Game 3 – Limiting the Damage

Got to hand it to Hughes, he was looking sharp with very good command for the first few innings. He threw first pitch strikes to 14 of the first 16 batters he faced. He then walked Scutaro in the 5th, the first of 6 straight batters he would throw a first pitch ball to. Of the 8 batters he threw first pitch balls to in the game, 3 of them got hits and 1 walked. Of the 15 batters he threw first pitch strikes to, just 1 got a hit.

Of course McGowan was matching him until he ran into trouble in the 5th. Another good sign that McGowan has arrived, something he started showing last year, was his ability to limit the damage. Even after the wild pitch scored one, it didn’t shake him as he came back to strike out Rodriguez then only give up one more on the SF.

I didn’t mind Gibbons leaving Wolfe in to start the 8th especially after how quickly he worked through the 7th, but I was actually surprised he went to him at all. I thought he would have went straight to Downs to start the 7th with Cano and Matsui due up and Molina the only RH of the next 5.

Neither a sore hip nor age can stop Stairs from being among the best in baseball at getting around on a fastball as he proved when he pulled a fastball from Joba into RF. Too bad he didn’t get any air under it.

Tough to lose 2 of 3. Shame when the pitching staff was able to hold down this NY offence to just 8 runs.

Now for the stats. I’ve decided to add a little something. In the case of the advances since its not just the hitters who are trying to advance the runner, but also the pitchers trying to get the hitter out without him moving the runner, I figured I would also track the pitchers stats in these runner on 2nd nobody out situations. So for the pitchers, it will be the opposite they want NAdv. So I’ve gone back and edited my Game 1 & 2 posts to include the pitchers.

Adv: Stairs (1)
Pitching Adv: Hughes
NAdv: Damon, Rodriguez
Pitching NAdv: McGowan 2 (2)