Jonathan Sanchez sure showed me
Posted By Jeff Fletcher on July 10, 2009 10:24 pm
Guess I’m the dope today, huh? As my loyal readers know, I’ve been pretty hard on Jonathan Sanchez ever since I started this blog. I’ve been skeptical that he’d ever really turn that potential into consistent performance.
One game certainly doesn’t mean he’s figured it out and he’s going to be good from now on, but this is his day, so I’ll refrain from bashing him. He did pitch a great game.
Wish I could have been there.
I was planning to go to the game tonight, but I got the stuff I needed for my upcoming stories at last night’s game, and I had another assignment to work on tonight, so I stayed at home.
I’ve still never seen a no-hitter in person. Bah.
Another funny thing. Last night I was at Tim Lincecum’s game and I posted something on my Facebook page about the potential no-hitter. Of course, just after that Lincecum gave up a hit. So a bunch of my Facebook friends got on my case for jinxing it.
My highly sarcastic reply: “Sorry guys. When Jonathan Sanchez is pitching tomorrow night I promise I won’t say a word about a no-hitter. HA!”
Guess the joke was on me.
By the way, Bengie Molina missed the game for a pretty reason — his wife was having a baby — but what do you suppose is going through his mind?
Alot of people have been critical of Sanchez this season. I have to admit that he has pitched some real crummy games this year. He seemed to pitch pretty well for the first 3 or 4 innings and then fall apart. To me he looked like he would become fatigued and his mechanics would fall a part. I believe Sanchez pitched for his country Puerto Rico in the International World Series. If you look at other major league pitchers who played in the International World Series they are having bad seasons as well. May be Sanchez’s problems are related to a dead arm caused by over use. The Giants should try determine this before they deal this guy for a bat. A couple weeks of rest seemed to do him wonders.
If the WBC caused Sanchez’s problems, it was from under-use, not over-use. He only pitched 6 2/3 innings and was with Team Puerto Rico for about two and half weeks. That may have had him about one start behind the other pitchers when he returned. I doubt that would have that much impact on him into the season.
This quickly goes down as my favourite moment as a giants fan…The fact that it was the first time his dad has watched him, that it was his first complete game in professional baseball, that he wasn’t even supposed to start today, that he was ONE freaking bad hop in the 8th inning from perfection, that you reverse-jinxed him like you did, just makes it that much better (and I’m glad you kept your promise, despite its facetious nature). These moments are the reason we follow sports.
As a footnote…the Padres have now gone hitless in 17 of their last 18 innings of baseball. Can Cain keep the streak going?
It’s usually one of the guys that you don’t expect to do it that ends up getting one. Its not surprising based on his talent but certainly up until now he hasn’t been able to put it together. Maybe this is the thing he needed to get on track.
On a side note, how big a douche bag do you think Uribe feels like?
By the way, before you any of you guys get too smart and tell me that I am wrong and that this game proves Sanchez is good, I’ll simply remind you that Fred Lewis hit for the cycle. I’m going to stick with believing that Sanchez’ 5.07 ERA and 1.5 WHIP over 328 big league innings is still a pretty good indication of his true level.