Soggy Wins and Kidney Stones

I’ve got no reticence about writing today, since a lot has happened. In fact, it’s taken until after 7 for me to document it all for you fantasy baseball historians out there.

First, there have been not one but two games completed by the Giants since last I updated things. Last night’s game was pretty gruesome, particularly the last play when Benitez pulled a hamstring and landed first on the base to win the game and later, after being carried off the field and getting an MRI, on the DL. The Giants’ new closer is a mystery man, possibly on the waiver wire. Herges? Brower? Christensen? Someone else? There should be some bidding on Tuesday next.

Meanwhile Armando looked like crap, giving up a 2 run homer in the 8th to let the Padres tie it up. I watched him pitch the ninth. He seemed to have no control of virtually any pitch. His curve balls were out of the zone. His sliders were out of the zone. And his fastballs (peaking at 94, not 98) were over the plate but high in the zone, like in “that ball is hit way back, way back…” When is Felipe, who loves his relievers to pitch to one batter only, going to learn that Benitez (like Hermanson last season) is NOT more than a one inning pitcher? He’s got to avoid letting him come in during the 8th. He has got to find a pitcher to set up in the 8th who is reliable in the way Brower was last season and Tim Worrell before him. The Giants are faking their way to whatever wins they’ve found; this is not going to be good.

We didn’t get to see the new closer today because they pounded their way to a wet win, 10-3. I was there, feeling the first drops in the 3rd inning, and covered by my pancho during the big 6 run rally in the fourth. By the time Feliz popped his 3 run shot, it was coming down fairly hard. At that point, it looked like the game would get called, but the Giants needed to get to the bottom of the fifth to make it official. They continued the bottom 4 rally, but with me gone for the club, because it was really starting to come down.

Inside, the field club was packed wall-to-wall, nary a seat in the place, people standing 20 deep at every TV watching the rally continue. I was yelling for outs, because they needed to get onto the next inning, and at that point there was no way the game was going to make it through the rain. People didn’t seem to get it. By the time I got the elevator up to the main club, which was crowded but not ridiculous like the field club, the Giants had brilliantly ended their rally and Reuter, who pitched a great game and threw in a bunt single in the third, was working his way to making the game official with the Giants ahead 6-0. By the time I found a chair in the back of the club, about a mile from home plate and almost as far from the nearest television, the Giants were up again, and the game, being played in heavy rain, was going to count. It never stopped raining, but there were no rain delays, and the game ended with another Giants win, 10-3. My season record in person now is 2-1.

A couple of other teams had interesting closer problems surface yesterday. Danny Kolb was taken out in the 9th yesterday in mid-meltdown, and Adam Bernero came in for the save. Today Bernero finished the 9th with the Braves ahead 8-4. Do they have a new closer? And is it Bernero? TBD, probably pretty soon. In St. Louis, Izzy when out with one out in the 9th, this for some kind of injury tweak. Today Tavares got the save and Ray King (our Ray King, he of the 0.00 ERA) was the set up man in the 8th. There may be some saves to be bought out there.

There were some beautiful pitching performances since yesterday. John Patterson, who we once had as a minor leaguer, is continuing his Sandy Koufax imitation. Today Kip Wells gave up 4 hits, 1 walk and no runs in 7 innings today for a win. Brett Myers had another fine game, 4 hits, 3 walks and no runs but no win in 7 innings today.

And our cheap boy, Mike Hampton had another nice win today, 7 innings, 7 hits, 2 walks and 3 runs. All three runs came from homers from our Mets, Cliff Floyd (#6, and continuing his hitting streak) and Doug Mientkiewicz (#4), whose name is impossible to spell. This outing increased Hampton’s ERA to 1.67 for the season. At 3 bucks, we can live with that.

Yesterday we moved down to 4th. It’s going to be a bumpy ride all season, but it’s fun being at this end of things again this season. Barry’s holding onto 1st, for now. Meanwhile I got nice notes about the blog from Greg and Barry, which meant a lot. I’m enjoying writing it, but I’m really happy that I’ve got a few readers. I’m waiting to hear that someone has actually bookmarked the site.

Barry sent a damn funny note that I will end this installment with here:

“Hi Josh ... I'm becoming a dedicated reader of Sour Grapes and I doubt I'm the only one…

DEDICATION ... Let me tell you how dedicated the Elder Barry is to the BABI League. On Monday (actually Tuesday morning at 3:00 AM) I awoke with a terrible pain in my side ... yep, a kidney stone ... even before I made arrangements for a ride to the Kaiser ER, I logged on to the BABI site to adjust my free agent priorities ... Somehow I doubt Ben Weber will be worth it ... The stone passed quietly Wednesday evening right after I returned home from the Giant game ...

Now with respect to my comment ... "Pecklers looking North Again and the Bats suggest the Pecklers get used to it. " So far so good - I don't really expect it to last much longer but I sincerely hope an Elder Barry Whine doesn't turn to sour grapes before the season concludes.”

It sounds like he passed that stone a little easier than Al Swearengen did on Deadwood a couple of weeks ago. I’m sure that the Doc would have been happy to help Barry with those scary tools the Doc on Deadwood used.