Tonight was a good way to start the second-half, both for the Giants and for yours truly. Thomas and I took an extended All-Star break, beginning early and ending late. But we’re back, and we’re going to be delivering a good amount of content in the months to come. Check out our episode today with Scott Willis, and look for some more great guests on the podcast in the weeks to come.

But the Giants looked good too. The pitching was great, the Giants hit for power and showed good speed, and even without Crawford the defense looked good. I love seeing the speed and aggressiveness that we were promised, from the steals, hit and runs, and more.

One such example came in the bottom of the eighth inning, when Pablo Sandoval blew up catcher Chris Snyder on a sacrifice fly to shallow left field. Now, I understand in many calm, objective ways how this play differed dramatically from the Scott Cousins Incident; the play was to left field, not right, so Snyder could see the play in front of him. Also, Snyder did block the plate, and it looked like Sandoval didn’t have a route to the plate for a slide. Okay, fine. Still, those plays scare the crap out of me. Tonight’s turned out basically as well as it could have, with the run scoring and both players seemingly fine afterward, but still. Still.

Also, Madison Bumgarner is very, very good. See previous statements.

Brandon Watch 2012

Belt: 1 for 3 with a walk and some good baserunning. Keep it up.

Stats of the Game

9: Total hits by Giants

3: Hits by Giants All-Stars

5: Triples by Nate Schierholtz in 150 PAs, putting his full-season projection (650 PAs) at 22. That’s how it works, right?

2: Hits given up by Madison Bumgarner. He good.

Bonus Stat of the Day

13: Days since our last non-episode post.