Friday, September 17, 2010

Still in first place!

Mattison Caingarner is not getting much help this month. He's given up three runs in 20 innings and has two losses and a no-decision. If you throw in his last start in August, it's four runs in 26 innings and another ND. MadBum wasn't exactly scintillating tonight, but he was reasonably effective, keeping the ball in the yard and getting his share of grounders. Unfortunately, the Giants looked ragged in the field and pathetic at the plate. Juan Uribe flashed some Hands of Stone/Feet of Clay moments to lead the way, but Jeremy Affeldt provided the finest fielding moment of the night in the 7th when he threw a splitter under Posey's glove and failed to get a runner at home on a comebacker. That mistake made it 3-0 and that was enough for Randy Wolf to finish us off. Oh, and is anyone else concerned about Edgar Renteria's total lack of speed and range at a premium defensive position?

The Giants, fresh off a joyous Dodger-whupping last night, couldn't sustain the energy and lost to a mediocre-would-be-a-compliment Brewers club on Orange Friday. The Buster T-shirts had no magic in them, unless you think they caused Mat Latos to give up 9 runs in St. Louis. Hey, I'll take it. We knew the Padres were cruising on fumes, and now they are looking at an empty tank. I expect the Rockies to blow past them any day now. That showdown in Colorado next weekend will be epic. Let's hope we find some offense before then. The Giants are 10-5 in September, built entirely on dominating pitching (27 runs allowed). The other side of the equation is not encouraging (47 runs scored, 23 of those in 3 games). I'm not sure what to do about it. It's not like Bochy has a lot of options. The top four batters tonight were 0-14 with a walk. Randy Wolf made it look easy (Game Score 85), facing only 30 batters and throwing only 111 pitches to complete the shutout.

Clayton Kershaw shut out the Giants to start the series against LA, but the good guys still took the next two. Let's hope that's the formula. We are still in first place!

GO GIANTS!!

--M.C.

5 comments:

Brother Bob said...

MadBum remains winless @ PhoneCo. That's an odd sort of streak.

M.C. O'Connor said...

Since it is Tim vs. Another Team Ace today, here's a bit from Baseball Musings:

Finally, Yovani Gallardo takes on Tim Lincecum as the Brewers try to make it two in a row against the Giants. Both are very good at winning low scoring games, contests in which their team scores two runs or less. Since the start of 2009, among pitchers with at least 10 starts in low scoring games, Lincecum is 5-12 in 20 starts, a .294 winning percentage, the sixth best WPCT in the majors. Gallardo is 4-10 in 17 starts, a .286 winning percentage, 10th. I could see this game ending 1-0 on a Gallardo home run.

Let's hope he's wrong and we chase Gallardo with a home run barrage.

Brother Bob said...

I think he must have meant a home run off Gallardo and we win.

Brother Bob said...

Someone needs to give Mark a "Cervesero" jersey.

M.C. O'Connor said...

I wish I could like the Brewers (los Cerveseros)--what a great name for a club!