I thought of this team as more tortoise than hare. I figured the 2014 Giants would grind it out, 10-8 and 11-7 innings one after the other, finish with 90+ wins and have a real shot at a division title or wildcard. But they decided on hare, racing their way to the best record in baseball and making our heads spin with visions of post-season glory. Of course it was too early to tell what kind of team they were--it was only the first third of the season. We knew they'd hit a bump in the road at some point, we just didn't know it would be such a BIG bump. I wanted to see zero sub-.500 innings, but today's loss at the hands of the White Sox took care of that. Tim Hudson had his worst start of the season and the Giants, despite a good showing by the offense, fell a run short.
So, is it time to talk "June Swoon?" Are we watching a weak team finally fall to earth or a good team having a bad stretch? You know something? It's too early to tell. That was the 72nd game and there are 90 more to go. NINETY games. That's a lot. The Giants have lost 8 of 9 and have looked bad doing it. But I thought this was a good team before and I still think it's a good team. They hit the road tomorrrow and go to Arizona for the weekend and come home after that. It's as good a time as any to get back to their winning ways.
Giants had a lead of 9-1/2 games over the Dodgers ten days ago. Now it is 4-1/2 games. Good thing there is plenty of time left to kick them back down again, right? San Francisco still sports some nice team pitching numbers, but we know that the pitching has not been pretty lately. FIP 3.52 (5th in ML), ERA 3.34 (6th), and runs allowed 266 (8th). The hitting has cooled off, too. wOBA .314 (14th), OPS .717 (14th), and 313 runs scored (10th). In the end the only numbers that matter are the wins and losses.
First inning, 10-8,
Second inning, 13-5,
Third inning, 12-6,
Fourth inning, 8-10.
That's 43-29 (.597).
GO GIANTS!
--M.C.
6 comments:
I attribute the Giants' poor performance to your retirement. You need to get back to work ... make more beer, write a book, backpack to Portland & write a travel journal ... something!
I blame the Giants woes on all you working stiffs stuck in the rat race. Turn on, tune in, drop out, man!
We were 8 - 2 in this inning. At least the offense showed some life.
I blame it on the sarcastic sense of humor that the baseball gods espew. Note how it was our bullpen that failed in the Colorado series, all 3 games. A tad umpire and poor fielding aided, but the pen sucked. Now we lose two straight to Chicago, and our bullpen pitched no hit baseball tossing over 7 innings. Now our starters sucked, and Hudson, seemed to totally not have it today, and he could not find it. 6 runs during a start against one of the best pitchers in baseball and we still lose, and yet the giants score nary a run against some of the worst starters in baseball. In the bottom of the 8th the millionth chance at a giants comeback, and Pence and Posey both ground out. Then the next inning starts with a double by Pablo, and a single by Morse. We had 3 sac flies which is nice, but when you are down by a bunch of runs, hits, which other wise were coming by the bucketful are more important than sac. flies.
This isn't fun, but in a way I like getting bad beats earlier. I never really believed the 2003 Alou team was that good as the example. I think we'll definitely have some trades to look forward to. But if Matt Cain doesn't change his HR prone ways, this is all going to be a big uphill struggle. The offense is certainly showing life still, almost all the hitters are hot during the losing streak.
Should we be thinking Samardzija, Utley, or Rollins (Rollins to play 2B), or someone else? 2B is definitely a dark hole right now. Daniel Murphy is the lower-cost, high upside alternative, supposedly. I assume that Scutaro is not coming back - any other news?
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