The Pitchers To Be Pitied

Last night in San Diego, we had a bit of a formidable opponent: the umpire.

His strike-zone was erratic; Jon Miller even had the guts to bring it up, multiple times, and Dave Flemming corroborated (naturally). Lincecum wasn't getting anything at the knees to speak of. (Hoffman got something at the knees in the tenth, which gave a very amusing reaction from Burriss. Good boy.) But because of that, he had to rely on that changeup again to strikeout people; he relied on it as late as the seventh. Which, he did. In the bottom of the first, he struck out the side. Of course, he struck out the last two after four reached in a row, and the Padres scored a run.

But fortunately for us, this tied the game instead of gaining a lead. That's right, the scoreless inning streak was over from the beginning. Thanks to the youth (big surprise), we hit the ball hard all night. Lewis sac-flied to allow Winn to score the first run. Then, he went 2-2; his base hit led off the sixth, Molina followed up with a single of his own, and even though Rowand double-played his AB, Lewis scored off a passed ball to take the lead. (This is the last time for the post that I will mention Rowand offensively, mind you: he did nothing.)

At this point, I'd like to bring up a few other immediate positives that made me happy about the team regardless of the outcome:

1) We FINALLY had youth at 2B and SS - at the same time! That's right; thank God, Burriss started at 2B and Ochoa started at SS. Ochoa started the game with a hit, and Burriss is solid defensively; he's finding 2B a warm home, I think, more so than SS.

2) The youth FINALLY had a game where they could show their stuff as a team. Everyone performed well, even though the stats didn't show it completely. Almost all the youth hit the ball hard at least once, and all of our scoring was because of at least one key contact-hit by a youngster or two.

3) Bowker was particularly interesting this time, because although Bowker made a baserunning error by advancing at a precarious fly ball, he hit the ball deep every time and led the seventh off with a double up the wall. I believe he's coming into his own, slowly, because surprise-surprise: he's being played every day.

However, naturally because of that last point being good, the management shocked me again and pulled Bowker after his baserunning naivete. They replaced him with Aurilia in the bottom of the seventh, defensively. I agree that Aurilia is better defensively with a slim lead, so I really don't have a problem with it. But I won't say I expected the switch. I would expect more of a double-switch from Bochy, actually. But so be it. Aurilia made the first out of the seventh himself, and I'm sorry, but I like Richie. He's the only vet I want to see playing for my team at this point (sorry Aaron). I mean, dude, look at how lame the rest of the players' walk-up music is, compared to Richie's that's given last.

For his own piece, Timmy The Kid still had 9 Ks through six innings himself. He would finish with 11, over seven full innings, with 114 total pitches. He didn't even allow a runner to reach scoring position since the first inning run. His being pulled out after seven innings and striking out most of the last two innings at least brought shades of his last start, I will admit. But an excellent showing nevertheless by Tim.

Bochy may have finally gotten the hint about Walker, using him for only a one-pitch groundout to start the eighth and then bringing in Jack [Taschner]; I know that Giles was next and it was lefty-lefty matchup. But, since Jack obviously didn't get traded, I have a feeling that Walker was being put on show to see, if he could hold well, what prospects we might have obtained for him. Shrewd, if it weren't for the fact that Walker wasn't viewed as desirable by others in the first place.

In contrast, Tasch struck Giles out with a 93mph fastball on the outside corner. Confident, and excellent. It's hard not to like the guy - except when he blows it. So of course, Tasch immediately gave up a one-pitch, bleachers-in-LCF HR to Adrian Gonzalez. Immediately, Romo was warmed up. That was the second HR Gonzalez hit against Jack this year. One should know that the one guy on SD who's having a good year, and is a real threat to Jack in particular, should have been walked - immediately. Instead, immediately Tim was robbed of another win.

It doesn't really matter what the outcome of the game was, or that at one point S.F. had doubled S.D.'s hit count. Although, a win is always nice and the game going into extras made putting Richie at 1B a prophetic move.

The thing that mattered primarily is that, I'm sure, Lincecum and Cain have a lot to talk about lately. Maybe my award can become "The Pitchers To Be Pitied" now. I suppose in a certain way, we can include the bullpen entire in that as well, though obviously they are pitiable because they keep ruining things for the starters - not because they earn something that they lose because of something other than their own doing. So maybe not. Just Tim and Matt will do, for that honor.

Come to think of it, there's at least one good young guy per game that deserves to be pitied. So perhaps that makes it a new "per-game award". Necessity is the mother of invention. And recognition.

-MSH


PS
OK, how we won does matter. Burriss knocked a hit off Hoffman in the tenth after reacting humorously to a bad call, and Velez came in as a PH (youth, I'm telling you, really, what did I say?). Velez doubled off the scoreboard to score Burriss (because youth is quick). Winn was intentionally walked. Ochoa's first swing at a strike was a foul-off. Unforunately, he lined out; but it looked solid.

Brian "The Animal" Wilson came on to get a ball - at the knees. Aurilia got the first out with a great backhander. Did I mention that I like Richie? I have no idea why, except for his usual precision and his attitude. Brian hit 97mph easily, multiple times in fact. He unfortunately gave up a liner single up the middle next, because the slider hung. He then gave up another single to Giles. Thank goodness Edgar Gonzalez had a horrible jump when his elder brother got the third straight hit.

I held my breath for the final outs; but I'll give you one reason why I was ecstatic about the double-play when it looked like Wilson was falling off the wagon: Ochoa, a youth, touched 2B and turned the double-play to Aurilia. The youth were responsible for every major game-saving pitch or double-play, and every single run in some direct way; Lincecum, Lewis, Wilson, Velez, Burriss, Ochoa: the youth.

Thank God.