Friday's game 2 of the series was a night game, like game 1. Having won the first game, the Giants were only 1 game back in the NL West standings, hoping for a win to put them into a tie for first place. Tonight, I was in section 102 which was right behind the plate, just off-centre to the 3rd base side. I was in the back row of the front set of seats, and there were spaces either side which was nice.
The game was scoreless through 6 innings, and quite fast moving too, really. The Giants' pitcher Jonathan Sanchez did not have very good control, despite giving up very few hits, he walked a ton of batters - I lost count of the number that he put on base, but then stranded. The Giants pinch-hit for him in the 6th inning, but his line will look OK except for the walks (5IP, 1H, 0R, 7BB, ND) This game was a complete contrast from Thursday's game that was dominated by the home run. The Giants were handicapped by hitting into yet more double plays today, to add to the 3 they hit into yesterday - nothing stops a rally faster than a quick double-play.
In the end, what was a very close call in the 7th inning may have decided the game. The Giants' Aubrey Huff got hit by a pitch and immediately ran towards the Giants dugout, until he saw the trainer and manager coming out to see if he was alright, at which point he reversed direction and ran off to first base, chased by the coach and manager. He took second on a strikeout, jarring the ball out of Eckstein's hand as he arrived, and beat a throw to a third on a routine groundout, before scoring on what should have been an inning-ending double-play that Uribe hit in to. The Padres started to mount their challenge in the bottom of the 8th, and so the closer, Brian Wilson, was summoned to stop the threat, which he did. However, the Giants conspired to get men on base on the top of the 9th, and because Bochy hadn't double-switched Wilson into the game, Wilson actually had his 5th at-bat of the season . To be honest, he looked all at sea, and didn't seem to really know which end of the bat to hold. However, he came back to his proper job in the bottom of the 9th and closed the game out to give the Giants a 1-0 victory that puts them leave with San Diego atop the NL West.
The game had motored along for the first 6 innings, completed in an hour and a half, but the intensity of the game slowed it down from there on and the game took just over the 3 hours to complete.
For the first time in 70 or so games that I've attended, there was a problem with a drunk and disorderly spectator near me. Two girls and a man turned up during the top of the 7th inning and sat next to me with one seat gap. The girl nearest to me was clearly very drunk and kept poking me and screaming for one team or the other and generally making a nuisance of herself. I cast a quick glance to the steward at the back of the section and noticed that they were being observed. During the bottom of the 7th, two policewomen arrived to escort the two girls away, which was nice. Everything returned to normal after that.
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