Of Days Off and More Rarities

I thought yesterday I was going to take a day off. Then the Giants played the Reds, and Stuff happened in the form of a 10-8 victory over the Reds.

Forget all about Randy Winn's cycle on Monday, and even forget the rarer-than-a-dodo's-egg three walk performance by Pedro Feliz in the same game. We need new, we need fresh, we need...

New Career Highs.

Yes indeedy. Feliz has only walked three times twice in his career? How's about getting five hits in one game? Never, right?

Well, not until yesterday.

Deivi Cruz has had one five-hit game in his career, and had one five-RBI game in his career. How's about both in one game? Never, right?

Well, not until yesterday.

This team is trying to become "fun", all at the expense of the Cincinnatti Reds, their horrible pitching staff (even more horrible than the Giants, apparently), and the Great American Ballpark. While it sucks lollipops that Jason Schmidt was knocked out of this game early and looked more like the early-season Schmidt than the Schmidt of the last month and a half, it most decidedly does not suck that the Giants are scoring some runs...and winning a bit, too.

Other things that did not suck:

• Okay, one is an accident, two is coincidence, and three is a trend -- Todd Linden with his 2nd strong game yesterday, with a couple of singles, a walk, and...wait for it...no strikeouts! Hallelujah! His batting average has crossed the Mendoza line (at .208 currently), hopefully never to cross back. Now I can have a little hope.
• Speaking of other firsts and rarities, Ray Durham has the ultimate way to put up an insurance run by hitting his first pinch-hit home run of his career. Heck, that's way more rare than a mere cycle. He did in in true pimp-fashion, too -- he came into the game, stepped into the box, and hit the first pitch he saw out of the park. Talk about Veni, Vidi, Vici...
• This whole shut-down-the-opposition-bullpen thing is getting to be ridiculous. These guys just are putting out more zeros than a string of binary code (ba dump! crash!). Tyler Walker did give up another yahoo! oppo-field home run to Ken Griffey, Jr. in the 9th, but Griffey is apparently getting back to being Griffey at the plate, and with a three run lead, I don't really blame Walker for challenging.
• Randy Winn still hitting. He's going to earn a freaking nickname if he keeps this up. The man, so far in his Giants tenure, has had more extra base hits (10) than singles (7).

On another note, although it was for the other team, it's nice to see Richie Aurilia still being productive -- in fact, if you look at his numbers, they are very much in line with his numbers from 1999 and 2000, which were the two seasons that put Aurilia on the map. Apparently the Reds are cutting Richie's playing time, and he's went so far as to ask to be traded to a contending team. I don't see a problem with this -- Richie is currently making peanuts at $500K and is running very good offensive numbers for a shortstop.

Aurilia, 2005 (through 78 games played): .266/.320/.454, 13 home runs in 293 at-bats.

Of course, a little digging reveals something -- Richie's has hit 10 of his 13 homers at home in the Great American (Home Run) Ballpark, and is running a .960 OPS there. On the road, however, he promptly turns into Neifi, with a .579 OPS.

One of the teams Richie brought up as far as trading partners was the Padres, because of the recent injury to Khalile Greene, but Richie -- with your road numbers, you want to go to Petco, the pitcher's park pitcher's park? As Mike Krukow would say, "You're killin' me!".

Noah Lowry on the hill today -- I wouldn't mind seeing a damper put on that Big Red Machine. We'll see if some changeups can slow those guys down.