Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
April 06, 2007
Ninth Inning Excitement

Both west coast games offered drama in the ninth inning last night. Mike Piazza saved his first home run of the year for his first at bat against Francisco Rodriguez, breaking a 3-3 tie and evening Oakland's record at 2-2. K-Rod doesn't allow many home runs. He gave up 12 in his rookie season of 2003, but that was just the 16th allowed since. Chad Gaudin also pitched a decent five innings for the A's, allowing two runs on two solo shots.

In San Francisco, the Giants were cruising toward victory with a 5-1 lead when Steve Kline entered to pitch the ninth. He recorded the first two outs, the the Giles brothers took over, picking up a double and a single. That set up a call to Benetiz, one of the few times you'll see the closer brought in to actually put out the fire! Brian Giles takes second to open the first base bag, Benetiz walks Gonzalez to bring the tying run to the plate, and Bard delivers a two run single. (There seems to be a rule among relievers with men on base. If can hurt your teammates ERA without losing the game, let the inherited runners score.) Benetiz then popped up Cameron for the final out. And the praise rang out:

"I'm happy to get the win for Bochy, my first save, the first win for Matty," Benitez said, adding that Morris returned the favor by expressing complete faith in the closer.

"He said, 'I have confidence in you. I know what you can do. Any game I pitch I want you to finish,' " Benitez said.

Matt's a good teammate.


Posted by David Pinto at 08:28 AM | Games | TrackBack (0)
Comments
Post a comment









Remember personal info?