Bounce Back Tim

GAME SUMMARY:

With Buster and Angel on the bench and Tim Lincecum on the mound, our beloved Giants found yet another winning formula and grabbed victory #42, 6-4 over the Mets.  That puts us at a ridiculous .667 winning percentage. Life is good. Bring on the next victims!

TIM FACTS:

Start #13  Win!  (5-4, 4.97)   6 innings  6 hits  3 runs  3 earned  1 walks  6 strikeouts  2 hr

After a terrifying first inning, Tim actually did pretty damn good.  It was the new Tim all the way: kinda wild, lotsa base runners, but kinda pesky and hard to square up. Actually it was only Curtis Granderson that did the damage with 2 homers and 3 RBI.  Considering how poor Timmeh's last start was, this one feels just fine. Not over powering, but good enough for a team as talented as the Giants.  I was frankly surprised at the intensity of the anti-Tim sentiment right after the horrid job in Cincinnati.  Patience people, we have a long way to go. Bottom line is that the Giants are 9-4 when Tim starts and that is SWEET for a #4 starter.

HIGH and/or LOWLIGHTS:

Cool win. Terrible start, no Buster, no Angel, no Pence hits, no Morse hits, very shaky Affeldt and .... WE STILL FIND A WAY TO WIN !
 Gregor, Pablo and Brandon C. each had multiple hit games.  Romo looked wicked with an 11 pitch 3 out save.  What can I say? We are good.

Cain Comeback

Matt Cain pitched beautifully tonight, throwing five hitless innings before finally surrendering two runs in the 7th inning. Jon Niese of the Mets also pitched a great game, holding the potent Giants lineup to only five hits and two runs. It was a crisp, well-played pitchers duel until the 8th when the Giants finally broke through against the Mets bullpen. Local boy Carlos Torres (from Aptos) gave up a two-run homer to Buster Posey and that was the difference. The home team conjured up another dramatic win, their 20th at AT&T and 40th overall.

Even when it looked like Matty might get Cained for the umpteenth time, I was less concerned about the outcome than the fact that Matt Cain looked like Matt Cain. Injuries are funny things, and we aren't used to no. 18 missing turns and spending time on the DL. But he looked strong and had good command until losing it a bit in the 7th when he gave up a double and a homer to the top of the lineup. Homeplate umpire Rob Drake liked what he saw from both pitchers: Cain had 19 called strikes versus three swinging, Niese had 15 called strikes and four swinging. Brandon Hicks excelled tonight--he had two hits and a walk and scored two and figured in all three double plays the Giants turned. Brandon Crawford drove in both of those runs with a sacrifice fly in the 5th and a two-out single in the 7th.

Tim Hudson takes on Bartolo Colon tomorrow night. After that the Giants face Zack Wheeler, Stephen Strasburg, and Doug Fister. That's some serious pitching! Should be fun.

GO GIANTS!

--M.C.

Warning! Ominous Omens Ahead!

Today's SF Chronicle has an article by Henry Schulman that states that the Giants have, apparently, no real competition in the National League West. Not so fast there, Hank.  Yes, the Giants are playing really well - and in addition, the doggers are slipping back (8.5 is this morning's deficit), the Roxies are reverting to sub-.500 ball and the Puds and snakes seem pretty hopeless.  But let's not forget a couple of things.  1) It is early June, 2/3 of a baseball season remain.  2) The doggers, at least, are loaded with talent.  They may be a bunch of preening, overpaid superstars with no commitment to anything but themselves and they may represent a city with no moral center, unlike the Giants, but they have loads of baseball talent.  LOADS.  3) Who might like to try extra hard to knock the 1st place, best-record-in-baseball Giants down a peg?  Everyone.  4)  Standings change, sometimes rapidly.  Ask the 1964 Phillies, and finally, 5)  The best record in baseball doesn't put a team in the world series.  Ask the 2000 Giants.

The Giants are playing great.  The unpredictable injury factor aside, their enemy is complacency.  It is always best to be in first place, then it is another team's problem to catch up.  Bruce Bochy knows this, obviously, and will do everything he can to remind the team that they have to win all season long.  There is, contrary to Mr. Schulman's assertion, plenty of competition.

Free Pizza!

Apparently, when the Cincinnati Reds' pitchers strike out 11 opponents, everyone in Cincinnati's Great American Ballpark gets a free pizza.  I don't know who is sponsoring this, it may be the Kroger's grocery store chain - they make the red Ks that indicate number of strikeouts.  I guess that is a good thing in this case, it gives the fans something to feel good about when their team lost the game and series.

Madison Bumgarner, National League Pitcher of the Month for May, was on the mound, and he doesn't appear to have worn himself out celebrating.  Madison gave up a solo shot to Todd Frazier in the 1st inning, but after that, only 2 other hits in 8 innings and 106 pitches.  One of the other hits was also to Todd Frazier.  Helpfully, Madison did not walk any Red, nor did the defense commit any errors.  Madison had 1-2-3 innings in the 2nd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th.  George Kontos added a 1-2-3 9th.

San Francisco scored 6 runs to Cincinnati's 1.  The Giants used some long balls.  Michael Morse homered with Pablo Sandoval aboard in the 2nd to erase Cincinnati's lead, and Brandon Crawford homered in the 4th with Tyler Colvin and Pablo Sandoval aboard.  Later, Buster Posey knocked Angel Pagan in to score the 6th run.  The Giants had 11 hits on the day, 3 by Sandoval, 2 by Pagan and the rest liberally spread around to everyone except Madison.

About those strikeouts - the total for Cincinnati pitchers was 14.  Yow! That's over half your total outs.  Didn't seem to matter today, though as the Giants pitching and defense were a stellar.  Much has been made about the Giants' difficulties in Cincinnati, but that's the sort of thing that makes a great story - but is not a real thing.  And by real thing, I mean cause and effect.   This team is good enough to break those kind of jinxes and small sample size anomalies.  We lost two games of this seven game road trip against some pretty tough teams.  I'm guessing that the plane ride home will be a good one.

Giants Outslug Reds

Speed demon Billy Hamilton wreaked havoc on the basepaths last night, and got three hits tonight, two of which did not leave the infield. And after a beautiful Vogie-to-Posey-to-Panda caught stealing sequence in the 3rd, the Reds scored two runs on a solo homer and back-to-back doubles. It's a funny game, this baseball. Hamilton runs like the wind and never crosses the plate. He makes an out at third and his team scores two runs!

Tony Cingrani kept the Giants off balance until the fateful 6th when he finally threw one to Mike Morse's liking and the big righty smoked it for a homer. His pitch count climbing, Brandon Hicks followed with a single and Juan Perez played hero with a two-run bomb right after that to take the lead. Four pitchers (Guiterrez, Lopez, Machi and Romo) made the lead stand and the Giants had a comeback win. Ryan Vogelsong deserves the most credit, though, as he labored early in the game and fell behind but in his doggedly determined way kept racking up the outs and pitched into the 7th. The Giants made three errors, two induced by Billy Hamilton, yet prevailed. B-Craw mishandled a ball in the 8th to put a runner on, but the strikeout from Lopez and a--what else?--double play grounder from Macho Machi ended that threat. Romo had a perfect 9th and the deed was done.

Giants pull off another road win to improve to 19-12 in gray. Only the 18-11 Dodgers and 20-10 A's are better. Early getaway day game tomorrow with Pitcher of the Month for May Madison Bumgarner getting the start. Matt Cain comes off the DL Friday at home against the Mets. Juan Perez is on the roster because of Cain's injury and you have to love a guy making the most of his chance to shine.

GO GIANTS!

--M.C.

Stretchless Tim

GAME SUMMARY:
Any time you have more errors than runs, you should expect to lose and that is exactly what happened as the Reds took advantage of our boys by the score of 8-3.  The game turned on 2 four run outbursts by the Reds, each of which featured Tim Lincecum and his battery mate, Hector Sanchez, looking like Little Leaguers for extended periods of time.  Have a stiff drink and put this one behind you. 

TIM FACTS:

Start #12  loss  (4-4, 5.01)   4.1 innings  6 hits  8 runs  8 earned  3 walks  2 strikeouts   1 hr

Except for some post season heroics, Timmeh sucks against the Reds. His worst game last year was 8 runs in less than 4 innings against these same schmoes.  They seem to bring out the worst in him and he put it on display tonight. Especially, with men on base. Almost every time Tim got in the stretch bad things happened. Embarrassing bad things; errors, fat pitches and dozens of stolen bases. Ok, maybe only four, but still!  Tim seems to lose his rhythm easily when he can't do the full wind up. He has always been like this, just back in the day he had enough bullets in his gun to get away with it. Those days are long gone.  Heavy sigh. Maybe we will get the gritty, almost quality Tim back next start. 

HIGH and/or LOWLIGHTS:
A pity to waste a nice night from Hunter. He was a triple shy of his first cycle. The homer was an impressive liner on a shoulder high fastball. 

Three of Four in St. Louis

The G-Train keeps rolling with another big win against a formidable foe. Tim Hudson went seven strong, allowing only three hits and not giving up a run to the defending NL champs. The lineup stroked 14 hits and plated eight and the fielders handled everything perfectly. Speaking of the lineup, Buster Posey was back and he looked great, getting three hits. Super-sub Joaquin Arias got the start at first base and he came back from the dead with three hits, a walk, and three batted in. He's been struggling and it was nice to see him get it going. The Giants jumped on Lance Lynn in the 1st and never let up, BABIP'ing the home team with lots of well-placed grounders and sharp liners and seizing the initiative after an error by second baseman Kolten Wong. Gregor Blanco pulled one into the RF corner for an RBI triple in the 6th and that was the furthest a ball traveled today for the Giants. Looks like they can score whether they hit home runs or not! Brandon Crawford has been slumping and he got on base twice and drove in two. He also robbed rookie phenom Oscar Taveras of a hit in the 6th with one of those phantom scoops (plus a spin-and-throw move) on a hard hit ball up the middle. It's amazing how many would-be hits he turns into outs.

I'm still in a bit of shock as the Giants respond to yesterday's shutout by the Cardinals with a shutout of their own. Four games, three wins, combined score 23-11. San Francisco pitchers have allowed 190 runs in 57 games, exactly 3-1/3 per game. 190 is the third-lowest total in baseball behind only Atlanta (183) and Oakland (178). Mike Morse sat out after fouling a ball off his foot yesterday which is why Arias got the nod. He's expected to be back in the lineup after the off-day tomorrow. David Huff got in an inning of scoreless work in the 9th after his ugly effort on Friday night. I'm a member of the Church of Three Lefties in the 'Pen and I think the team is going to need him over the long haul so I was encouraged. He has good-looking stuff but seems to have some command issues so let's hope he gets those worked out.

Tim Lincecum will get the call on Tuesday in Cincinnati. The Reds are 25-29 and 7-1/2 back in the Central, but were 90-game winners last season so you have to figure they will improve.

GO GIANTS!

--M.C.