Wednesday, May 30, 2007

If this isn't a choke, then I don't know what is...

So I was watching my Giants take on the Mets Tuesday night on ESPN. This is another good thing about the Bonds' HR chase (in my opinion obviously), more nationally televised games.


The game was pretty much dominated by the pitching and defense from the middle until close to the end of the game. Rookie sensation Tim Lincecum had a solid outing for the Giants in a no-decision with 7 IP, 3 H, 3 ER, 3 BB, and 8 K. Oliver Perez had a great performance as well for the Mets lasting 7 Innings as well with 5 H, 3 ER, 0 BB, and 8 K.

Did I say solid pitching till the end of the game? Well atleast until the 12th. And then there was Armando Benitez.

Let me recap the 12th inning...

Giants finally broke through in their part of the 12th, Omar Vizquel started it off with a walk. Then Fred Lewis bunted Vizquel over to third after Vizquel advanced to second after a wild pitch. Mark Sweeney was then HBP. Randy Winn then grounded out while Vizquel scored, beating out the tag to take a 5-4 lead.

Then this happened...

Bottom of the 12th, Benitez walked Jose Reyes to start it off, then after multiple pick off attempts and foul balls, Benitez balked. I thought it was a questionable call. It looked like he was just doing what every other pitcher does; the ump proclaimed "he started and stopped", but to me it looked like he was just moving his left leg back closer to his right leg after getting the pitch call from catcher Bengie Molina.

So Reyes advanced to second, then Endy Chavez sacrificed him over to third. Carlos Beltran then grounded out to 2nd basemen Kevin Fransen. So two done, tying run on third and Carlos Delgado to the plate. Benitez then hesitated and made an obvious flinch, balking again bringing Reyes home to tie the game. There was no questions about this balk though, this one was blatantly obvious.

Then of course, the next pitch Delgado sent a walk off HR over the RF fence. I mean when was the last time a player balked twice in a game? How about twice in a month? I mean wow, Benitez choked horrendously. This got me wondering... why did the Giants ever trade away Joe Nathan?

8 comments:

Mevs said...

I'll tell you Ming, it almost seemed as if Benitez missed his days with the Mets or got some sorrow and wanted to help them out. Major Major choke, the Giants had a good team beaten.

stephen a said...

the answer to your final question would be "because brian sabean isn't a good GM" and I didn't see the end of the game cause once lincecum got taken out theres zero point to watching the giants, but based on the highlights I didn't think the first one was a balk

grittysquirrels said...

Somebody might want to tell Benitez that given the way the NL West is unfolding this season there isn't too much room to just piss games away. Or maybe he just knows that the Giants aren't going to the playoffs this season anyways so he just doesn't care. Or MAYBE...just maybe he's washed up and really sucks.

Anonymous said...

somebody might want to tell grittysquirrels that there's still 4 months of baseball left... long season boy

Stefan Ming said...

Haha, good point. And who said the Brewers were making the playoffs?

grittysquirrels said...

Me and the shitty NL Central. I'm just being realistic and giving my opinion.

The NL West is stacked and I personally think that the Dodgers will win that division. It's gunna be damn tough for the giants to make the playoffs.

Anonymous said...

The Brewers won't make the playoffs, they'll start sliding. You have to believe the Cards will start to get on a roll soon.

grittysquirrels said...

83 of the Brewers' next 110 games are against teams that started this week under .500 and they're already 6.5 up on the Cards. The Cards have looked basically dead thus far (not a Josh Hancock joke). Their only hope is that Pujols gets hot and can carry the team. The only problem is is that Pujols can't throw 7 solid innings a game for them. They're pitching is weak.