Miguel Tejada, master of HBISWTIMBO

I was pretty down on Miguel Tejada Friday night.

Although the Giants won that game, I couldn't understand why he would bunt in the bottom frame of an extra-inning game when a home run would win it, he does still have home run power, and...he had hit a home run earlier in the game.

It seemed tantamount to the kind of idiocy I wouldn't expect from a veteran player on a veteran team. However, given tonight's game, he was obviously setting us up to unleash his skill in the area of: HBISWTIMBO.

Hit

Balls

Into

Strong

Winds

That

Induce

Miscommunication

Between

Outfielders

Not exactly sure what happened between Jon Jay and Colby Rasmus of the Cardinals while the ball was in flight (probably heavily influenced by the strong winds), but towards the end of the play it looked like Jay was going to go for it and Rasmus was going to let him -- then Jay saw Rasmus had the better shot at it, pulled up, and Rasmus was a beat late in noticing. Rasmus then got a bit anxious and botched the play.

To me, the ruling that it was a double is kind -- I'm sure Rasmus himself, along with everybody else in the park would generally think it's a play that would usually be made, tough or not.

But that would miss the point of things -- it was a really, really nice at-bat from Miggy. It was obvious Ryan Franklin and Jadier Molina were determined get Tejada out on the outer half of the plate, but Miggy spoiled enough of those pitches where they were forced to mix it up on the inner half a couple of times as well. Miggy was ready for what ended up being the payoff pitch (10th of the plate appearance, I believe), and jumped on it, but either just didn't get enough of it or the winds knocked down what could have been a home run on another day.

Still, he did what he could, and that was enough...he hit it well enough in the gap that both Cardinal outfielders had to hustle over, and then all the other factors contributed to a botched play and a Giants win.

I'm not sure what Tejada will end up doing this year as far as productivity goes, but that effort definitely deserves to be applauded.

Other stuff:

• Aaron Rowand suuuuure is swinging a hot bat! Oh, wait, that was before this game, where he ended up looking just like he looked last season. He played a good CF after Torres went out, though.
• Pat the Bat is finding ways to contribute, but he's currently striking out at almost a 1-in-3 clip. Sort of hard to raise that .160 average when about once or twice a game you just aren't putting the ball in play.
• Matt Cain was terrific, but I tell you this much -- I'm very, very glad the Giants seem to be catching Albert Pujols at a dull roar (annnnnd here comes a two HR Sunday for the Machine...).

I'll hope that Andres Torres's Achilles injury isn't too bad...his defense is huge on this club. I'm having stressful visions of a Rowand, Aubrey Huff, Pat Burrell starting outfield, although perhaps Bruce Bochy will mix things up a bit with days off in order to get a few starts for Nate Schierholtz.