The First-Inning Rule

If there existed a kind of "Hall of Fame" for game records, and you listened to it's echoing halls, you would from time to time hear a faint whispered truth: the first inning foretells the future.

It certainly seemed that way last night, as the top of the first for S.F. was, as I like to say now, "Straight Up? Straight Down." - down, down in order easily.

And Sanchez gave a leadoff walk to the Dodgers' hottest hitter (16 straight games with a hit - to be exact), Matt Kemp. Kemp stole second easily after the ball flew out of Molina's hand. Dramatic Irony: the pitch struck out the series' most visible Dodger, Casey Blake. Sanchez also went to a 3-ball count with each of the first three batters. Predictably, Martin got a fastball middle-in and singled home Kemp. He also didn't get a first-pitch strike until the sixth batter - who came up to start the second inning. Given Sanchez's previous outing (though I did give him the benefit of the doubt), I was seriously wondering if it would be repeated. And I still did, although Molina did make up for his first slip and threw out Martin on a steal attempt, albeit closely.

Once again, Castillo's presence at 2B was highly questionable. In addition to moving to the bag on a pitch that wasn't a pick-off idea when Kemp was at second, leaving the left side WIDE OPEN, he also ran out on a Kent popper farther than he should have and dropped a ball that Rowand could have easily caught instead, one that hit his glove square in the heel. How we got out of that inning down only 1-0 was like getting picked up by your mom at school just as the bully walks out onto the front lawn.

Henceforth lay proof that the First-Inning Rule be true:

Top of the second inning? "Straight Up? Straight Down."

Top of the third? "Straight Up? Straight Down."

Bottom of the third? Sanchez finally gets a talking-to from Righetti after two batters reach in a row - Blake being walked. A base-hit to Martin gives the Dodgers 2-0, runners at the corners, 1 out, and three batters reaching in a row. Kent doubles easily in the gap, 3-0. Sac fly next, and a clever move by Sanchez to get the realistic tag-out at third, but the run scores anyway (once again because of a rule I don't understand - a force-out for the last out of the inning won't allow a run, but a tag-out for the last out will?): 4-0.

Top of the fourth? "Straight Up? Straight Down."

The only comforting sign through the first four innings was Sanchez getting Ethier in a double play in the bottom of the fourth, thanks to Castillo. But then of course, Castillo was playing too close to 2B, and Berroa was allowed to slap a single easily in the right infield gap.

(I don't mean to be negative by the way, just realistic in showing the truth of a first-inning assessment. It's not, as some may think, a book-cover judgment.)

Top of the fifth? Molina got a hit! Too bad Rowand double-played his AB that followed.

Even so, Sanchez was removed for Osiris Matos in the bottom of the fifth, whose name was humorously alluded to as "Greek" by Vin Scully here, though of course the explanation was for Egyptian culture. Matos managed to get runners at the corners with no one out. Aurilia, by far my favorite veteran on the team, made another fantastic defensive play at third from a hot liner to save a run and make the next outs at least forceable. A fly out would do, and Osiris escaped with no ERA damage. Looks like the First-Inning Rule is technically "out of play" when the first SP leaves; but of course with the pattern already established by that time, very little changes historically.

Let me say to you that I like Gino Espineli a lot. He's a young, wild lefty, a Filipino (probably the second of such a background to make it to the bigs as a pitcher), and his windout is beautifully unconventional, stepping mostly to first than to home. As I may have mentioned before, he was named to the Olympic team but was replaced indirectly in the hands of fate by Nate [Scheirholtz] as a representative after being called up. His stirrups are old school. The only one on the team who wears them that way regularly is, you guessed it, good ol' Richie. He retired the side in the bottom sixth easily.

Winn got a hit in the top of the seventh, but Rowand - again - couldn't produce.

What I will say about Espineli is that his wacky delivery isn't all that great to hitters that know how to go with the direction of most of his pitches and slap it to RF. Blake did just that. Unfortunately for Gino, that hit also lost him his momentum and he walked Martin before being replaced by Romo. (A note: Bochy is getting quicker on replacements lately. This is something I like.) Romo is slowly warming up the likability factor; he struck out Kent on a nasty but precise curveball, and he's actually been effective in this series for limiting pre-existent danger.

Top of the eighth? "Straight Up? Straight down."

I don't have to mention the top of the ninth, except that Velez got the brunt of a close call and Castillo continued the ironic punishment of his existence and hit a double off the wall (too late, my friend); Flannery even sent him to home plater irrationally off a bloop single by Winn. Flannery is another story entirely; I once heard him interviewed saying he sends most of his runners because more often than not the throw to home was offline. I'm sorry, sir, but shouldn't you be thinking about particular circumstances more than gambling procedures?

There's really nothing to say about the Giants' offense; it doesn't exist. I don't know what's more pitiable: (A) the fact that the Giants went through 23 scoreless innings against L.A., or (B) that Vin Scully thought that was exceptional for us. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if he was just biased towards making Billingsley look good, probably better than he really is. Looks like S.F. ought to pay me to go to games, since apparently they score multiple runs and win even when they don't deserve to.

Moral of the story? Stay honest; at least watch the first inning. And for those who run fantasy-league teams, I would suggest looking at the probable pitcher lineups against the Giants and Padres, and pick them up if they're available. Chad Billingsley, who is now just 11-9, had a CG shutout. Final: 4-0, Dodgers.

All that's left to say is that still, once again the Dodgers are not in first place ;). And that I feel horrible for the boys in the radio studio who have to do postgame right now. KNBR knows; they've cut the postgame short.


-MSH

The Strangeness Continues

The title is a bit misleading, I'll grant that. But the game was full of potentiality that was robbed by a mixture of odd play, and our good ol' fashioned tom-foolery. There were a few bright spots in the 2-0 loss, including Matt Cain's strong and gutsy performance - as usual. Here's a quick run-down by notable inning:

Top 1st: Castillo is robbed of a hit by Blake with the kind of play at 3B that I am certain the Dodgers were finally hoping to see again. Given the rest of that inning's half, that may have prevented a run.

Bottom 2nd: Aurilia makes an error at 3B, to contrast Blake's play, though to be fair he was at least in the process of diving to get it. Thankfully, Matt is always in the mood to save himself from bad situations, and got out of the inning alive.

Top 4th: Classic Giants' veteran baserunning naivete; Winn had an easy steal of 2B, but on a poor throw decided to go around to 3B immediately. That's right, without checking to see if the backup player had the ball. Berroa did indeed, and Winn was caught a mile out from 3B, missing his helmet for comedic flair. Again, because of the deep fly to RF next, and Rowand's single, Winn would've scored. That makes the potential score 2-0 Giants, not Dodgers.

Bottom 6th: Richie had a brilliant stab at a line drive to make up for his error. The problem is that it led to another by Lewis. This because after Loney singled in a run - off a hanger that Cain hated himself for - and the Dodgers had been effectively forcing Cain into deep counts (without working 3-ball counts, mind you), Lewis' fielding error on a Blake bloop single moved the ball: from fair territory, onto, and then over the foul-ground wall. Lewis had to "reach over" the wall to get it, so the "ground-rule double" call was put into effect, allowing Kemp to score and Blake to go to 3B untouched.

(I would like a bit of explanation about this "out of play" deal, because I'm confused why it was ruled that way when it was clear that Lewis could still play it easily. Bochy's smart -- apparently he told the umps that OFs make catches over walls for outs all the time when they said the ball had gone "out of play", and that caused the second conference. The result of the second conference? "Two umpires saw it go out of play." Still no explanation of "out of play", and gang-up tactics to boot.)

This play from Lewis is solely responsible for the post title. This also means that the score was now 2-0 Dodgers, not Giants. And by the end of the inning, Matt had thrown 36 pitches thanks to 15 foul-offs, and still he only allowed 1 ER. Cain had also toughed out a ball hit off his right shin earlier, without so much as rubbing it.

Top 7th: Rowand (already 1-1 that night), was HBP for the second time in the evening. Intriguing, given his AVG against L.A.

Bottom 7th: Cain still threw in the 90s, but because he still has the 3rd-worst run support in the NL, and his pitch count a season-high 118, he had to come out after this scoreless inning. He finished with 8 Ks. And also my personal title of "The Player to Be Pitied".

Top 8th: Vizquel ended his night with being very good defensively, but grounding into two double plays and striking out once - the expected. Lewis did reach - but on an error. I'm a little confused on this ruling as well, because the error was given to Berroa even though Loney's glove clearly had the ball and the ball simply dropped as he was raising it off the ground, meaning Loney had a good chance and controlling the ball but could not.

Bottom 8th: Ozuma was caught on a pick-off from first, but in the relay process Bowker dropped the ball. I'm beginning to get worried about this from Bowker, as it's become more "commonplace" than "rookie mistake"; however, Hinshaw was able to strike out two and maintain his ERA.

Top 9th: Straight up, straight down.

It was a decent game, and certainly fit the rivalry with its odd occurrences. I would say that of anyone, Cain was the man to watch. Toughness, precision, and perseverance. Other than that, typical average-quality play from S.F.

-MSH