...and oddly enough, on the very day I decide to use that excerpt from a 50 Cent song, it just happens to be my birthday. Go figure, eh?
I'm 31 today, but the good news is I just saved a bunch of money on my car insurance by switching to Geico, plus I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night.
All of which, of course, makes for a neat transition into the Giants victory last night by the count of 5-1 over the Cincinnatti Reds.
I'm not going to bother with my normal hail of bullets, as the game can be summed up thusly:
What in the name of all that is Good & Holy is up with Mike Matheny in these clutch situations? as unlucky as he was with RISP last season, he is the polar opposite this season. It's almost as if the guy is...
...clutch. Nah, that couldn't be it.
Bullpen did well again, as Jason Christiansen was used in the LOOGY role by the book, coming in and getting the left-handed uber-scary Adam Dunn out with the bases loaded and nobody out. If I didn't know better, I'd say that was clutch, too. Especially anti-clutch was Scott Munter coming in after Christiansen to get Wily E. Pena, Super Genius, to foul out, and then getting the last out of the inning on a liner to short.
Bases loaded, no outs, no runs for the Reds. That's...gotta hurt.
I also should give some props to Brett Tomko coming in and holding the Reds down through five innings, although he did leave that mess of a bases-loaded-nobody-out situation in the 6th for the bullpen to deal with.
Lance Niekro also gets a tip of the cap for again coming in to pinch-hit and again getting an extra-base hit to drive in a run. The guy is slowly but surely convincing me that he can hit, and that his SLG percentage isn't all that big of a fluke.
Next up is three games against the St. Louis Cardinals, and it is to be hoped that the Giants don't allow double digit runs in two of those three games.
That's all I have for now. Y'all come back now, ya hear?
3 comments:
Happy birthday Daniel!
There are those out there who believe that the whole idea of "clutch" hitters is silly... with such a small sample size (clutch situations... risp, risp & 2 outs, etc) you can't really conclude anything at all, with any degree of certainty. I think I'm one of them, but I'm not entirely sure.
Plus, if a guy did hit better in clutch situations, why wouldn't he simply apply the same approach in ALL his at-bats?
I dunno, perhaps in tough situations a "clutch" hitter has a better idea of what a pitcher will do, and those are the guys who succeed.
Happy birthday dude, I'll have a pint in yr honor after the game tonight.
Aneel: I'm with you, I don't buy either argument -- that clutch doesn't exist, or that it does. One side (the "clutch does exist" side) doesn't address the simple mathematics (Matheny, for example, was horrible last year with RISP), while the other side ("clutch doesn't exist") disregards the skill of these men who've dedicated their life to following the movement of a small white ball in an attempt to strike it with a stick -- these guys (even the Neifi's of MLB) have more ability in their pinky toes than 99% of us ever have in our life. I can't just ignore that some of these skilled gentleman may have a better handle on the situation with RISP. And by the way, thanks for the b-day wishes.
Bud: thanks a lots -- I'll be hoisting a pint or 36 myself in just a bit, and tomorrow, and the day after, and the day...oh, wait, that's Monday. Nevermind.
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