4-18 Giants 1, Phillies 0

April 18 –
Baseball at its best: a warm April night, and two ace pitchers working against one another. Matt Cain of the Giants against the redoubtable Cliff Lee of the Phillies. The Giants had a chance in the first, runners on 1st and 3rd and no one out. Forget it. They blew the chance with the first of four double plays, and Lee settled in. He threw ten scoreless innings and didn’t break 100 pitches. He was at his very best, didn’t walk a man. He threw a slow curve – changeup thing that made several Giant’s’ batters, Posey and Sandoval among them, look downright foolish. He mixed in a 90-91 fastball. He threw grounders when he needed to. One of the few good swings the Giants had was Pill’s double in the sixth. A “there-is-no-better-lefty” game. Many who were in the park will never in their lives see a better pitching performance.
For his part, Cain was magnificent, if more workmanlike. No longer the hard-luck fireballer of years past, he has turned into a young vet, changing speeds and moving the ball around like a master, but always backing it up with a plus 90 fastball and matching slider. He took over from where he left off after one-hitting Pittsburgh, and now has allowed only 3 hits in 18 innings. After his ninth, an entire stadium rose up and cheered like hell when he left the field. The Phillies did get a couple of hard knocks, especially in the fourth, and later when Pence and a “homer anywhere else” fly ball that Shierholz ran down. Apart from that it was flies and grounders and excellent defensive plays. If only Crawford would begin to hit! He made several difficult plays to keep the mares off the board.
Sure, my Philly friend says, no Howard, no Utley. But also no Wilson, no Sanchez.
It was defense that finally did them in. Bastardo pitched well, but gave up a soft-liner single to Belt, and had Victorino mishandle Pagan’s hard grounder. With runners on first and second, Cabrera lined a single to right to end the evening. This was an important game, because Philadelphia is again the team to beat in the National League, and the Giants with this win took the first season series between the clubs. But more important, it was a staring contest, will against will, and the Phillies blinked first. The Giants matched their best pitcher zero for zero, defense against defense, bullpen vs. bull pen, and the Giants won. Sure it’s early, it don’t mean nothin’. But it does. Both teams know it does.
And games like this build that magic that the Giants had a year and a half ago.