Wow -- Yusmeiro Petit, one batter away from being perfect.
Credit to Brian Sabean; he's done an excellent job for years in finding guys like this. After all, Vogelsong, Gaudin, and Petit are all in the rotation right now, and all are multiple castoffs.
Granted: there's no particular reason to believe that Petit is going to be anything in the long run, or even in the medium run. But, hey -- that's three good starts. Maybe he's found something...youneverknow.
Not that I'm exactly hoping for Vogelsong, Gaudin, and Petit to all be in the rotation next year (presumably with Cain and Bumgarner, I guess). Still....much better to have multiple guys competing for those slots than to just plug in any of them.
At any rate, I don't have much to say about it really...I missed the first several innings tonight because I was watching a movie (Some Like It Hot, with the youngest daughter; very fun, of course), and then I checked the score, but didn't turn the broadcast on until the bottom of the 6th. At which point I realized what was going on, and of course stuck with the game until the end.
The Giants of course haven't had a lot of no-hitters, and at least the San Francisco Giants haven't had any obscure pitcher no-hitters; I suppose Jonathan Sanchez is the most obscure of the set, and he had ~120 starts for them and 140 GS overall, so that's not exactly obscure. In fact, Sanchez may be the most obscure guy in franchise history to throw one. There's no one even remotely likely Petit. There's no Dallas Braden or Mike Warren, even (really bad luck to pitch a no-hitter for the A's, apparently).
Anyway, not much more to say about this. Hey, any fun to be had this season has to be enjoyed, right?
Saturday, September 7, 2013
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This is subjective, surely, but after Joyce's blown call in the Galarraga game, has the ship of the near-miss perfecto sailed a little bit?
ReplyDeleteNo doubt a Giants fan wouldn't agree, but I'm wondering if a general, non-Giants baseball fan has their interest much piqued about a clean base hit 26 outs into a perfect game post-Galarraga.
I didn't pay much attention at the time, but Selig of course declined the opportunity to overrule the Joyce call. One more for the trash heap of dubious commissionery decisions from Selig.
Met fan here (and former student of your friend Jon Krasno) - Petit netted us Carlos Delgado who was unbelievably productive for us in '06, the best year of my miserable baseball life.
ReplyDeleteIt's not the same thing, but after last night's save against the Yankees in New York, Red Sox closer Koji Uehara has pitched a reliever's perfect game. None of the last 27 batters he's faced---through nine appearances dating back to August 17---has reached base.
ReplyDeleteThis got me wondering: what is the longterm effect on a pitcher's reputation of pitching a perfect game or a no-hitter? It's a single game accomplishment.
ReplyDeleteThe Uehara case is interesting--the equivalent of a perfect game over many games. Harvey Haddix never got credit for pitching a perfect game, even though he pitched more than 9 consecutive perfect innnings in the same game--actually 11, before giving up a hit in the 12th.
But surely Haddix did get credit, in terms of reputation; without that game, he would be totally forgotten, no?
DeleteSo a no-hitter is something that helps a pitcher to be remembered -- for fans to young to remember them, they've maybe heard of Ed Halicki, but not Knepper or Falcone.
Beyond that, though, probably not much.
without that game, (Haddix) would be totally forgotten, no?
DeleteHaddix was the winning pitcher in the 7th game of the 1960 WS. Which would have earned him some role in history...but not much, because that's Mazeroski's game, and it pretty much belongs to Mazeroski alone.
Interesting how those things work.
And actually, slightly off-topic, the 1960 WS game 7 means Haddix had a 1-1 record in the 10 Most Famous Games In Baseball History (TM).
Delete2 decisions in the sport's ten most famous games is unparalleled, it seems to me. Is there a comparison in another team sport, difficult as such comparisons are?
A nice performance and maybe Petit has figured something out, but you cannot give Brian Sabean any credit for this one. Twice this year Petit was designated for assignment by the Giants. Nobody, including the Giants, thought he was particularly good. Hopefully he can turn it around.
ReplyDelete