Gotta throw strikes to get calls, bro.
If the Giants season up until now was frustrating, watching tonight's game was a lesson in restrained fury. It was difficult reconciling the bile rising in one's throat with the image of Tim Lincecum on the mound. This is our ace; our one reliable touchstone, tonight reduced to an effectively-wild and rattled have-nothing who was clearly burnt to a crisp long before Bruce Bochy decided to leave him in well past his expiration date, and he promptly coughed up a 4-2 lead and turned it into a 7-4 deficit in one scant inning.
The Giants played as though they were aggressively attempting to lose the game. DeRosa let a handful of balls get past him, through him, under him, and over him all evening, which matched his 0-for-18 slump since coming off the DL. Lincecum threw away a double-play ball which extended/led to the aforementioned five-run inning. The ump's strike zone was spectacularly unfair to the Giants all evening, but it doesn't help when Lincecum isn't able to throw strikes.
The Giants had their leadoff hitter reach base in no fewer than six innings and then relentlessly did not bring those runners in. When Lincecum was melting down, Bochy decided to warm up his worst bullpen pitcher, Jeremy Affeldt.
This entire game was ineptitude writ large, especially considering everyone save DeRosa reached base at least once today. The Giants are a ball of screaming at your television nestled in a bassinet of punching things.
If the Giants fail to reach the playoffs this year, please refer to this game as the point at which everything collapsed.
"The Giants are a ball of screaming at your television nestled in a bassinet of punching things."
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