No, not exactly, but yeah, kinda...

Paraphrasing a Richard Pryor bit:

You ever hear one name in boxing you can say, and it'd fuck everybody up?
"Well, what if he'd fought Sugar Ray Robinson?"
"Aw shit! Don't fuck with the SUGAR! I ain't lyin', Sugar fight so good, it'll make your dick hard."

I mean, I won't go so far as to say Omar Vizquel does that, but boy, he sure does come as close as possible while playing shortstop. Another day, another spectacular play, this one coming from a total standstill, leaping up to snag a snowcone from about seven feet off the ground -- courtesy of Rob Bowen, who's probably mad, but not too mad. One of those tip-your-cap plays, like Kruk says.

So, that play, plus making the other outs of the inning, and then? Well, of course, Vizquel simply comes up the next inning and lines a single into centerfield to plate the Giants first run. It's just a bit unfair for a guy to produce as many defensive highlights as Vizquel does on a daily basis, then have a month of April where he runs about a .945 OPS.

I feel a bit bad for Bowen, though -- after getting robbed by Vizquel, his next defensive inning has seen him drop a catchable ball behind the plate, then has a passed ball that allowed Randy Winn to score (although it ended up being ruled a wild pitch).

And the Giants are just becoming magnets for beanball wars. After Steve Finley gets buzzed and Barry Bonds gets hit on the hand, Jamey Wright comes out the next inning and wastes no time in drilling the first batter he faces on the second pitch. Wright has pitched very well this year although I didn't expect it, but regardless, I respect him for coming right out and protecting his teammates.

As an aside, is it just me, or has Wright picked up an extra two mph from someplace? I haven't seen him this consistently between 92-94 before...

It's pretty obvious that the Giants pitchers have sent an early message to the league: hit one of ours, we're going to hit one of yours. Unfortunately, Wright followed the beanball with a walk, so this one could end up hurting a bit.

UPDATE: Well, shucky darn. Bases loaded, one out, and one run in thus far this inning. Two walks after the beanball plus a single...he had Khalil Greene down 1-2 in the count and lost him, which has set the Padres up nicely for the big inning.

UPDATE: Egads, this got ugly in a hurry. Wright just lost the plate for a bit, and when he found it again the Padres were waiting for him (I think they were whistling while they were waiting, too). Lots of loud contact ending up in six more runs scoring. It's a shame that the beanball started all this off, but the fact remains that Wright walked the next two batters, then could only get in the zone again after he took something off. I'd have felt bad for him if he had allowed a run or two in the inning, but seven?

Dude, that's ya own damn fault.