Thursday, May 8, 2008

6.1 9 5 5 1 5

The Pirates clearly have our number, but so what? The rookies have been playing over their heads a bit and they'll come crashing back to earth soon and guess what? EVERYONE will have our number. The projections about this team losing 90-100 games will come true. We are hideously bad. Matt Cain was better today than the rest of our feeble offense. He had two hits including one of our two extra base hits. On the mound, the 9 hits were a season high. Inconsistency is M.C.'s bugaboo. Did the hamstring issue from last week carry over? Only one walk, that is a good sign. Five strikeouts looks OK for 6-1/3 IP, but in the context of 30 batters faced, it looks feeble. After all, Barry "Da Beezy" Zito struck out five yesterday. Talking points:

--Jose Castillo batting 2nd (.287 OBP, lifetime .296). Reeks of Bonehead-ism.

--Rich Aurilia playing at all. Put Lewis in LF and Ortmeier/Bowker at 1B. Send Richie away.

--Special Agent Jack finally got dinged with inherited runners. Bound to happen.

I sure hope Tim Lincecum pitches well tomorrow. There's not much else worth watching with this bunch. But we knew that. I really hope we get to see Matt improve steadily the rest of this season. I'm getting tired of seeing those "L's" next to his name.

6 comments:

CJ said...

I listened to the KNBR stream at work. Started cursing out loud as soon as Bochy let Matt hit in the top of the 7th.

When exactly did Cain become Micah freaking Owings? And even if Cain is the only Giant that can hit, dude had already thrown something like 98 pitches through six innings. Give him the AB if you want, but sit him down after.

Bochy is overworking Lincecum in the same way. I'm not a big fan of strict pitch counts, and think pitchers today tend to be overpampered, but I really feel like Bruce is pushing his luck with his two aces.

JC Parsons said...

Did you guys see when Bonehead got hit by a nasty foul off the bat of Velez? He was on the ground for a few seconds and afterwards he looked pretty woozy....of course, he always looks that way.

It is going to get worse before it gets better. Our offense is ....well, OFFENSIVE!

I must admit to a little worry about Matt. I would really like to see more tangible progress. He seems to be in a holding pattern. On the other hand, every outing for Tim seems to show his maturity and development. Let's see if he can keep up this amazingly consistent string of starts. I predict that Lincecum will be our lone All-Star.

M.C. O'Connor said...

There is nothing wrong, esp. on the road, with a starter getting pulled "early." I thought that we would see a PH as well. I like to see young guys learn to throw "deep" in a game but there was little to be gained at that point. Give guys chances to succeed, don't set them up to fail. In 2008, winning ain't the point. Development of young talent is, and we have the wrong Brain Trust for that task.

Unknown said...

>> Did you guys see when Bonehead got hit by a nasty foul off the bat of Velez? He was on the ground for a few seconds and afterwards he looked pretty woozy....of course, he always looks that way.

JC, it wasn't Velez that doinked Bochy, it was your boy MC!

I have to wonder if his hammy was bugging him yesterday, his velocity seemed a tad down.

I'm voting to let Matt hit 3rd.

Anonymous said...

Brother Bob:
Sanchez update:
My main man took a step in the wrong direction the other day, part of an overall team swoon. He's still better than Ziro, way better.

Anonymous said...

So after three tough battles with the tough, tough Phillies, and beating Colorado, we get swept by the Pirates. I know they are better than the Pirates of old (a couple years ago) but still, Giants up to old tricks of playing up to the level of good teams and down to the level of bad ones. Yet again, Wednesday, we made a nobody look like Cy Young. I see that the Giants have won a grand total of 2 games against the Pirates since the beginning of the 2006 season. What the fuck is up with that? Well, no one in their right mind ever said we were good.