I'm not going to go as far as to say that it felt like the Giants dominated last night's game because A) as a 2-1 score often suggests, they didn't dominate, and B) it's not in my nature to feel overly confident about the Giants. But for a game against Clayton Kershaw that was close the whole way, the Giants seemed fairly in control the entire game. The younger, more Southern, Giant version of Kershaw certainly helped the cause.
Matt Cain's nickname is "the Horse", and for good reason, but Bumgarner at least deserves some Horse points for what he's done in his career so far. Yes, he's only 23(!) but his overall consistency, reliability, and durability in his 2-plus seasons in the majors makes him very Cain-like. Maybe I just love Matt Cain (I very much do) and feel like comparing every good pitcher to him, but I think Bumgarner warrants at least some Horse recognition. He could probably use a couple more years in the big leagues.
Bumgarner was amazing last night, only giving up 4 hits and 0 walks in 8 IP while throwing 123 pitches (Horse!!). He also struck out 10, which is never a bad thing to do as a pitcher. The most ridiculous part of his start was the fact that he faced several (I think around five) hitters in 3-2 counts and never walked any of them. From my knowledge, he retired all of those hitters he faced in 3-2 counts, but just the fact that he didn't walk any of those many hitters is pretty spectacular. His strikeout of Matt Kemp with a 3-2 slider in the dirt in the 6th inning with a runner on third was the highlight of MadBum's great outing (I mean, how many pitchers have ever made Kemp look that foolish in a situation like that?).
Kershaw pitched a hell of game, as well, but the BABIP gods were on the Giants' side last night. Besides Pagan's lead-off double in the 1st inning, none of the Giants other 5 hits were hard-hit. The top of the 6th inning went like this: infield single by Pagan; single by Scutaro (that could've easily been ruled an error on Hanley Ramirez); bloop single by Sandoval, resulting in a run on an extremely close call at the plate. The Giants most certainly had some luck in winning this game but, hey, you need that sometimes if you're trying to win baseball games and make the playoffs.
Bochy (thinking to himself): "Man, thank God Bumgarner was so good last night because that was not an easy win. We really needed to grind to get those two runs. I shoulda started Christian in left and Theriot at first. We woulda scored plenty of runs then. That Theriot, what a professio... Ah dammit, Theriot can only play second. Ohhh, I shoulda moved Pablo to first and Scutaro to third so Theriot could play second. Gotta have righty hitters against a lefty pitcher. Silly me, getting blinded by things like OBP and talent instead of sticking to my roots. Definitely gotta use that lineup against Capuano on Wednesday. GOT TO. I wonder if Sabes is gonna call up Pill before then..."
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