Oh My God

Here is Jonathan Sanchez’s pitching line tonight:

9 IP    0 hits   0 walks   11 K’s

Only a Juan Uribe error on an in-between hop prevented Sanchez from pitching a perfect game in his first start back after being demoted to the bullpen for ineffectiveness.  He was back in the rotation only because Randy Johnson injured his shoulder swinging at a pitch while batting.  Johnson has two career no-hitters.  Yesterday, Tim Lincecum, a much more likely candidate, had a no-hitter after six innings, but gave up a hit and then three runs in the seventh and didn’t make it out of the inning.

Unbelievable.  Almost.

Giants fans all knew that Jonathan had no-hit stuff.  His problem has always been control.  He obviously had it today.  We’ll see if it lasts.

Unfortunately, pitching a no-hitter is no guarantee of future big league success.  Bobo Holloman threw a no-hitter in his first major league start on May 6, 1953.  He went 2-7 the rest of the 1953 season and never pitched in the major leagues again.  He couldn’t throw strikes consistently.

Remember lover-boy Bo Belinsky (he was a notorious ladies’ man and party animal) of the Los Angeles Angels?  He threw a no-hitter on May 5, 1962, his rookie season, and went on to a career 28-51 record.  He led the AL in walks in 1962, and his control never got much better.

How about Joe Cowley (9/19/86), Juan Nieves (4/15/87), Mike Warren (9/9/1983), and Tommy Greene (5/23/91), to name a few other pitchers who threw no-hitters in recent memory?

The last two Giants to throw no-hitters before Sanchez were Ed Halicki on August 24, 1975 and John “The Count” Montefusco on September 29, 1976.  Giants fans had a lot of hopes for these two.  They were both great their first couple of seasons, but neither did much after 1978.

Halicki had arm problems and finished his career in 1980 with a 55-66 record.  Montefusco lasted longer and had more success.  The Count held on until 1986 and finished with a 90-83 career record, but he had a lot of years of arm problems.

Now that the reality has been stated, I’m ready to enjoy what Sanchez accomplished tonight.  This is the kind of game that will give him a confidence that perhaps he lacked before.  For the rest of his life, he’ll know that he pitched a baseball game at the highest level as well as anyone has ever done.

Of course, baseball is a game where you can throw a perfect game one start and get your brains beat out the next.  The Phillies beat the Reds 22-1 on Monday and lost to the Reds 4-3 on Tuesday.  Former Giant Todd Linden had his first big game in Japan on Tuesday, going 4-for-4 with a homerun and three RBI’s; on Wednesday, he went 0-for-4 with four strikeouts.

Now the question is: any chance that the Giants would still trade Jonathan Sanchez for the Pirates’ Freddy Sanchez?  Jonathan’s value tonight is probably as high as it will ever be.  They could probably trade Jonathan for Freddie even up and get the Pirates to throw in some cash or take Randy Winn and his big contract.

It’s awfully tough to trade a pitcher after a game like tonight’s.  If Jonathan really does turn the corner, the Giants would never hear the end of trading him.

With Randy Johnson hurt, suddenly the Giants need Jonathan again.  Despite his momentous error in tonight’s game, Juan Uribe went 3-for-4.  He hit a HR last night.  He’s now hitting .301 with a .780 OPS, and suddenly it’s debatable whether the Giants really need to upgrade at 2B.

The Giants finally called up John Bowker.  He’s 0-for-6 so far, but has a walk and HBP.  The Giants still have Kevin Pucetas, with his Pacific Coast League ERA of 3.22 and his AAA All-Star game selection, waiting in the wings.  The Giants seem to have a good thing going with what they have right now.  I think they would be best served by just keeping still.

One final note: catcher Eli Whiteside called tonight’s no-hitter.  He was also the catcher for Ryan Sadowski’s thirteen shutout innings in his first two starts.  Whiteside had two hits tonight and is now hitting .286.  The Giants signed him in early 2008 after the Twins dumped his sorry ass after a brutal start at AAA Rochester.  The Orioles cut him at the end of 2007 after a brutal performance at AAA Norfolk.

Now he’s called one of the great pitching performances in baseball history (in the top 100, at least).  Is baseball a great game or what?