More on Yusmeiro-mania | Giants Extra

The game will be etched in Giants lore, regardless of the outcome. One pitch, one AB away. Petit becomes almost as heroic in the end.

How Eric Chavez was able to lay off the pitch immediately prior to this one, the 2-2 slider away, was the difference. That's just a veteran, professional hitter winning the battle by a thread.

We'll need a year or so to determine if the Giants have struck Ryan Voglesong-like lightning twice, or if the Petit is just running on adrenaline. Two games against his former team, the D-Backs. So you want to see a larger sample, but the way he was painting with five different pitches my only question about Petit right now is "How was this guy not dominating minor league hitters more?"

from mercurynews.com:
Saturday’s Giants lineup: Cain returns; More on Yusmeiro-mania | Giants Extra:

Good stuff from Carl Steward last night on Yusmeiro-mania.

Carl went from AT&T Park to O.co for a day game between the A’s and the Astros. Here’s what he wrote after talking to Bob Melvin, who managed Petit in Arizona:

“I do remember him pitching some good games in San Francisco,” Melvin recalled. “That’s a good ballpark for him. He can keep the ball in the middle of the field. It’s a big park there. He’s able to keep the ball off the barrel of the bat when he’s good, and he mixes his pitches up. He’s got a little crossfire to him across his body, and there have been times when he’s been really good. Hats off to him, that was a terrific performance yesterday.”

Melvin also spoke to why Petit hasn’t been able to find a stable home in the majors.

“I think it’s because of some consistency issues with him,” he said. “He’ll be good at times and then he won’t be at time. His problem when I was with him is getting the ball up in the zone, and when you don’t throw that hard your fastball is fairly straight. You can give up some homers. But from what I see, he’s pitched pretty well. When he’s down in the zone, he’s much more difficult to deal with.”

'via Blog this'

We'll know final the answer to that in about a year. At worst, the Giants have found the tentative replacement 5th starter for Barry Zito. At best, maybe a guy you can pencil in behind Cain and Bumgarner, depending on the disposition of one Tim Lincecum.

Not a bad starting five to look forward to in 2014:
Cain, Bumgarner, Vogelsong, Lincecum and Petit.

from mercurynews.com
http://blogs.mercurynews.com/giants/2013/09/07/postgame-notes-nothing-nightmarish-about-petits-dream-performance-not-even-chavezs-last-strike-hit/

Which brings us to the long-term outlook of how Petit’s sudden emergence may impact the Giants’ formation of the 2014 rotation. Is he simply on an uncanny roll or has he made some kind of Vogelsong-like breakthrough? Petit, at minimum, will merit a good long look next spring as the Giants work out their five starters, and he said after the game he would take pretty much any contract the Giants offer because he feels that comfortable with them. True, he rarely even hit 90 mph on the radar gun in this game (or any of the other games he’s pitched), but he spotted all of his pitches so well, the Diamondbacks were off balance all night … and they just saw him five days ago, which makes what he did even more striking.

It’s a nice late-season story in a lost year. What’s remarkable is that if Matt Cain hadn’t gotten hurt, Petit probably wouldn’t even have received this chance to prove his worth. He took Cain’s spot in the rotation, and he’s 3-0 with a 2.05 ERA. He’s walked four batters in 21 innings. He should get at least 3-4 more starts, so those will be most intriguing to watch.