Hurricaning Youth

For the first time this season, and that I can remember, the Giants had six out of nine starters under the age of 29, thanks to the Giants sending up three new Fresno sensations. The starters' ages for today are as follows:

Velez: 26
Ochoa: 26
Rohlinger: 25
Ishikawa: 25
Sandoval: 22
Correia: 28

Lewis got in during the 2nd inning as well, for Rowand. Notice please from the list above that the oldest is the starting pitcher; all the rest are position players. If you count Burriss who was on the bench today, this means that we have six position players aged 26 or under. This lineup shocks, is far overdue, and therefore worth the majority of the post itself. The possibility of winning is not worth even a good portion, since you've seen what we're doing in Houston already, and apparently the Astros had won 7 in a row, and were 17-8 since the All-Star Break.

What else can I say when the Giants got two runs in the top of the 1st? Velez-Ochoa-Ishikawa also turned a DP in the bottom of the 1st. Velez himself got two 2-out singles, that eventually led to runs. Even Sandoval, who didn't have a notable game offensively, was great for sacrifice contact. Ochoa and Rohlinger hit hard as well, and were simply robbed by great defense out of the Houston 2B.

The problem, since there naturally has to be one, was Correia's lack of control; it's mostly mental. So, in my mind I sense that he pitches like Zito: the minute the other team gets any kind of momentum at all, he relies completely on the defense and his pitches get all kinds of off-center. We had a 2-0 and 3-1 leads, but Correia blew that by the 3rd inning. In the 4th, Ochoa made a "fantabulous" DP by running to the bag and then throwing to Ishikawa while rolling to the ground. Proof of this Zito Effect for Correia: after that play, he struck a batter out.

In the 6th, Lewis (replacing Rowand earlier in the game) hit a HR and then Ishikawa finally settled the nerves and had a standup double, although he did keep from advancing easily. I'm not really sure what to say about Correia, except that he usually has trouble in the middle of his starts, but does quite well after the first troubling inning. He retired eight batters in a row, and had only 79 pitches through six full innings.

Velez was robbed of another up-the-middle hit because the ball hit the pitcher and bounced perfectly to the 2B. Otherwise, we didn't have much to speak of on the Astro bullpen. But I'll tell you this: these kids must feel for each other, because Ochoa made a diving catch to save the tying run on 3B in the bottom of the 7th. He was barely there, too; just as so many of our batters had been robbed. The defense for our team is stellar, whether young or old. Without question. Except for Sandoval. I'm glad he's in, but I wonder why Holm was sent down, because although Sandoval had a few sacrifice hits, the unfortunate thing about him is that he had two passed balls. Both of those PBs made things very difficult. Bochy has told the players that he doesn't mind them making mistakes after just coming up, which I think is a good attitude; relaxed players do better anyway. Of course, you know that relaxing only does so much. Like when Taschner came in to face a lefty, instead of leaving Correia in, and ended up with a one-pitch single - giving up the lead. Correia wouldn't get the win. Taschner threw just the one pitch. Yabu got out of the inning.

In the 8th, Ishi walked. That was it. When Yabu gave up a leadoff single, he was replaced by Hinshaw. In two pitches, Hinshaw gave up a HR to Berkman. Granted that the pitch wasn't bad, such an outing isn't normal for Alex, Berkman is strong, and this park favors Berkman's strength... but the game was pretty much up at that point. It was clear that the management thought so at least, because they put Walker in, who of course gave up yet another run. Ochoa made a nice play to Velez to finish the inning, but Jon and Dave had to joke about Michael Bourn's Class-A hitting performance by calling him "The Bourn Out" to make this inning an honest laugher. Which leaves the primary positive for the game the same as it should have been all year: "Yay For Youth."

FINAL: 7-4, Houston.

We were swept.

Hope B.S. wept.


-MSH