Happy St. Patricks Day everyone! How fitting is it to play the A’s on March 17th? As it turns out, the luck O’ the Irish was on the Giants side today as we return the favor and roll 6-1. I guess you could say we gave them another reason to drink a pint, as if they needed one.

Diamond Notes:

- I’ll get to the awesome that was today’s game in a second but…Phoenix Muni is a freaking ZOO on St. Pattys. The game was sold out, and thats with SRO tickets. I tried to hit up a food stand because I was dying of hunger and I felt like I was playing the game “Sardines” and found the hiding place. “Hey guys, everyone and their mother wants to buy beer and food.” It was nuts. Like I said, SRO, which meant my section of seats was completely packed as well. You know how I was talking about Goodyear yesterday? I would gladly take that over this.

All in all I got some okay shots, but the line of sight was hard. I think I have carpal tunnel now from holding my camera in awkward positions trying to shoot through heads. I took a photo of my sight of the mound, and of the plate. I had “Aloha Gilligan” to my right that kept scratching his head and leaning forward, and then “The Wicker Lawn Umbrella Visor Lady” to my left. They were together so sometimes they would lean in and talk to each other. That was awesome, it was like a giant flying saucer of ugly hat coming right at me. There is some hat haze in some photos, but we made it work ;)

- If you follow my twitter/facebook, you’d know that I threw down for a “Green Beer.” It was Bud Light, so it more like “Green Disappointment in a cup.” Photo below.

- Okay on to the awesome that was this game. This game was good because everybody showed up today. It reminded me that we need to win games in the regular season like we did today. Solid pitching all around and the offense doing just enough to go home with the W.

- Barry Zito was pretty good today, only gave up 1ER in 3.1IP 3BBs and 4Hs. Ultimately, it wasn’t mind shattering but he kept us in the game and limited the damage, which is a lot better than others have been doing. I was watching him throw to Bengie before the game and man that curve ball is tricky. I was looking through the viewfinder snapping shots and he throws the curve right in my line of sight and it made me flinch. The ball snapped right back in to Bengie’s glove with some serious movement at the end. I’ve never really payed that much attention to it, but it is one of the best in the business. I can see how guys get locked up or roll that pitch over.

- Juan Uribe gets my game ball today. There were a lot of great performances but Uribe put us on the board with his long shot to LF and he made a great play saving a hit up the middle and crawling to tag the bag at 2B to get the force.

I did something a little different in that I included the whole batch of photos from his homerun because I just love his little dance with hands in the air after he blasts one.

- We stole 4 bags today, and none of the throws were even close. I like the aggressiveness that we are throwing out there, getting runners in scoring position. Plus, if Darren Ford hits a single, it turns in to a double after a couple pitches.

- The other thing I noticed at the plate is that the batters were taking pitches today and fouling off pitches to stay alive. I don’t have the exact count, but for the most part everyone was very patient and worked it.

- Ryan Rohlinger is like a secret weapon. The guy is the 2 out RBI master, he had 2 today…at different times.

- Brandon Crawford has shown he is definitely going to be a good MLB shortstop in the field. a couple balls were hit to his right and fielded on the edge of the grass behind 3B almost. Both plays were going to be close, but he gunned both runners at 1B with throws that were on the money. I hope Bochy was paying attention…

- You’ve heard of the “Duck Snort” bloop hit I’m sure, but John Bowker hit one today that was more of a “Bird Crap.” It was the top of the ninth with 2 outs and a runner on 2B and John hit a pop up to about 2 miles high. The sun was very bright and the 2B tracked that bad boy for a good 10-12 seconds. Next thing you know, he doesn’t expect it to come down and boom, it falls in. They scored it an error because I think his glove might have grazed it, but a run scored none the less but no RBI.

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