Posh-pit seats and garlic fries aside, I have little to say about last night’s 4-3 victory for the Giants over the Marlins except for the following ;
a) all hail the D-Train, who went right after Barry Bonds on the 3 occasions the Sultan came to the plate with runners in scoring position. Willis blew the Sultan Of Surly away on the first instance, and caught Barry guessing wrong (and popping up) on the other two. OK, so Barry’s walk in the his 3rd at bat did lead to SF’s crucial 2nd run, but I was duly impressed that Dontrelle — perhaps taking a tip from the Dodgers two weekends ago, showed so little deference to the soon-to-be-crowned HR king.
b) Believe it or not, there’s somewhere on earth where Armando Benitez is even less popular than he is in Flushing.
c) The weekend’s questionable strategy award goes to Fish skipper Fredi Gonzalez, who had closer Kevin Gregg pitch to Ray Durham with the game tied at 3, one out and runners on 3rd and 2nd in the bottom of the 9th. Sure, Durham has looked brutal recently, but Gonzalez was betting that Gregg could prevent a fly or a grounder past a drawn-in inflield rather than face Bonds with the bases loaded. As it stood, Durham hit a fly to the right field warning track with Jeremy Hermida playing shallow to end the game…leading to the incongruous scenes of a giddy Bonds hopping up and down with the likes of Mark Sweeney and Fred Lewis.
d) Just what exactly is the Giants marketing department trying to say about Noah Lowery when they have LCD Soundsystem’s “North American Scum” as the soundtrack for his Jumbotron profile?