Molina Muscles Giants to 9-3 Victory Over Pirates

Emergency starters scare us.  We have a tradition during such games.  Enjoy the details. 

First Inning:  Aki Iwamura flew out on the first pitch.   Andrew McCutchen lined a single, Lastings Milledge fell behind 0-2 after lashing three foul balls.  He then ground out to second base bringing up Garrett Jones with Cutch on second and two away.  Giants starter Barry Zito walked GFJ on three pitches (Zito went to his mouth on a 2-1 pitch without wiping afterwards.)   Cutch stole third base.  His third steal in three tries.  The Pirates needed some two out lightning.  And we needed a

beer.  It looked like the Bucs would jump on the tired Giants early as Zito fell behind Ryan Doumit three balls and one strike before getting the Pirates catcher to fly out to left field.  Two Bucs were left stranded.  Just like the two lonely empties on the coffee table.

Brian Burres, who was drafted by the Giants back in 2000 in the 31st round, started for the Bucs and allowed a two ball, one strike leadoff double to Aaron Rowand.    [We broke into the second six pack in honor of Burres’ return to the majors about this time]

The red-hot Edgar Renteria (.526) stepped to the plate, but fell behind 1 and 2.  Burres was able to jam him inside, but Renteria fouled off both of the Pirates left handers’ inside pitches.  The Bucs were trying desperately to not allow Renteria to hit to the right side and move Rowand to third.  It was a crucial error.   Three pitches later,  Renteria walked down to first base as Burres couldn’t get him to chase an outside change.  

It would cost the Pirates dearly, but quickly moved our household into a jovial, oh well, its’ the Pirates party.

 Pablo Sandoval took a big leck kick on his first swing but missed the changeup from Burres, the second pitch he popped up and Andy LaRoche grabbed it in foul territory.  Burres was working and didn’t pitch badly, he had settled down.  It appeared the Pirates were asking what without an injury to Ross Ohlendorf would have been the AAA starter at Indy on this night.  Could the Bucs tap dance through the inning and escape unharmed on the scoreboard? 

Nah, not so fast Pirates fans.  Burres hit Aubrey Huff to load the bases.  Mark DeRosa, who is a well known Pirate killer with a .317 lifetime average versus the Bucs, had 78RBI and 23 homeruns last season broke his bat on a 2-0 pitch  but Milledge couldn’t quite get to the jam shot  and it fell for a two RBI single.  Milledge took about twelve to fourteen strides to get to the ball, he was clearly playing in a shift mode, not the no triples, but an apparently new version.  Whatever.  It cost the Bucs.   Bengie Molina hit a soft flare that fell just over the glove of Aki who seemed to not react to the ball off the bat and it cost Burres another Giants run. 

Juan Uribe was down 0-2 with Giants on first and second base.  On Burres’ 25th pitch, he was able to get the second out of the inning.   Andre Torres grounded out to Cedeno to end the inning. 

With a few seeing eye hits, two runs coming from a modified shift and the scoreboard showed the Giants with a 3-0 lead.

Second Inning:  After a Jeff Clement strikeout, Andy LaRoche got a five pitch walk off Zito.  Burres got down a perfect bunt and moved LaRoche to second.   Ronny Cedeno, the RumBunter offensive hero from week one because of his 3-for6 line with RISP, worked Zito to a full count.    He then lined an RBI single up the middle to score LaRoche, his fourth RBI in clutch situations.  Aki lined out to left field stranding Cedeno. 

In the bottom of the second, Zito struckout, G FJ tracked down a ball in the gap off Rowand, and Renteria took a ball near the warning track that McCutchen caught for the final out.  Burres was back on track.

Third Inning:  McCutchen flared a hit toward the right side, but Huff was playing near the first base line and was able to catch it after taking  just a couple steps to his left.  Milledge grounded to deep third base, Sandoval reached toward the line and snared it, set his feet and fired to first for the second out of the third inning.    GFJ grounded out to second base.

Sandoval loves to swing the bat.  In the bottom of the third, Panda quickly got behind 0-2 and then went down and got a pitch off his ankles and flicked it into left field for a leadoff double.    Burres then fell behind Huff three and zero.  Huff is one of the Giants who isn’t hitting well this season, just .217 coming into the game, but Burres would battle back to get to a full count on Huff, but his  breaking ball nearly hit Huff to put Giants on first and second with nobody out.

DeRosa lined to LaRoche at third who reached across his body for the first out and fired to Aki for the second out by gett Sandoval for the second out.  Huff was waved home on an RBI double by Molina into the left field corner.  Burres got too much plate on his fastball and it cost him.  Uribe took a middle in breaking ball from Burres and ripped it into the left field corner for an RBI double making it 5-1 Giants.   The Bucs intentionally walked Torres to pitch to Zito with two outs and runners on first and second.   LaRoche scooped up a Zito grounder and threw to Clement for the final out.

We cracked into our second case of beer.

Fourth Inning:  Doumit topped a change up from Zito rolling it to Panda at third who just got the hustling Doumit for the Giants first out.  Zito got ahead one and two on Clement and got him to roll weakly to Huff at first on his slow curveball.   Zito made it seven in a row when he got the ice cold LaRoche to ground out to Renteria at short.

Rowand grounded out to Cedeno at deep short on the first pitch.  Renteria struckout.  Panda chased the first one and missed.  We saw him take a pitch.  He took the second pitch.  I sear I saw it.  He then broke his bat and dropped a single in front of Milledge who felt the need to dive even though the ball was ten feet in front of him.   Burres threw his 88 mph fastball down the middle to Huff who then crushed a triple to the deepest part of the AT&T.  Huff hits that to anywhere else in the yard and it’s gone.  Panda scores, 6-1 Giants.   DeRosa skied a ball into foul territory between home and first base.  He took a wide turn toward Clement, who deftly avoided contact and caught the ball in foul territory.  Somebody said DeRosa flexed for the camera.

These Giants are so intimidating beating up on the AAA fifth starter.  [We are quickly running out of beer]

Fifth Inning:  John Raynor pinch hit for Burres.  He ripped a ball to short that hit off the heel of Renterias’ glove which was ruled a hit, Raynor”s first major league hit. Cedeno worked Zito to a full count, including a 3-1 wild pitch that allowed Raynor to move to second, before he grounded to second moving Raynor into third with one away.  Aki slapped a 3-1 pitch off the Budweiser sign on the left field wall to plate Raynor for his third RBI of the season.  McCutchen took an awful uppercut swing and fouled out on a 2-1 count for the Bucs second out of the inning.    Milledge followed with a 2-0 groundout to second base stranding Aki in scoring position.

DJ Carrasco came in and was greeted by Molinas’ third hit of the night.  He fell behind 3-0 to Uribe before bearing down to make it a full count and got Uribe to chase away for a strikeout. Torres grounded sharply to LaRoche who was in on the grass and took the ball off his chest, he recovered and fired to second to force Molina for the second out.  Zito stranded Torres when he struckout looking.  The Giants took a four run lead into the sixth.

Sixth Inning:  Zito sensed that we were running low on brews.  It took just six pitches for him to get GFJ, Doumit and Clement.

Rowand sent a weak roller to Aki for the first out.  He got Renteria looking for a strikeout.  Sandoval fouled off the first pitch then swung and missed to go down zero and two.  Took three balls low, one of Doumits’ chin, one of his shin guard to work the count full before dropping his third hit of the brisk evening in front of Milledge.  Somehow Huff got a hit ruled when Aki should have camped under a ball in short right field.  Jones was charging the entire way and the ball hit off his glove as he dove putting Huff on first and Panda on third.  Panda scored on wild pitch to make it 7-2, Huff moved to second base.  DeRosa had a 3-0 count after the costly blunder, DJ settled down and worked the count full before Carrasco rung him up with a nasty breaking pitch away.   Carrasco kept filling up the zone, getting ahead of hitters and when he missed it was low in the zone.

The run will show as earned in the box score.  Frustrated yet DJ?

Seventh Inning:  LaRoche walked to the plate and blisttered a 2-0 fastball from Zito into left field.  Bobby Crosby pinch hit for Carrasco and worked the count full as RHP  Sergio Romo loosened in the pen.  Zito walked Crosby, his third of the game.    Crosby would be the last batter Zito would face in the game.   Cedeno jumped all over the first pitch fastball ripping it foul and then took the nasty breaking ball for strike two.   He chased the same  75-76 mh breaking ball and Romo had his first strikeout.  The runners remained at first and second.   Aki displayed a nice stroke to drive in LaRoche with a single bringing up Cutch with runners on first and second again.   7-3 Giants.

Two nasty breaking balls had Cutch 0-2.  After a ball, Cutch looked awful on a lunging strikeout.   Milledge took a monster cut on a 2-0 spinner.  Milledge took a monster cut on a 2-1 spinner.  He was open.  He was pulling way off.  A purposeful fastball was thrown way out of the zone to make it a full count.  Milledge was sucked right in and fanned at the breaking ball stranding Crosby and Aki.

It was a critical moment for the Bucs.  Clutch hitting was desperately needed.  It was nowhere to be found.

Joel Hanrahan took the bump and walked Molina.  Yes.  He walked Molina.  Four pitches.  Molina walks about as often as McDonalds runs out of fries.  Uribe grounded up the middle on an 0-2 count and Cedeno tossed to Aki for the force out.  A throw to first was not attempted.  Hanrahan looked solid in an eight pitch stretch after the walk.  He  consistently hit 94-95 on the gun.  He mixed speeds nicely.    Torres really put up a good at bat before striking out on a pitch low and out of the zone.   The AAA Fresno phenom Bowker pinch hit for Romo and Hanrahan walked him on four pitches.  I feel like a yo-yo and it has nothing to do with the flowing suds.  Just the life of a Pirate fan.    Rowand was hit by a riding sinker to load up the bases.  But Hanrahan settled and got Renteria to chase upstairs to strikeout leaving the sacks juiced.

Eighth Inning:  The hard throwing LHP Dan Runzler came on to face the quiet middle of the Pirates order who weren’t able to sniff a hit through the first seven innings.  Jones, hitting under .200 worked a full count before a perfectly located fastball got him looking.    Doumit flew out to Torres in right field about two steps shy of the warning track.    Clement, hitting under .200, grounded out to second base. 

Brendan Donnelly did one of the hardest things to do in the majors.  He walked Panda.  He followed up the improbable by walking Huff seriously increasing his OPS for the season.  DeRossa grounded to LaRoche who stepped on the bag and threw across the diamond to get DeRossa.    On a 1-2 offering Donnelly got all of the middle of the plate and Molina muscled his first homer of the season into the left field bleachers to give the Giants a 9-3 lead heading to the ninth. 

Ninth Inning:  LaRoche stepped into the box and drove a single into LF off RHP  Guillermo Mota.  [By this time, we are fully stocked and our rally caps are firmly placed on our heads]  Delwyn Young pinch hit and flew out.  Cedeno flew out to deep center field for the second out.   Aki was fooled on the 92 mph first pitch tailing heater as LaRoche moved down to second.   Aki hit it very well to the left field corner but it wasn’t enough.  

The Giants improved to 6-1 on the season with the 9-3 victory.

Burres took the loss in pitching four innings, allowing eight hits, six runs, two walks, and two strikeouts.    Great rule MLB.  Does it really need to be this way?

The Pirates middle consisted of Milledge, Jones, Doumit and Clement.  They were 0-for-15.

Garrett Jones and Ryan Doumit are a combined 1-for-27 lately.  JR, let’s run out DY and JHammer tomorrow night.  Also, could we play Milledge straight up so he could catch at least a few of those balls to the LF corner?   Not sure what scouting report the Pirates saw, but that was a difficult game to watch.

Game time will be 10pm tomorrow night.

~~~

It could be worse.  The Astros are 0-7.   Get me some pretzels.