Giants at Astros, 4/5/2010
Giants 5, Astros 2
W:Lincecum (1-0) L:Oswalt (0-1) S:Wilson (1)
HR: DeRosa (1)
And so, girded with the malted beverages of our choice, and perhaps slightly worse for an afternoon of celebratory barrio queso or MLB.tv multitasking, we head into another season of God’s sport.
Rather than waxing poetic about the hidden meanings of the diamond, or the smell of freshly cut grass, let’s just stick to what happened in today’s baseball game:
Early season Roy showed up
Oswalt was fine, going to his typical early-season repertiore of ground-ball stuff, “pitching to contact”, and generally relying on a solid defense behind him. This pattern failed him in the second inning; a solid single by Huff, a walk to DeRosa, and a sharp single to left made it 1-0. Some bloke named “Bowker” was up next (seriously… next time you complain about the Astros’ lineup, check out the supposedly competitive Giants) and mastered the Todd Helton Poke to Left Field, taking a seeming pop up off the wall for a 2-0 lead. One sac fly later and it was 3-0, which was pretty much a blowout considering…
Tim Lincecum was a witch
Any at-bat where an Astro did not look completely overmatched in the first 5 innings was very much the exception, not the rule. Kabong managed to line one off the top of the wall, but because he lollygagged out of the box he hit the ball so hard, it was only a 2-out single. Lincecum managed to look human in the sixth, when he had to call an extended time to roll a joint get the scissors away from Deliliah clean his cleats, and did not appear comfortable afterwards. This resulted in back to back one out singles by the top of the order, but unfortunately…
Pam’s Pet was a black hole from which no offensive threat could escape
PENCE!!! was nothing but terrible in this game. Two strikeouts, the latter swinging at a pitch literally over his head, and then the all-to-familiar rollover grounder to the left side with Bourn and Kaz on in the sixth. Top that off with another harmless pop foul in the eighth, and his failures were complete. If Hunter Pence is your 3 hole hitter, you’re screwed. (Oh, and he took the worst route I’ve seen in some time to miss DeRosa’s first-row HR.)
Other observations:
Wandy vs. Cain, tomorrow night. Expect a busier Game Zone.