Matt Cain throws first perfect game in Giants history

Tonight Matt Cain threw the first perfect game in Giants history and just the 22nd in the history of baseball.  This was the first time (as far as I can remember) that I've ever watched a perfect game from start to finish and wow.  You just don't anticipate something like this happening when you turn on a game because, well, this was only the 22nd perfect game ever.

The Giants beat the Houston Astros 10-0 tonight and Cain was awesome right from the start, as you would imagine.  It's always something special to witness something like a no-hitter or a perfect game.  When it's your favorite team -- well, it's hard to use words to describe.  When the game got to the sixth or seventh inning, I had a nervous anxiousness with every pitch that Cain threw.  I wanted this to happen so badly and knew that opportunities like this don't come around every day.

In the 8th or 9th inning, I remarked to my wife that I hadn't been this nervous watching a Giants game since the 2010 World Series run.  The whole thing took on a playoffs sort of feel -- in a sense it was different because each pitch meant so much.  If even one thing were to go wrong -- a walk, a hit batter, an error defensively, and of course a hit -- the perfect game would be no more.  That's what makes it such an amazing achievement.  And I think that's what contributes to players and fans, myself included, being so happy when it does happen.

Of course there were a pair of nice defensive plays made, including an incredible catch by Gregor Blanco.  That just adds to it all.  I feel like I had to at least mention that.  What a great night.  

Cain is one of my favorite players.  In fact, I have a Cain jersey in my closet that I will be wearing tomorrow.  The script couldn't have been better than for a workhorse like Cain to throw the first perfect game in franchise history.  Awesome!

Charlie Manuel's sour grapes

Philadelphia Phillies (65-39) manager Charlie Manuel insists the World Champion San Francisco Giants (61-44) aren't in his team's heads after the Giants took two out of three from the Phillies in Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia this week. To me, his comments sounded like he was insecure. Additionally, he said that Giants pitchers Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain were good, but not great pitchers. Perhaps he thought both men throwing six and seven innings without giving up an earned run to his vaunted lineup was an abberation. Or maybe he's forgotten Cain's seven shutout innings against the Phils in Game 3 of the NLCS last year or Lincecum's Game 1 victory in the same series.

Manuel's statement that greatness comes with consistency (and his assertion that Lincecum and Cain have not yet achieved this) is almost laughable. Lincecum won back-to-back Cy Young Awards and the following year was the MVP of the Postseason while pitching his team to a World Series victory. If that's not consistent, I don't know what is. Cain, on the other hand, didn't surrender even one earned run the entire postseason and has a 3.39 career ERA in five full seasons, including 2.89 in 2009 and 3.14 last year. Cain's ERA is 2.91 this year, Lincecum's is 2.78. Both seem pretty consistent to me. All I'm hearing from Manuel's comments is sour grapes.

The blogging and tweeting will be limited at best until August 7th, when I return from vacation with a flourish.

World Champion Giants take 2 of 3 in Denver

The World Champion San Francisco Giants (10-8) took 2 of 3 from the Colorado Rockies (13-5) at Coors Field in Denver this week. I was impressed with the way the Giants won the first two games. I still feel good about the series overall, even though they got hammered today -- can't win them all. Matt Cain had an off day today it seemed, but Tim Lincecum and Jonathan Sanchez were lights out in their starts. Pablo Sandoval seems to be reverting to his 2009 form, which is a good omen of things to come. I'm excited about this team and still think the Giants should be considered favorites to win the National League West this year.

Giants take 2-0 World Series lead

Pictured: The Giants celebrate after taking a 2 games to none lead in the 2010 World Series.

The San Francisco Giants defeated the Texas Rangers 9-0 tonight at AT&T Park in San Francisco to take a 2 games to 0 lead in the 2010 World Series. Matt Cain pitched 7 2/3 innings and still has yet to allow an earned run all postseason. He's been lights out. Edgar Renteria broke a scoreless tie in the middle innings with a solo home run once again proving he is a clutch player. Juan Uribe singled in another run later on. The floodgates really opened in the 8th inning against the Rangers bullpen which surrendered 7 runs in the inning, all after there were initially two outs and nobody on base. I said going into the series that the Rangers bullpen was weaker than that of the Giants and so far it has proven true.

The Giants' pitching staff has continued to throw well and tonight the old saying that good pitching beats good hitting was true. People have been hyping up the Rangers' offense, but I don't think they fully grasped what a great pitching staff the Giants have. That's been the recipe for success all year long, along with some timely hitting. The Giants have a lot of intangibles on this team as well and seem to have a real family atmosphere that is conducive to winning. Their offensive numbers may not blow you away, but it seems like so many times this year when the team has needed a hit, they have gotten that hit. Same thing with getting big outs and so forth when those have been needed. That can't always be put into statistics. Take tonight, with runners on 2nd and 3rd and only one out in the 6th inning with the Giants clinging to a 1-0 lead. The Rangers don't even have to get a base hit to score with less than two outs. Cain induced a harmless pop up and then ended the threat with a fly out. No harm, no foul and the Giants went on to the win.

I thought Rangers pitcher C.J. Wilson pitched a pretty good game himself, but just was outdueled by Cain. As I mentioned, things didn't really unravel substantially for Texas until the 8th inning with the bullpen already in the game.

The series now shifts to Texas. Game 3 is Saturday and note that the start time is an hour earlier, first pitch is scheduled for 4:57 p.m. MT from Arlington, TX. The game will be broadcast on FOX. Let's go Giants! Keep this thing rolling!

Cain is able and Ross comes through again for Giants in Game 3

Pictured: Cody Ross once again comes through, this time with an RBI single in the 4th inning.

The San Francisco Giants beat the Philadelphia Phillies 3-0 this afternoon in Game 3 of the NLCS to take a 2-1 series lead. Game 4 is set for tomorrow night at 5:57 p.m. MT on FOX. Matt Cain threw seven shutout innings and outdueled Cole Hamels to earn his first career postseason win. Can't say enough about Cain, Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said that Cain seemed to get even tougher when he got in more pressurized situations. The rest of the country is starting to see what we've seen for a couple of years now: the Giants have some big time pitching. Javier Lopez pitched a perfect 8th -- I still don't think he gets all the recognition he deserves as he's been absolutely lights out lately. Brian Wilson threw a scoreless 9th to earn the save.

Cody Ross once again came through, this time with a two out RBI single in the 4th inning off Hamels to enable the Giants to draw first blood. He's really dialed in right now -- after the game both Ross and Hamels said they felt it was a pitcher's pitch which makes it even more impressive that he was able to pull it to left field and give the Giants the lead. Aubrey Huff followed with an RBI single of his own and Freddy Sanchez added an RBI single an inning later.

The Giants are in pretty good shape but it's important for them to keep riding this momentum into tomorrow night's game. A win tomorrow night will put them in great shape for a prospective National League pennant.

The Texas Rangers beat the New York Yankees tonight 10-3 to take a commanding 3-1 series lead in the ALCS. The big blow was a three run home run from Bengie Molina to make it 5-3 in the 6th and the Rangers kept adding on after that. Reliever Derek Holland was as big a hero as anyone, throwing 3 2/3 innings of scoreless baseball to hold down the fort. He appropriately earned the win. The Rangers have a chance to clinch tomorrow. That sure would be cool.

Here's the details for tomorrow's games:

Game 5 -- Texas Rangers (Wilson) at New York Yankees (Sabathia), 2:07 p.m. MT (TBS, Rangers lead series 3-1)
Game 4 -- Philadelphia Phillies (Blanton) at San Francisco Giants (Bumgarner), 5:57 p.m. MT (FOX, Giants lead series 2-1)

Ankiel homer sinks Giants in Game 2

The Atlanta Braves defeated the San Francisco Giants 5-4 in 11 innings last night at AT&T Park. Rick Ankiel hit a mammoth home run off reliever Ramon Ramirez into McCovey Cove in the top of the 11th that was the difference in the game. The Giants struck first on a three run home run by Pat Burrell in the 1st and a Matt Cain RBI single in the 2nd to make it 4-0. Cain was superb in 6 2/3 innings, allowing just one unearned run.

The 8th inning, though, is where things fell apart for the Giants. With a 4-1 lead going into the inning, the Giants called on Sergio Romo who promptly gave up back-to-back hits to start the inning. After this development, manager Bruce Bochy called on Brian Wilson for a six out save. Melky Cabrera reached on an error and a run scored putting the score at 4-2 with runners on 1st and 2nd. Following a sacrifice bunt, Alex Gonzalez doubled in the runners from 2nd and 3rd to tie the game at 4.

The Giants had a chance to win it in the bottom of the 10th as they had the bases loaded with one out. However, Buster Posey grounded into a 5-4-3 double play to end the threat. I honestly thought Braves 3rd baseman Troy Glaus was going to throw it home to be sure the winning run scored, but he sent it around the horn instead. The throw to second required a bit of a stretch, but Omar Infante did a great job in making the turn. It was a really solid play and the risk proved to be worth it for the Braves.

The bottom line is that the bullpen did not come through for the Giants and that is what matters. I thought Wilson pitched well and he only gave up the one hit to Gonzalez and the runs that scored in the inning were Romo's plus Cabrera who reached on the Pablo Sandoval error. Wilson looked dominant in a shut down 9th so I don't buy the argument that some people are making that Bochy brought him in too soon. The offense had a good start but didn't do much of anything after that and once again was not able to score on the Braves bullpen.

One development to watch is that Braves closer Billy Wagner had to come out of the game in the bottom of the 10th with an oblique injury and manager Bobby Cox has ruled him out for the remainder of the series. So as unfortunate as the injury is, it could prove beneficial as the Giants face the Braves bullpen at the end of games.

The series is tied 1-1 with Game 3 set for tomorrow at 2:30 p.m. MT on TBS. In the other game yesterday, the Philadelphia Phillies defeated the Cincinnati Reds 7-4 to take a 2 games to none lead in their best-of-five series. I didn't watch a whole lot of this game, but from what I gather the Reds defense really let them down and helped provide the Phils with a lot of their runs following the Reds taking an early 4-0 lead. Another thing to remember is that the Phillies don't quit so it's not extremely surprising that they were able to come back to win the game.

Here's the schedule for today's playoff games:

Game 3 -- Tampa Bay Rays (Garza) at Texas Rangers (Lewis), 3 p.m. MT (TBS, Rangers lead series 2-0)
Game 3 -- Minnesota Twins (Duensing) at New York Yankees (Hughes), 6:30 p.m. MT (TBS, Yankees lead series 2-0)

NL West and Wild Card tight heading down stretch

My San Francisco Giants (82-64) are a half-game back of the San Diego Padres (82-63) for the lead in the National League West and a half-game back of the Atlanta Braves (83-64) in the Wild Card chase. A win tonight in the series finale against the Los Angeles Dodgers (72-74) at AT&T Park at 8:15 p.m. MT on mlb.tv would put the Giants in a dead heat with the Braves. The Padres are losing on the road against the St. Louis Cardinals (74-70) by a score of 2-0 in the 6th inning and if they lose the Giants could move into sole possession of first place with a victory tonight.

The Colorado Rockies (80-66) are 2.5 games back in the West and Wild Card races as of this moment and have just been cooled off by losing 2 of 3 at home to the Padres following a ten game win streak. Thankfully the Rockies are headed on the road (starting with a three game series at Chavez Ravine against the Dodgers this weekend) where they are just 29-42.

The Giants have been playing some good baseball as of late, particularly taking 3 of 4 in San Diego last weekend. Tuesday night was a tough 1-0 loss to the Dodgers on an unearned run; Barry Zito pitched well enough to win. Matt Cain was outstanding through 7 last night and the offense finally came to life with a pinch-hit double by Travis Ishikawa in the bottom of the 7th. Pinch-runner Emmanuel Burriss came around to score from third on a clutch two-out single by Mike Fotenot to give the Giants the lead. They added a run in the 8th and went on to win 2-1. A win would be big tonight for the Giants -- they have been chasing for a while and after tonight they could be in the position of being the ones being chased in the West. Jonathan Sanchez starts for the Giants and Ted Lilly goes for the Dodgers.

One of my favorite players in all of baseball, Giants center fielder Andres Torres, had an emergency appendectomy early Sunday morning and will be out for at least a week or two from when it happened. Torres really has been the spark-plug at the top of the lineup this season for the Giants so hopefully he isn't out too long and can fully recover in a relatively short amount of time. It's just a tough break, there isn't really anything you can do about that, but at least the appendix didn't burst before they removed it. I'm hoping to see Torres back realistically in about a week and a half.

Giants take opener from Padres

My San Francisco Giants (79-62) won the opener of a four game series at Petco Park in San Diego tonight against the Padres (79-60) by a score of 7-3. The game featured Giants home runs by Aubrey Huff, Juan Uribe, Buster Posey and Pat Burrell. The offense really got the job done tonight. Matt Cain pitched 8+ strong innings, giving up 3 earned runs. The Giants now sit just one game back in the National League West and thanks to Atlanta's (80-61) loss to St. Louis (73-65) now are just one back in the Wild Card as well.

Now the focus turns to tomorrow night's game which gets underway at 8:05 p.m. MT and will be televised on MLB Network as well as MLB Extra Innings and mlb.tv. Jonathan Sanchez pitches for the Giants and Clayton Richard goes for the Padres. I feel confident that Sanchez will be able to pitch well tomorrow, he seems to be in a good groove of late and it seems like he pitches well against the Padres.

Oh and the NFL got underway tonight with the home-standing New Orleans Saints (1-0) knocking off the Minnesota Vikings (0-1) by a score of 14-9 in a rematch of last season's NFC Championship Game. It was a lower scoring match-up than I expected, but it sounds like the Saints are still happy with the win. I didn't watch much of the game as my focus was more on the Giants-Padres game tonight. I look forward to seeing how my Philadelphia Eagles do this year. They open the season at home Sunday at 2:15 p.m. MT against the Green Bay Packers.