Lincecum and Oswalt

I always wanted to blog a game, so this was little experiment ... but the end result was way too long. If you want to read the whole thing, click here.

Tonight's Giants game features a matchup of similar pitchers, rookie Giant Tim Lincecum and veteran Astro Roy Oswalt, both of whom are dominating little guys who slingshot the ball with ferocity and accuracy. Both have hard fastballs and big breaking balls. I think they each have a changeup and Oswalt has a sinker. We didn’t see a lot of Lincecum’s change-up in his last start, but he sprinkled it in tonight to good effect.

The game did not disappoint. Lots of late movement, pitches on the black, futile swings and frozen stares as the ball bloew right by.

Eerie how similar Lincecum and Oswalt's motions are. Lincecum says he modeled himself on Oswalt, so it is odd that they face each other in back to back starts in the earliest stages of Lincecum's career.

I think that the umpires are squeezing the strike zone this year. Oswalt didn't get an inside fastball early on. I like a big strike zone ... swing the bat, boyz.

Oswalt has a weird waddle when he walks, like his muscles are too tight. When he throws, it is that same sling shot motion as Lincecum ... as if the little guy has to get the whole musculature into the throw in lieu of the muscle or the weight of the big boy pitchers. I like little guy pitchers ... and I like the big ones too ... I just plain root for pitching.

Lincecum was victimized by two hard hits down the respective baselines in the 4th; he gave up two runs but stuck with it and looked strong the rest of the night. Lincecum is cool ... got victimized by some bad luck, but stuck it out. Still throwing hard, and cool as a cucumber.

Oswalt paid for walking Bonds in the 7th. The Giants scored thrice and that was the game except for ...

Benitez is up ... hold yer breath ... Carlos Lee smashes the ball to the deepest part of Death Valley (right center) for a fly out ... a home run anywhere else in the world. But Feliz gets the third out with his stylish hard throw across the diamond.

Sweet. Giants win 4-2.