Kenny Rogers Coasters

Despite turning in a great performance and recording 5 innings of no hit ball, Dirty Sanchez was bested by Kenny "The Gambler" Rogers (pictured left) last night leading Giants fans everywhere to gorge themselves on fried chicken.

Sanchez was nearly untouchable early striking out six of the first nine Tigers he faced. He was good enough that it wasn't until Curtis "Baby" Granderson led off the 6th with a single that Sanchez even allowed a hit (it was not Edgar "Your" Renteria "is due" as Schulman recounts). Unfortunately, the one run he gave up in the 6th would be one of only two that Detroit needed to top the Giants on a night when they simply could net get a clutch hit.

Focus on the good first: Sanchez looked nasty enough that even fellow puertorriqueño and future HOFer Pudge Rodriguez approached him and asked what manner of nastiness he had just thrown to force the career .302 to hitter to groundout for his third time. He looked good against a lineup stacked with power hitting righties and that's always an encouraging sign for a young lefty. I guess we'll have to add him to the list of Giants pitchers who could potentially throw a no-no at any time.

Now the bad: Giants hitters looked silly against a suddenly resurgent Rogers who in his last six starts is 2-0 with a 1.74 ERA and a 1.09 WHIP. They had trouble getting on and when they did reach base, they had trouble getting around. FLew led off the game with a single only to have Ray Durham ground into a instant rally quelling double play. In the second inning, Richie got to second on a strong two-out double, but Lil' Bowbow struck out behind him to end the inning. Again in the third, Manny Burris reached second base with only one out, but failed to score. It took a lot of effort and Bochy-style small ball in the 6th when a hit, a walk and two sacrifices were required to get one run around. Sigh.

In other news, there is could some merit to the rumor that Peterson may be coming aboard. I don't think they necessarily need to fire Rags to do this. I am sure that Peterson would take any job he can get at this point, so we could hire him as a "Special Get-Zito's-Shit-Together Advisor of Baseball Operations" or whatever. Just take a flier on a guy who may be able to help your highest-paid player. This is a sentiment that Schulman and I share.

Also in that article it mentions that Brian "Servin' U a K" Wilson has saved 19 games this season and that the last Giant to enter the AS break with 20 or more saves was Matt Herges in 2004. Let's hope this isn't indicative of what's to come as Herges finished that season with 23 total saves.