The penant race has officially begun. Now players and managers can actually admit that they are scoreboard watching. The Giants had a restful day off and were finally back at home from a long 10 game roadtrip. While the Giants were looking at the Padres win again, the Dodgers pushed a splinter under the fingernails of the Giants and their fans, winning the game 1-0 and pushing them 1 1/2 games behind the Padres in the West.
The hated Dodgers came to town ready to play. No matter how bad the Dodgers have been or how good the Giants have been, there is no way LA is gonna come and just lay down for the Giants. It's always been like that, even when the roles have been reversed. When one of these teams has a chance to play spoiler and hurt the other, they always come hard and leave everything on the field.
It was a pitcher's dual as I predicted it would be. Barry Zito and Clayton Kershaw were matching zeros through 5. Then in the 6th, Zito got himself in trouble. He hit Reed Johnson and after Kershaw sacrifice bunted him to second, he walked Rafael Furcal and Andre Ethier to load the bases. That brought up the righty Casey Blake, who has hurt the Giants with a lot of big hits in his short Dodgers career. He hit a hard ground ball up the middle that Zito slowed down. Short-stop Juan Uribe got to it, but couldn't handle it cleanly. The Dodgers scored the first run of the game on an error. That was it for Zito, who pitched another gritty game vs the Dodgers this year. Bochy brought in Santiago Casilla who got the final out of the inning when he struck out Matt Kemp.
Zito ended up going 5 2/3 innings, only allowing 1 hit and no earned runs. The Dodgers ended up only getting that 1 hit all game and won, which is the second this year that the Giants lost a game giving up only 1 hit. Unbelievable! It's the 20th time this year that he has got 2 runs or fewer. What's with this offense? Jekyll and Hyde is the best way I can describe it this year.
Clayton Kershaw was awesome tonight. He mixed his pitches and kept the Giants off balance the whole game. There was hardly even a threat against him all night. He threw the first complete game and shutout of his career. The heart of the Giants order, Aubrey Huff, Buster Poset, and Pat Burrell, went a collective 0 for 9. That's not going to win any games down the stretch here. They need to get it together fast, and that won't be easy as they face Chad Billingsley tomorrow night.
Tell me again, how are the Dodgers in last place again? I can't understand it. It seems like they send out a Hall Of Fame pitcher every game! Or is that just because they're facing the Giants?
No comments:
Post a Comment