Baseball '09, Volume XI: Night Baseball

Night baseball deserves a quiet night. Or, barring that, a good beer or two, clear skies, a minimum of chilly breezes, and a portion of irony.

So last night was successful.

The Giants were playing the nondescript Pirates of Pittsburgh. Nondescript is not really fair, perhaps, except that their starting pitcher was Charlie Morton, whom I believe they got in a trade with Atlanta for their last remaining star outfielder, so I knew nothing about him, and let's face it: Charlie Morton is a fairly nondescript name. The Pirates have traded several of their stars this year, and two remaining stars, Jack Wilson and Freddy Sanchez, did not play last night--both were traded today, Wilson to Seattle and Sanchez all the way down the hall to the Giants' clubhouse, which ties in to the irony which will be discussed later. The upshot was that I really didn't know much about any of the Pirates, except that they are youthful and have collected some promising young batters.

Maybe it was the quality of light, or maybe it was the relatively sparse attendance, but there was something kind of tired about the atmosphere in the early stages of the game. Even the grass seemed a little faded; I suppose that could be a good metaphor for the progress of a baseball season through the heat of July and the mid-season stages, if I were so inclined as to look for elaborately picturesque metaphors. I am so inclined, of course.

Or maybe it was a sense of resignation from the crowd after Barry Zito's first pitch was lashed for a double, and the Pirates quickly had a 1-0 lead.

But if there is one thing distinctive I've noticed in the games I've seen Zito pitch this year, other than the fact that his pant legs are tucked into his high black socks, which is very distinctive during the high leg kick of his windup, it is that Zito will keep you on the edge of your seat and worried, even when he is pitching quite solidly. This is barring the few games in which he has been hammered; nevertheless, he is better than his 6-10 record indicates, even if he hasn't exactly been worth the $126 million we paid him.

And for today's delicious bit of irony, consider the case of Eugenio Velez, who has been up and down between the majors and minors for the last couple of years, and was up from the minors to fill in at second base, presumably while the Giants worked a trade for more offense from that position, a trade that would result in Freddy Sanchez. In the meantime, last night was Ryan Garko's debut with the Giants, and he went 0-4, which is not unexpected for his first night in a new league. However, what was unexpected was for Velez to provide 66.6% of the Giants' offense on the night, whacking a solo homer in the second and driving in Fred Lewis in the 6th inning--Velez also scored the only run of the Giants' extra-inning win this afternoon, being driven in by the once-again-so-aptly-named Randy Winn.

The Giants did annoy me again by stranding so many runners, as they so often do, as we all so often do to the ones who love us, akin to a ship passing stranded swimmers while still having plenty of life-preservers to go around, but they executed perfectly in a couple key moments: Fred Lewis singling, stealing second, and coming around to score on Velez' double; Randy Winn playing a perfect sacrifice bunt to move Andres Torres to third base for Pablo Sandoval to drive in with the winning run in the 7th; and Sandoval taking off from first on the pitch to facilitate a perfect hit-and-run with Bengie Molina lacing a single to center field--they didn't score on this play, but it was unexpected, because Sandoval is nicknamed Kung Fu Panda in part, I think, because he doesn't look like a speed demon on the bases.

All in all, a satisfying 3-2 victory at home, even if $8 dollars for a bottle of Anchor Steam and $7.50 for a softball-sized chicken sandwich seems to be approaching airport-level pricing for food.