September 6th, 2006: Sanchez earns first win
Ray Durham Homers Twice, Giants win 3-2CINCINATTI -- It seems once again, the Giants refuse to back down. Giants prospect of the future Jonathan Sanchez pitched 5 2/3 strong innings, striking out 7 and allowing one run as they routed Cincinatti 3-2.
After taking two of three from the Reds, the Giants now head home for a pivotal series against the San Diego Padres. Trailing by two games in the wild card, this seems to be do or die for a club well past due for a long winning streak.
This win has to feel good for the Giants. Coming off a tough loss where they were shut out, they came back and showed some offensive presence. With a strong start by Jonathan Sanchez, this does nothing but bring positives to the Giants near and long term future. Sending him down in late July to have him regain arm strength as a starter, this certainly makes Sabean's move look even smarter.
Durham continues to finally live up to expectations (ahem, in his contract year). While he seems to be as injury prone as he was in earlier seasons, he manages to muster more contributions this year than of years past. At this point however, there is no point in complaining.
On another note, I find it interesting how Benitez continually gets "conveniently injured" whenever he has struggled and been outplayed by another reliever. I tip my cap to Mike Stanton for what he has done this past week. One has to wonder however why it seems that Felipe Alou is intent on defending his fallen closer.
A question that still remains is whether Mike Stanton will remain the closer once Benitez "regains his health" and more importantly, whether he will be able to remain as consistent as he has this past week. Either way, it is a position that is anything but stable and will have major consequences on the Giants playoff hopes this season.Lets hope that Randy Winn can find the magic that once was last season. I don't know how much longer fans will ignore a leadoff hitter batting .258 and an onbase percentage of .706. Pretty soon, he will be cast off in the cell of underachievers.
He shouldn't worry however. Armando Benitez will be waiting, mumbling as always, "I did my job".
posted by chris.daglow at 1:51 PM
3 Comments:
What a wonderful and hope inspiring game today. Not just in the pennant race picture, but the future of the Giants. Another young Giants pitcher showing great promise. I do believe the Giants have the makings of one of the most dominant young starting rotations of this era. No kidding. If we get just two young stud hitters. I know Pujols is untouchable, even if daddy is the first base coach, but Carlos Lee and Soriano will be on the market more than likely. Imagine if we had Liriano and Nathan back from that horrible Pierzinski trade? Dare I say it? I dare...DYNASTY!!!
Hey Lou, I doubt we will ever get our hands on Nathan and Liriano is just a dream, but it is nice to see a product like Sanchez come out of our farm system. I always find it interesting this time of year when rosters expand my five players. Suddenly a team's farm system comes into play and this year, with such a close race, even moreso. If Sabean does not find a way this offseason to sign Soriano or Lee, that will truly be his downfall as our GM because the money is there. You're right though, the pieces so far are there but we still got a lot of work to do before flirting the "d-word".
DOH !!!!
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