Giants beat doyers 6-5 in 10 innings

Dave Roberts’ RBI single broke a 10th inning tie Friday night and lifted the Giants to a 6-5 victory over the LA doyers.

After coughing up a two-run lead in the 9th inning and coming back to tie the score, the Giants settled matters in the 10th against Jason Johnson, LA’s 7th reliever. Omar Vizquel’s two-out double prolonged the inning before Roberts grounded a 1-1 pitch into right field.

With the Giants trailing, 5-4, Randy Winn opened the Giants’ 9th by singling off Jonathan Broxton, who blew his third save in 17 opportunities. Eugenio Velez’s grounder forced out Winn at second base. But Velez reached third by stealing second and advancing on catcher Russell Martin’s accompanying throwing error. After Scott McClain coaxed a walk, Steve Holm lifted a sacrifice fly to score Velez.

The doyers erased San Francisco’s 4-2 lead with three runs in the top of the ninth. Brian Wilson, who squandered his sixth save in 46 chances, surrendered James Loney’s leadoff home run. Pinch-hitter Nomar Garciaparra singled one out later. Wilson struck out Matt Kemp on a full-count pitch, but Martin, who also was pinch-hitting, launched a 2-2 delivery over the left-field barrier.

Earlier, the game featured the first use of instant replay to review a home run call at AT&T Park, and only the seventh overall, since the option was instituted last month. With one out in the sixth inning, LA leading, 2-0, and Pablo Sandoval on first base, Bengie Molina hit an apparent single off the top of the right-field wall. But after Giants manager Bruce Bochy challenged the ruling, the umpiring crew ruled it a home run, tying the score.

The Giants send Matt Cain against Greg Maddux tonight. If Cain and Lincecum pitch well, we can sweep these assholes and send them into the playoffs on a losing note.

Monta can dunk, but can’t ride a moped

The Warriors Monta Ellis’ ankle injury was the result of a moped accident and did not occur while he was playing pickup basketball. What a fuckin tool! We all figured it would have been a motorcylce or a dirt bike accident, but a moped accident?

Ellis, who signed a six-year, $66 million contract extension with the Warriors during the offseason, tore a ligament in his left ankle and sustained a high-ankle sprain in low-speed moped accident. He underwent surgery in late August and is expected to be sidelined for another two months.

The Warriors and Ellis’ agent, Jeff Fried, declined to comment because except for spraining your wrist in a horrible handjob accident in a men’s public bathroom, what could be more embarassing then crashing a scooter?

Riding a moped is prohibited under the uniform player contract, which means the Warriors could tear up Ellis’ contract. According to BAS sources, the team and Ellis are still working through the situation. A decision on discipline won’t be made until next week, according to our sources.

The circumstances surrounding Ellis’ injury were not clear, even to team officials, in the days immediately following the incident. Ellis initially told team vice president Chris Mullin that he got hurt during a pickup basketball game in Jackson, Miss. But according to reports, team officials were skeptical about Ellis’ explanation because of the severity of the injury.

Two years ago, Lakers forward Vladimir Putin Radmanovic separated his shoulder in a snowboarding accident. Radmanovic, who at first said he had slipped and fell on a patch of ice, was fined $500,000 by the team. Fag.

Giants lose nailbiter 15-6

The Giants lost a thriller Wednesday night 15-6 to the Rockies.  Dirty Sanchez finished his season on high note by going an entire 3 and 2/3 innings and only giving up 7 runs on 7 hits. The bullpen pitched the final 5 and 1/3 innings and limited the Rockies to only 8 additional runs.

The Giants erupted for a run in the 1st and then ANOTHER run in the 2nd inning and only trailed in this game 8-2 after 4 innings. After the Rockies scored 6 runs in the top of the 5th to make it 14-2, the Giants answered by scoring A run in the 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th innings to just fall short, 15-6.

Hopefully the Giants can bounce back from this heart-wrenching  game to give another great performance Thursday night against the Rockies as they try to not get swept.

Lincecum struggles with control in Giants loss, may have cost himself the Cy

Lincecum struck out 9 batters Tuesday night, giving him 252 k’s this season and setting the SF Giants record for strikeouts in a season. That was the end of the good news related to this game. Lincecum had arguably his worst start of the year, giving up 6 runs, aided by 5 walks and only pitched 4 and 1/3 innings. He may have cost himself the Cy Young award too, as the Giants lost to the Rockies 9-4. 

“To be honest with you, I felt like that was a pretty garbage start,” Lincecum said.

Lincecum, who ranks third in the league with 220 innings pitched and leads the NL with 3,585 pitches thrown, affirmed that he felt physically sound and would make his scheduled start Sunday against the doyers. Seizing upon Monday’s scheduled off-day, manager Bruce Bochy rearranged the pitching rotation last week to give Lincecum an extra start.

“I felt strong. I just wasn’t throwing pitches where I needed to be when I should have,” Lincecum said. “I wasn’t able to establish any rhythm. I wasn’t attacking the zone enough, plain and simple. I want to make a bounce back. I’ll definitely be interested in taking that ball — I want that ball. … My fastball still feels live, changeup’s still moving, curveball’s still breaking. It’s just a matter of where you throw it.”

Bochy said that he and the club’s brain trust would “huddle up” to discuss starting Lincecum on Sunday.

“If he wants to and feels fine, then he can have it,” Bochy said.

Lincecum displayed glimpses of his usual form. He struck out 9, hiking his season total to 252 and eclipsing Jason Schmidt’s San Francisco-era single-season franchise mark of 251 set in 2004. Asked what this record meant to him, Lincecum replied, “Today, right now, not much. Coming out there throwing like that and leaving like I did, I don’t feel like that’s me. I feel like I should have given my team a better chance to win. If I’m going to take anything positive from the game, I guess that’s it.”

Whether Cy Young voters derive anything flattering about Lincecum can’t be determined by the bare numbers.

Lincecum’s aforementioned strikeout total leads the Major Leagues. But his NL-best ERA ballooned from 2.46 to 2.66, thrusting him into second place behind Johan Santana of the New York Mets (2.64). And Lincecum still leads the league in winning percentage, .772 to Webb’s .759. But Webb owns a 22-7 record to Lincecum’s 17-5. If Cy Young voters follow traditional thinking, that large a disparity in victories would favor Webb.

Bent on helping Lincecum’s cause, the Giants announced that they will appeal a fourth-inning scoring decision that tacked two earned runs onto Lincecum’s line. With the Giants clinging to a 3-2 lead, Colorado scored two runs on Tulowitzki’s ground ball to the left of third baseman Rich Aurilia, who did not come up with the ball. The official scorer initially ruled the play an error, which made the runs unearned, but changed it to a hit after the game.

Aurilia preferred the initial call.

“One more error in my career isn’t going to make a difference in my credentials,” he said. “I gladly would take that to take Timmy off the hook.”

Whether Lincecum’s ERA is a few points higher or lower shouldn’t make a difference, Bochy said.

“I think you have to look at the season. You don’t look at one start,” Bochy said. “You look at what this guy has accomplished this year … at the consistency he has had.”

Consistency eluded Lincecum against the Rockies. He struck out at least two batters in each full inning he pitched, yet clearly lacked his usual command. He issued two walks in the first inning after Tulowitzki singled, helping him come around to score.

The Giants struck back with 3 runs in the 2nd inning, but Lincecum failed to hold the lead and left with the Giants trailing 4-3 and 2 runners on base. Yabu allowed both of those runners to score plus a couple more and that was that.

Lincecum continued to insist that he cares less about the Cy Young than about helping the Giants win.

“I’m not taking any pressure from the Cy Young; that’s the last thing on my mind,” he said. “I’m stuck in the here and now.”

Lincecum admitted that, from the perspective of the award, Sunday will give him an opportunity for redemption.

“It’s good I have that extra start, get a chance to bounce back and give myself a chance,” he said. “But, at the same time, I’m not going out there pitching for the Cy Young. I’m not going out there pitching for any award. I’m pitching for myself and I’m pitching for my team.”

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