Crazy 8th (Giants 6, Padres 3)

Another incident to measure the worth of Barry Bonds: When Grissom bounced that ball off the shortstop and he made the turn for second, I thought "No! That's taking the bat out of Barry's hands!" There's no guarantee that the Padres wouldn't have walked him anyway, but an open first base is an automatic Barry walk. How many times have you thought the same thing over the past few years? What other player makes you doubt the soundness of taking the extra base? That's the alternate universe that Bonds inhabits.

What was Jay Witasick thinking against Pedro Feliz? Did he not get the scouting report? The one pitch that Feliz slaughters is the first-pitch fastball, and that's exactly what Witasick gave him. The at-bat of the inning was from Michael Tucker, hanging tough after looking silly on the first two strikes to earn the walk. Tucker had another good at-bat in the ninth to get another walk.

Ah, Neifi Perez. Clutch hit, even though it was a typical Perez weak grounder. The guy has been finding the holes, though. Seven RBI in six games. Amazing.

And yet ... Perez's little hot dog play on Burroughs' grounder in the fourth was costly. It was ruled a hit, though if Neifi didn't pull his little double pump to make the play close -- as is his habit -- it's an easy out. That opened the door to the three runs in the inning. (The ESPN guys said he had trouble getting the ball out of the glove, but that wasn't the case. You could clearly see the ball in Neifi's hand when he pulled his hand out of the glove; he went back into the glove to either pump or regrip. I say it was a pump, because he does it all the time.)

The pitching looked good for a change. Herges unleashed a wicked curve on Nevin, a good sign as that pitch has been AWOL for Herges all spring.

Comments

[J. Murphy Sachs]

What happened to Giant Prospect Angel Friere (sp?) who was tearing up Norwich AA last year and had a big Winter League in Venezuela. Does anybody know?

I did not see him in Spring Training.

[John]

I was thinking the same thing. Every time the hitter in front of Bonds takes second, I think, "Why the hell don't they just tell whoever's in front of him not to do it?"

They got lucky last night, and so far they look like shit for the most part.

[steve S]

Alejandro Freire was a minor league free agent at the end of last season. The Giants did not re-sign him. I don't know if he ended up signing with any other MLB organization. Freire was old enough and limited enough defensively that he should not really be considered a prospect.