The Giants offensive woes continue and what should have been a good pitchers duel decayed into a reptilian lovefest, with Arizona taking the second game of this big series 6-1. Playing with some luck and tons of energy, the revitalized Snakes join us as leaders in the NL West, but they clearly have the lead in the "mo" department. Good thing it is August. The race is on! Come on, you had to know it wasn't going to easy.
Of course, when Tim Lincecum (9-9) pitches like this it should be easy to win. Jeesh, he only gave up hits in one of the seven innings he worked. Although he was a bit wild, his velocity and movement were in top form. The numbers are solid but one slip up blew it (game score 68):
7 innings 3 hits 2 runs 3 walks 8 strikeouts
I've already heard about Tim's "one mistake" six times in the post game blabber. I didn't think it was a bad pitch at all... it just happened to be in some unknown minor leaguers happy place. Can you imagine the boost it must be to have some kid (and, no, I am not going to mention his name) get a hit like that? Actually, I guess we know pretty much how sweet that can be....gad zooks I miss Buster!
I'm going to break my rule of not speaking of the offense to say:
1. It probably is going to be a lot of fun watching Beltran. He didn't light up the boxscore tonight but every at bat was a liner and a good at bat. He's good...not worth half what we paid, but good.
2. Any residual enjoyment from watching Beltran was quickly evaporated by suffering through Nate Schierholtz tonight. He clearly needs time off but more importantly, his everyday status must be reconsidered. I have never been sold on Nate. A good player but corner outfielders MUST hit MUCH. Nate hits SOME.
One quick note for those of you that want to panic (and I know you are out there): The last time we had a five game losing streak we followed it with seven victories in a row. Think we can do that again?
4 comments:
What happenned to our spark plug andres torres? If he goes o for 4 Bochy benches him. He has been our sparkplug and scores more runs per AB than any other player on the team. We need him leading off. The magic of our hitting coach has gone south. Burris hitting 368 in triple A, and barely above Mendoza in the majors. Belt needs to play. Not just once or twice a week but everyday. Timmy and Matt were fouled off to death. The giants hitters get ball one, ball two, then they put the ball in play, usually an out. Arizona get ball one strike one, foul, fould, ball 2, foul, foul, ball 3, foul, foul, either an out, a hit or a walk. But they are forcing our guys to go 20 pitches an inning, when we are only making them throw 13 pitches an inning. Tim had a no hitter through 3, but had thrown over 60 pitches. The walks hurt him. A lower pitch count might make him able to go deeper into the game, and not make that "one mistake" he seems to be making lately. I thought the league tested for "Weed".
tim is being outpitched by other teams 4th and 5th starters, and consistently by Clayton Kershaw.
While I agree that Schierholtz is flailing his way out of the line up, do you really think he is the non-hitter to focus on? At least he had a productive month. Huff needs to sit and sit with prejudice. Huff is the Rowand of the infield.
The Giants have 3 guys for two spots--Ross, Schierholtz, and Torres. Between them that ought to be productive enough. Huff's failure to get Beltran home from third base in the 4th was a huge play. He's earned Rally Killer of the Year honors.
Arizona hitters worked the count in both games. They didn't bite on pitches that were just out of the zone. That made both Cain and Lincecum work harder. Tim had great stuff but was all over the place. He threw two balls to the backstop in the first two innings. Did you see him cursing himself after he walked the pitcher? But he was tough and mowed 'em down in the 6th and 7th. He got "Cained." Remember when people said Cain wasn't a "winner" because he lost games like this one?
The rookie (Paul Goldschmidt) hit Cain hard, too. His line from the Southern League (Mobile) was .306/.435/.626 which is why they called him up. He has 83 HR (and 90 2B) in 315 games. Giants could use a little thunder like that.
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