be tough against Carpenter but Voggie could shut ’em down. Offense just needs more rallies. Enough with scoring in just one inning per game, even if that number has been a large crooked one of late….
Pffffffffffffffffft! Wait until next game for the pay back . . .
Some signs of life in the offense tonight. They came back and made a game of it. We need Vogie to be VOGEL-TRON again tomorrow.
G’night, girls. We made it interesting. Sleep beckons. A new day tomorrow.
absolutely correct zumie, we did not lie down and the pen was brilliant. My quote from yesterday:
Right now, the Giants just don’t know what sort of starting pitcher they’re going to send out each game.
Right. Even a half-way decent performance from MadBum would have gotten us there tonight, but we didn’t even get half-way from him.
Carpenter is tough and he threw a gutty 5+ inning 7 hit no run game in the NLDS, but he threw just 17 innings in the regular season. Vogelsong is also a tough competitor. These two may have the best scowls in the game…
Get ’em tomorrow Giants!
and the game starts an hour earlier, midnight BST practically an early game for me.
and it is all about me
good night, all
Get ‘em tomorrow Giants!
Pfffftttt…. well, I’m not sweating this. We learned a lesson after we went down 0-2 in a 5 game series. But fuck, this home losing shit is played out and tired.
Carpenter could shut us down or have his arm fall off during a pitch. Neither would surprise me.
Get em tomorrow Boys, long ways to go in this series.
Later…
Game one has always been no biggie.Especially if you lose it 😉
After the 4 run inning followed by the shutdown inning from Tim I really thought we’d win this , though. So what’s Plan B after MadBum’s outing, which would be politely called “not real good”…Zito shouldn’t be here at all if he doesn’t get a start. So ahead or behind, unless down 0-3, it’s Zito in game 4, Timmy in 5. IMO …
Bright side, we already scored more runs in one home game than we did in two in the NLDS – that’s a plus! And, hey, a record for neither pitcher lasting 4 innings – records are always a good thing, right? Ummm…I had a lovely time with my aunt & uncle – corned beef, coleslaw, fresh strawberries & Tate’s cookies – that’s a win in my book.
We’ll get ’em tomorrow – Vogel-tron FTW!!!!!
No mealoaf?
At least I had a little levity watching the game with my daughter. She kept flipping out over all the Cards with alliterative names: Daniel Descalso, Lance Lynn, Chris Carpenter, Jon Jay, and then later, Skip Schumaker. I didn’t dare tell her who their manager was.
that is so funny, great anecdote, thanks.