S.F. Giants Avert Sweep, Beat L.A. Dodgers in Dramatic Fashion

Second baseman Juan Uribe forgot to wear his shades. They were inconveniently sitting on the brim of his San Francisco Giants cap when a pop-up off the bat of Los Angeles Dodgers’ James Loney came his way.

He looked directly into the sun trying to find the soft looper but couldn’t. He was in the vicinity, and you couldn’t tell if he was in control or not.

It turned out, he wasn’t: the ball glanced off his glove and into shallow left field. The 43,000 that packed the Giants stadium moaned in unison. Luckily for Uribe, nothing came of his gaffe.

He didn’t wear his shades when he stepped to the plate in the bottom of the inning, either. This time, he didn’t need them. With one crack of the bat, he transformed from a potential goat to hero, allowing San Francisco to leave the series with their dignity intact.

The Giants received satisfactory pitching in the first game of the three-game set against their division rival, but couldn’t hit worth a lick. The second game was similar, except the pitching was also paltry.

With a long road trip on the horizon, they could ill afford to leave their friendly confines without a win to speak of against the Dodgers, whom they look up to in the National League West. Luckilly, they had the right guy on the mound to lead them to victory.

Ace Tim Lincecum, all 5′10″, 165 pounds of him, won the National League Cy Young award last year, and is in prime position to repeat. He entered his start against the Dodgers ranking first in the NL in strikeouts with 198 and first with a 2.20 ERA. These outstanding numbers only increased with another superb outing.

He didn’t allow a hit until the fourth inning. That hit, a single by Andre Ethier was fittingly followed by a strikeout of Manny Ramirez, who succumbed to Lincecum’s slider, perhaps the best of its kind in the majors. But while he disposed of a struggling Dodgers lineup, his offense hadn’t yet given him a single run with which to work.

In the second inning, right fielder Nate Shierholtz socked a leadoff triple, then stayed at third while first baseman Travis Ishikawa was hit by a pitch and Fred Lewis was walked. The bases were loaded with nobody out.  With a force at every base, Shierholtz was gunned out at home on a  groundball by Uribe.

Then, with the situation too dangerous for a sacrifice bunt, Lincecum, a career .147 hitter, whiffed quickly. Eugenio Velez, who lined out to center fielder Matt Kemp in the first inning, did so again. The Giants had baseball’s best opportunity for a big inning and they couldn’t muster a single run.

After another missed chance in the fourth inning, the Giants made up for their previously squandered chances by scoring rather quickly in the fifth.

Velez’s 6′1″, 160-pound frame doesn’t shout out power, but as he showed to start the inning, he has some serious pop. The 27-year-old cranked a drive to the deepest part of the ballpark, and watched it drop 420 feet away from home plate and one-hop into the stands for a ground-rule double.

Placed anywhere else and it would have been gone, but newly-acquired Freddy Sanchez scored Velez soon enough, lining the fourth pitch he saw from reliever James McDonald into center field for an RBI-single.

Sanchez scored later, but not before tempers flared. Pablo Sandoval was brushed back by a McDonald fastball, which appeared to clip his left elbow. Sandoval glared at McDonald and threw his arms into the air in disgust.

The benches emptied and the Giants’ Edgar Renteria went after catcher Russell Martin, Los Angeles’ catcher who took exception with Velez’s vicious slide prior to this altercation. Did Martin tell McDonald to go after Sandoval, the Giants best hitter? Renteria and a flurry of others certainly thought so.

Sandoval thought he was hit, but he got over his frustration, as he proceeded to walk to load the bases. Lewis worked another walk to plate Sanchez with two outs. The two runs of support were thought to be enough for Lincecum.

Los Angeles cut the two-run deficit in half on an RBI-groundout by Rafael Furcal in the following frame.

Lincecum, after that hiccup, settled down. He struck out the side in the eighth, then retired Mark Loretta to begin the ninth, the eighth consecutive hitter he sent down.

Furcal followed Loretta and hit a soft grounder in line with second base. Uribe flew in, corralled the ball, then fired over to first base. Furcal hustled down the line, stretched to the bag, and furiously ran through.

He was called safe, to the dismay of every Giant watching the play unfold from the theater’s front row, including Lincecum who appeared to spout every expletive known to man.

It was a close play, but in both real-time and on replay, it appeared Furcal was out by half a step. San Francisco’s bench coach Ron Wotus, who took over as the interim manager once Bruce Bochy was ejected, was tossed himself.

Martin followed by nailing a fly-ball to deep center field. Once the ball left the bat, Lincecum crumpled to the ground and stared at its flight, hoping it wouldn’t carry over the fence. It didn’t, but Furcal made the heads-up play by tagging up and scampering into second base.

Now, he could score on a single. He did, as Ethier knocked Lincecum out after 8 2/3 brilliant innings lined a changeup into right field, tying the game.

The score didn’t stay tied for long, thanks to Uribe’s heroics. Lincecum didn’t notch his 13th win, but the Giants shortstop made sure their team would come out victorious.