It was Tim Linecum vs. Chad Billingsley in what looked like a pitcher’s duel as advertised for the first 3 inngs. But then Timmy got nailed for 3 in the 4th and Chad couldn’t hold the lead or get out of the 6th inning and the Giants went on to even the 3 game series with a 5-4 win at coooooooold AT&T Park where the temperature dropped to 48 degrees in the 9th inning with a ‘feels like’ temp at a tooooooooo low 41 and wind gusts up to 22 mph. The main thing is that the almost 49,000 in the house continued to behave themselves as semi-responsible adults and not get into any physical altercations with their rival Dodger fans (as far as I know of?). These last 2 nights are my first tastes of those horrid ‘Beat L.A.’ chants in this stadium and it certainly came to a head in the 9th inng. when Giants closer ‘Mr. Fear the Beard himself’ Brian Wilson shut the door on the Dodgers with a 1-2-3 save. After the game I entered the quiet Dodgers locker room where manager Don Mattingly did his usual post-mortem on what happened?…

Don Mattingly with Ted Sobel et al:

As for Billingsley he tried to be as cordial as possible after a disappointing outing where he couldn’t finish the job…

Chad Billingsley with Ted Sobel et al:

It was also a tough night for Dodgers leftfielder Tony Gwynn, Jr. who went 0 for 5 but the class act accepted my questions along with giving me thoughts on Wednesday night’s foe-Giants lefty Jonathon Sanchez…

Tony Gwynn, Jr. with Ted Sobel:

One of the bright spots for L.A. was Marcus Thames belting his first homer in his new Dodger blues which was also his 6th career jack as a pinch hitter, so at least I got some smiles out of him…

Marcus Thames with Ted Sobel:

So it’s one more game here in San Francisco where they’re now forcasting some rain on Wednesday, and of course my umbrella is currently protecting my closet back home! Hopefully it won’t affect me or the game much before I head home on Thursday and then it’s time for the Stanley Cup first round opener in Anaheim on Friday night between the Ducks and Nashville Predators. While the hockey Kings open on the road here in the bay area against San Jose. Of course by then, we’ll also know who the Lakers will be playing in their first round series…what a great time of year!