When you’ve made a cottage industry out of bashing a poor team, a 6-1 start leaves you scratching your head. As the season approaches you look at the roster, check out the competition, and make a semi-educated call on the team’s prospects. Usually, lack of previous success by said team leaves you wincing at the coming season, and that sets the tone for your opinions.
So what do you do when the team looks good?
Admittedly, everything is going the Giants’ way right now. Hard-hit balls are being caught. Pitchers (well, some of them) are working out of jams. The offense is scoring runs. The Giants have the best record in baseball – which I understand is one of the signs of the coming apocalypse.
It’s a small sample size so I don’t trust it. Not yet. But, in the back of my reptilian brain I’m thinking: “What if this is real?”
This won’t continue. It can’t. Lincecum and Zito will not go 32-0 (okay, maybe Lincecum will) and I’m confident in saying the Giants, while on a pace to win 138 games, aren’t going to come anywhere near that total. But what a week it has been.
The Giants’ 9-3 win over Pittsburgh was encouraging for no other reason than the Pirates, despite being perennial cellar dwellers, have in recent years seemed to have San Francisco’s number. No matter how hot the Giants appeared to be and how bad the Bucs had played coming in, any meeting between the two has been a nails-on-a-chalk-board grind. Given that Pittsburgh came into the game at .500 (while taking two of three from The Hated Dodgers), the win was even more satisfying.
Plenty of heroes last night. Molina goes 4-for-4 and reaches base five times. Zito was far from sharp yet toiled through six-plus and got the win. Rowand opened the game with a double to start a three-run outburst that made everyone breathe easier for the next eight innings…and he got robbed on another blast to Triples Alley.
But the enduring image from last night will be that of Aubrey Huff circling the bases. It was bad enough watching him gasp for breath after scoring from first on a triple – Guillermo Mota finally proving his worth by fanning Huff with a towel in the dugout afterward. But watching him leg out a triple was akin to watching a wounded turtle negotiating a 45-percent grade. I’d never before seen a honest-to-God coronary on live television.
Anyone make the same mistake I did? I thought I was watching a slow-motion replay only to be stunned when I discovered the action was live.
Speaking of Huff, did the guy say something about unsavory about soft-tossing pitcher Burres’ sister, something to warrant the double plunking? The remark of the night courtesy Mike Krukow: “He’s been hit twice and hasn’t worked up a bruise.” Classic.
A brief sidebar here. There are some baseball purists who take umbrage to the happy talk from Kruk and Kuip. Don’t put me in that camp. A purist should turn off the sound and enjoy the pretty pictures. Yes, they probably spend far too much time talking about food, commenting on Panda hats or cute kids, or bagging on spectators who fail to make a play. I don’t care. Catch phrases aside, you never know what these two are going to say. They make the game fun, and I watch baseball to be entertained.
I think that’s why I bag on the Giants so much, even when they win. They may scratch and claw out a win, but some of the wins are so ugly that they’re tremendously unsatisfying. You don’t want to win on two hit batters, a grounder off the bag, and a throw that hits a baserunner. You’ll take that over losing, but a well-played 5-2 game dusted off in 2:36 leaves a smile on my face every time.
But last night was fun. Still too many double plays for my taste – DeRosa can’t catch a break and probably will be looking to use the whole rabbit instead of the foot soon – but the game wasn’t either boring or ugly.
So, for a brief moment, the Giants rule the roost. Dare to dream.
So what do you do when the team looks good?
Admittedly, everything is going the Giants’ way right now. Hard-hit balls are being caught. Pitchers (well, some of them) are working out of jams. The offense is scoring runs. The Giants have the best record in baseball – which I understand is one of the signs of the coming apocalypse.
It’s a small sample size so I don’t trust it. Not yet. But, in the back of my reptilian brain I’m thinking: “What if this is real?”
This won’t continue. It can’t. Lincecum and Zito will not go 32-0 (okay, maybe Lincecum will) and I’m confident in saying the Giants, while on a pace to win 138 games, aren’t going to come anywhere near that total. But what a week it has been.
The Giants’ 9-3 win over Pittsburgh was encouraging for no other reason than the Pirates, despite being perennial cellar dwellers, have in recent years seemed to have San Francisco’s number. No matter how hot the Giants appeared to be and how bad the Bucs had played coming in, any meeting between the two has been a nails-on-a-chalk-board grind. Given that Pittsburgh came into the game at .500 (while taking two of three from The Hated Dodgers), the win was even more satisfying.
Plenty of heroes last night. Molina goes 4-for-4 and reaches base five times. Zito was far from sharp yet toiled through six-plus and got the win. Rowand opened the game with a double to start a three-run outburst that made everyone breathe easier for the next eight innings…and he got robbed on another blast to Triples Alley.
But the enduring image from last night will be that of Aubrey Huff circling the bases. It was bad enough watching him gasp for breath after scoring from first on a triple – Guillermo Mota finally proving his worth by fanning Huff with a towel in the dugout afterward. But watching him leg out a triple was akin to watching a wounded turtle negotiating a 45-percent grade. I’d never before seen a honest-to-God coronary on live television.
Anyone make the same mistake I did? I thought I was watching a slow-motion replay only to be stunned when I discovered the action was live.
Speaking of Huff, did the guy say something about unsavory about soft-tossing pitcher Burres’ sister, something to warrant the double plunking? The remark of the night courtesy Mike Krukow: “He’s been hit twice and hasn’t worked up a bruise.” Classic.
A brief sidebar here. There are some baseball purists who take umbrage to the happy talk from Kruk and Kuip. Don’t put me in that camp. A purist should turn off the sound and enjoy the pretty pictures. Yes, they probably spend far too much time talking about food, commenting on Panda hats or cute kids, or bagging on spectators who fail to make a play. I don’t care. Catch phrases aside, you never know what these two are going to say. They make the game fun, and I watch baseball to be entertained.
I think that’s why I bag on the Giants so much, even when they win. They may scratch and claw out a win, but some of the wins are so ugly that they’re tremendously unsatisfying. You don’t want to win on two hit batters, a grounder off the bag, and a throw that hits a baserunner. You’ll take that over losing, but a well-played 5-2 game dusted off in 2:36 leaves a smile on my face every time.
But last night was fun. Still too many double plays for my taste – DeRosa can’t catch a break and probably will be looking to use the whole rabbit instead of the foot soon – but the game wasn’t either boring or ugly.
So, for a brief moment, the Giants rule the roost. Dare to dream.
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