Friday’s game was supposed to be a mismatch, and was.
Ian Kennedy Out-Pitches Tim Lincecum To Beat Giants
Saturday’s game was supposed to be a mismatch, sort of.
Which it was. Just not the mismatch it was supposed to be.
Sort of.
See, the first-place Arizona Diamondbacks entered Saturday's game with a five-game lead over the World's Champion San Francisco Giants. The first-place Diamondbacks entered Saturday's game with a positive (+35) run differential, while the World's Champion Giants had a negative (-19) run differential.
Oh, but the pitchers! The Giants were starting two-time Cy Young Award winner Tim Lincecum. The Franchise. The Freak. The Diamondbacks were starting Ian Kennedy, who wouldn't have made anyone's list of top 10 National League pitchers five months ago.
Five months can be a long time. It’s been a long time for the Giants, who are fighting for their postseason lives (and losing). It’s been a long time for the Diamondbacks, who finished last in 2010 and were roundly expected to finish last in 2011. And it’s been a long time for Ian Kennedy, who went 9-10 in 2010 but is now -- after beating Lincecum and the Giants, 7-2 Saturday night -- 18-4, with a non-zero chance of winning a Cy Young Award of his own.
Kennedy probably won't win. The award will probably go to Roy Halladay or another of Philadelphia's Merry Band of Starting pitchers. Kennedy might wind up pitching better than Lincecum, though. Leaving aside their records -- Lincecum's now 12-12 this season -- their ERAs are virtually the same, and Kennedy's actually got the better strikeout-to-walk ratio.
After a long string of outstanding starts, Lincecum’s given up 10 runs in 11 innings in his last two outings, losing both of them as the Giants have fallen deep into their second-place hole. Meanwhile, Kennedy -- with the exception of a hiccup in Philadelphia two weeks ago -- just keeps winning and winning and winning, and is as good an explanation for the Diamondback’s six-game lead in a division that was, just five months ago, supposed to be won by almost any team except the Diamondbacks.
Sunday afternoon, Arizona can nail San Francisco’s coffin shut with another win. Even without the nails, though, this one’s probably all finished except for the shouting. For one night and perhaps even for one season, Ian Kennedy was better than Tim Lincecum. It’s almost freakish.
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