Top of Order Tops Bucs

Win, 13-5 @ PIT 

The Giants recorded their season high in hits (18, with all but 2 singles) and tied their high in runs (13) as they handily secured their fourth victory in a row.  This uncharacteristic outpouring of "O" was largely due to an amazing 10 of 14 from Span, Panik and Pence at the top of the order.  Denard may have had his finest game as a Giant with a 4-5 night: including a lead-off HR, 4 runs scored, a walk, and a stolen base.

On the pitching side, not much great to report.  JohnnyC (6-7) got the win but it wasn't very pretty. Eleven baserunners (3 of which scored) in only 5 full innings made it seem like he was always in trouble.  The key moment came in the bottom of the fifth with a 5-3 lead.  Cueto was visited by Bochy with runners on second and third, one out and he rose to the occasion to get the next two guys.

So, can we put together a bit of a winning streak?  Save a little face?  Get the f*ck out of the cellar, maybe??  Well, if we do win tomorrow, that would be a good sign considering Moore is the worst road pitcher in the MLB and we have won once in the last 7 Moore starts.

Ty One Hwang

The Giants Win the Pennant!   The Giants Win the Pennant!  The Giants Win the Pennant!  The Giants Win the Pennant!

Well, no.

The Giants sweep a series and win their third in a row for the first time this year!
The Giants sweep a series and win their third in a row for the first time this year!
The Giants sweep a series and win their third in a row for the first time this year!
The Giants sweep a series and win their third in a row for the first time this year!

I'm giddy.

Ty Blach on the mound for the 3rd game against a tired, beat up Colorado Rockies team.  You have to take advantage of situations like that, and the Giants did.  Ty was far from perfect.  He made a throwing error in the 1st to allow the Rockies to score the first run.  He flung the ball far to the right of Brandon Belt on a bunt single in the 6th, turning it into a triple.  That was the Rockies third run, which tied the Giants at the time.   Mostly, though he pitched well, giving us 6 1/3 in 110 pitches on a day after a 14 inning night game.  Ty gave up 3 runs on 7 hits (only 1 of those runs was "earned" although it is tough to say he didn't earn them when it was his errors that led to the runs).  He walked 3 and struck out 6.  George Kontos and Steve Okert both pitched last night, but they gave us an inning and 1 1/3, respectively, holding the Rox at 3.  Hunter Strickland got a 1-out save.

Jae-gyun Hwang made his major league debut.  He got the Giants' first run home on a 1-3 ground out with Joe Panik on the bases.  Nick Hundley homered with Austin Slater on base in the 4th.  That put the Giants ahead until the Rockies scored in the 6th.  In the bottom of the 6th, Hwang came to the plate against Kyle Freeland.  He put one 417 feet into the left field bleachers.  The guy has some power.  The Giants added 1 in the 8th when Belt grounded into a fielder's choice to score Gorkys Hernandez who was in scoring position from yet another wild pitch by Rockies' reliever Jake McGee.

I am a big fan of having Asians on the Giants.  San Francisco is a gateway to Asia, there is a lot of Asian culture here, and those people are Giants fans.  Check this out (be sure to hear the call in Korean).  You know what's happening in Korea right now?  Well, not right now, it's 7:45 Thursday morning, but soon, stores will be selling out of Giants merchandise.  Travel agencies will be developing tours that include Giants games.  Giants games will be broadcast in Korea.  And some young kid will grow up wanting to be a San Francisco Giant, and he will turn out to be an absolute stud.

I am thrilled.  The Giants have now played a couple of games like contenders.  It is damn near impossible at this point that they would be in contention this year, but there has never been a reason that they can't play like it.

Back-to-back

Giants win two in a row for the first time since May 27-28. The Rockies have now lost seven straight and have fallen off the pace in the West. Matt Cain entered the 6th with a 1-0 lead and got the first out but a single, walk, and homer made it 3-1 the other way in the blink of an eye. He finished the inning and the night and it looked like another slow Giants death. But the team rallied for one in the bottom half and another in the 8th and sent it to extras. The bullpen was stout and kept it together and they finally pulled it out in the 14th after 4 hours and 45 minutes. Cory Gearrin was the hero with three shutout innings. Buster Posey threw out two more would-be base-stealers, that's 14 so far this year (in 39 attempts). Giants are now 3-10 vs. Colorado.

--M.C.
 
p.s. Jae-Gyun Hwang makes his deubt tonight. (12:45 today)

Shark Cruises

SF 9  COL 2
Jeff Samardzija continued his excellent pitching with another strong start and the Giants scored nine runs to whip the Rockies. Colorado visited Los Angeles over the weekend and got their asses kicked so this is a good time for the Giants to pile on. It's only the second win for the team against ten losses versus the purple-clads. And only the sixth win in the month of June. But a win is a win. The lineup produced steady results, scoring in the 1st, 3rd, 4th, 7th and 8th innings. The Shark is now posting a 2.96 xFIP, his best ever, and a 3.38 FIP, his second-best (he finished 2014 at 3.20). They don't match his 4.63 ERA (he's had four starts with 6 or more runs allowed) but otherwise he's on to something. His strikeouts are off the charts (10.03/9) and he's only walked 13 people in 16 starts (1.11/9). He's giving up the long ball, but who isn't, especially on this team, but he's eating innings with the best (105 is 5th behind Sale, Kershaw, Scherzer, and Santana) and is rated at 2.2 WAR which is the best by far on the staff (and 14th in baseball).

--M.C.


p.s. Buster Posey's .347/.424/.536 (.948 OPS) rates a 152 OPS+ his highest since his MVP year (171) in 2012 and well above his career (137) mark.

Relief, or Lack Thereof

I think this is a big part of the Giants problem.  Javy Lopez and Jeremy Affeldt retired, and the Giants cut the cord with Sergio Romo and Santiago Castilla.   Here is what the new guys have accomplished (excluding those who have less than 10 innings work).  All numbers from this morning's Chronicle.

Gearrin       33 IP;  47 hits+BB;  26 K
Strickland   27 IP;  38 hits+BB;  28 K
Kontos        36 IP;  45 hits+BB;  40 K
Melancon    19 IP;  28 hits+BB;  17 K
Osich           21 IP;  31 hits+BB;  24 K
Law             30 IP;  51 hits+BB;  27 K
Morris         21 IP;  35 hits+BB;  15 K
Okert           14 IP;  23 hits+BB;   8  K

Strike out "stuff", sure, but look at those runners put on base.  Mixed artfully with games where the offense just isn't there, and you can get a lot of losses.

BCraw's Blues

There are lots of ways to measure offensive performance but I'm going to use B-R's OPS+. This takes the hitter's OPB and SLG and compares them to the league averages and adjusts for the home park. A score of 100 means that player is hitting at the league mean. 120 means that player is 20% better than a 100-OPS+ player; an 80 means he is 20% worse. We've watched Brandon Crawford struggle at the plate this year and it got me thinking about whether we've seen his ceiling as a hitter. I can't see any flaws with his range, arm, and glovework this season, he's still the best player on the field and still delivers jaw-dropping performances out there. I've no doubt he saves runs by the bucketload, not that it matters on this club. At age 30 (he'll be 31 in January) his 2017 slash line of .240/.282/.387 is below his career .251/.316/.393 mark for the first time since his 2013 season.

BCraw became a full-time player in 2012 at age 25 after logging 220 PA and over 500 innings in 65 games in 2011. He improved offensively every season and remained relatively injury-free, averaging 550 PA and 1220 innings for five straight years. Here are the numbers:

2012 (age 25), 86
2013 (age 26), 93
2014 (age 27), 104
2015 (age 28), 113
2016 (age 29), 109 (but career-highs in ave and obp)
2017 (age 30), 77.

There's a lot of work out there on aging curves for ballplayers. Turns out they are mostly the same. Players don't get better, they only get worse. Once a player hits a plateau of performance, learns the league so to speak and plays at their true talent level, that's it. (Superstars don't fit normal aging curves, but superstars are the exceptions, hence the "super" part.) Most players are peaking at 27-29 and declining thereafter.

If you like fWAR his numbers from 2012 are 2.0, 2.3, 2.9, 4.5, 5.8, and this season 0.8 in 62 games (out of 78) played. He'll be lucky to crack 2.5 by season's end, even with a burst of production. For comparison the top four MLB SS (Seager, Cozart, Bogaerts, Correa) are rated from 2.6 to 3.2 fWAR already. As long as BCraw's fielding remains in the superior bracket he will deliver value, but he no longer looks like a middle-of-the-order hitter. In fact he looks more like a defensive specialist. That can work in San Francisco on a pitching-dominant team, but not at his current (77 OPS+) level. His career average is 98 OPS+ and I do expect him to improve in the second half and get closer to that even if he may never top out again. This is something we have to face since he is signed for $15.2M/yr for the next four (2018-2021) seasons. He's a cornerstone player along with his fellow Brandon, Mr. Belt. The big first baseman will be the subject of a later post.

One positive: his BABIP is almost 30 points below normal so maybe he's hitting it hard but having some bad luck. We'll see. He's a great athlete, keeps himself fit, works hard to improve, and is a beloved player who is appreciated for what he does best. Those things add up to success, usually, as long as the body cooperates. Four more years of BCraw? He's posted over 18 WAR in his career, averaging 3.5/yr in his five full seasons. Do you think he can produce another 12 WAR (3.0/yr)? Or is 10 (2.5/yr) more likely? I know I'll never get tired of watching him play shortstop. But I do think we've experienced his peak as a hitter and now it's all about how slowly he'll fade, how much he can fight the inevitable decline and still deliver adequate major-league quality with the bat.

--M.C.

Blech Blach

After dropping 7 of their 8 game road trip in Colorado and Atlanta, the Giants returned home.  And lost.

Ty Blach on the mound for the Giants, against the Mets' Seth Lugo.  Ty has been a bright spot for the Giants through their dismal season, but, not unlike tarnish, rust or wood rot, tonight the dismal-ness has spread to Ty's performance.

The Giants lost to the Mets 11 - 4.  If you were finishing up dinner, or, for that matter, blinked, you could have missed the scoring.  The Giants went into the 2nd inning tied at 1 each, and then the Mets threw in 3 doubles, a Cespedes home run and an rbi sac fly for good measure to make it 7 - 1.   Yeah, they scored more later, mostly in the 6th.  The Mets, who themselves have been losing much like the Giants, had 20 hits.  Ty went 3, gave up 7, all earned, on 11 hits.  Some of those hits were bloops, but then, some were not.   Gearrin went 2, gave up none; Okert gave up 3 in 1 inning; Osich 1 more in 2; and Melancon, appearing so he could have something to do, gave up a booming high off the bricks on his first pitch, but managed to retire the side without scoring.  I believe that makes 10 losses in their last 11, and gives us a June record of 5 - 16.  The All-Star break seems a long way off.

Comeback Falls Short

ATL 12  SF 11
Kyle Crick made his big-league debut tonight and gave up a run-scoring hit to the first batter he faced. Then he retired the next seven. Derek Law was demoted to make room for the rookie--he probably saw it coming with 40 hits and 11 walks in 30 IP. The lineup did its best with 15 hits and 11 runs, the final five runs coming in the 8th and 9th to close a 12-6 gap. Alas, it wasn't quite enough. Crick was the 49th pick in 2011 (Joe Panik was the 29th). Tyler Beede was drafted 21st by the Blue Jays that year but did not sign and was later taken by the Giants (14th pick) in 2014. I expect we'll see Beede when the rosters expand in September.

Matt Cain had been averaging 5-1/3 IP in his previous 14 starts but he could not get out of the 5th tonight. He faced 22 batters and gave up 10 hits and seven runs. I sorted for pitchers with a minimum of 70 IP on FanGraphs before the game and looked at their WAR. There were 82 listed and Matt Cain's 0.4 was 66th. For comparison Matt Moore is 58th (0.7), Johnny Cueto is 55th (0.8), Ty Blach is 49th (0.9), and Jeff Samardzija is 17th (1.9).

Buster Posey had a good night, he's hitting .344/.427/.537 these days.

--M.C.

4th inning: 4-14

1st inning: 6-12
2nd inning: 6-12
3rd inning: 10-8
4th inning: 4-14

That's  26-46 or .361 ball. It's as bad as it gets. The great ride we've been on is over.

If a man were called to fix the period in the history of the world during which the condition of the human race was most happy and prosperous, he would, without hesitation, name that which elapsed from the death of Domitian to the accession of Commodus. [AD 96-180]

That's Gibbon. The Edward Gibbon of History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Just a little editing and we get this:

If a man were called to fix the period in the history of the world during which the condition of the Giants fan base was most happy and prosperous, he would, without hesitation, name that which elapsed from the promotion of Buster Posey to the departure of Sergio Romo. [AD 2009-2016]

Oh, yes. The accession of Buster Posey. And Madison Bumgarner. And the Core Four. And Matty and Timmy and the rest. Alas, those days are over. This new incarnation, the 2017 Giants, stinks. That's it. They stink. Even if they play .600 ball the rest of the season they will finish 80-82, hardly a playoff-caliber squad. This is a team with a $180M payroll, in the top five for MLB. This kind of performance is a disaster.

The Giants had an epic run from 2009 to 2016, getting to the playoffs four times and winning three World Series titles. That's the past. They kept the band together as long as they could, and it worked, getting that third championship and having a real shot at a fourth. Not many clubs can claim that. But the higher you climb, the harder you'll fall. It was an incredible experience to watch high-caliber championship baseball. But we have a new reality. To put it in newspeak, this is a team in transition.

I don't claim to know what to do. The team needs an obvious re-build, that's for sure. Key members will still be key members, but changes will happen and it will take more than just one season. It should be fun, as fans, to watch that happen. And that's it: I'm a fan. Just because the team sucks doesn't mean I stop being a fan. Sure, the crash after a raging high is tough, but I can handle it. I liked the team in 1985 when they lost 100 games; I'll stick by them now.

But it'll be rough going. I'll need a lot of bourbon, local herb, and Bessie Smith records to get through it. Will you stick with me?

--M.C.

Adios Amigos!

Loss, 9-0 @ ATL

I am so out of here!  My first ever trip to Costa Rica starts in just a couple minutes and I can't wait.  Sure wish I was already gone just so I could have missed that piece of sh*t today. But that is true of this entire crappy season actually.  So my brain is in no place to talk about a seven game losing streak, or the obvious need to make changes, or the incredible amount of this disaster that we still have ahead of us.  Sorry.  Talk among yourselves.

Pura Vida, ya all!   Talk to you in about a week!   I'm off to find that elusive, yet ever Resplendent  Queztal.  Wish me luck!

And So It Goes for the Giants

Well.  In an exchange of e-mails with my friend in Colorado, I stated, "I predict the Giants will win one by a fluke."  And they almost did!  But then, they didn't.  Swept for their 6th consecutive loss, they lost to the Rockies, 7 - 5.  The Giants are 4 - 12 for the month of June.

Ty Blach pitched well.  Beautifully, in fact.  He went 6 2/3 and gave up 3 runs.  When your starter does that in Coors field, you want to give him a W.  Ty gave up 7 hits, 2 home runs (both with no one on) and struck out 5.  George Kontos took over and finished the 7th and held the Rockies scoreless in the 8th.  In spite of 18 runs in the previous 3 games, the Giants had only 2 going into the 9th and were down 3 to 2.  With 1 out,   Hernandez walked.  Then Hunter Pence, pinch hitting for Kontos, hit his first ever pinch hit home run (in few pinch hit opportunities).  That gave the Giants a rare 9th inning lead.  And, much to their credit, they added to it.  Joe Panik singled and somehow got caught on the basepath and wound up safe at second, and then Crawford doubled him home to take a 5 - 3 lead.

Finally, a chance to showcase Mark Melancon, who had not appeared in this series and who hails from just up the road in Arvada.  I think that at the end of the year, we might look at Melancon's blown saves and conclude that it is not a terrible number.  But, man, the guy seems to pick the spots where it hurts.   One out, a single, another single, another single (5 - 4), and then a 3 run Nolan Arenado home run.  That gave him a cycle, the Rockies the sweep and left the Giants almost 20 games back well before the half-way mark.  The Giants are one of only two teams with less than a .400 win percentage.

After getting hit for 12 earned runs in his last 2 outings, Ty held the Rockies to 3. That's good.  But on the whole, just as our offense has improved, our pitching has gone from pretty decent to crappy.  In the first game of the month, on June 2, Ty Blach threw a complete game shutout against the Phillies.  The Giants won 10 - 0.  Since then, the Giants have allowed 94 runs in 16 games (including June 2).  5.875/game.  Not fair to include Coors, you say?  Excluding Coors, the Giants have allowed 62 runs in 12 games.  5.169/game.  The offense has netted 82 runs in that time, 5.125/game.  5+ runs per game is an improvement for the Giants.   The league leader, the Nationals, are averaging just over 5.5 runs per game.  Yet, the Giants, this June, at 5.125 runs/game, have a .250 winning percentage.  After scoring 10 runs to beat the Phillies, they scored 7 and lost.  Then they beat the Brewers twice with scores of 7 and 9 runs.  They scored 13 to beat the Twins and then scored 9 and 8 in two losses to the Rockies.  They have only won 4 of 7 games where they have scored 7 or more runs, and only 1 game of 9 where they have scored less than 7.  That's some bad pitching.  And so it goes.

Worthless Wednesday

Loss, 7-2 vs. KC 

I have had to post about losses/no decisions/crappy pitching for seven of the last eight times, so this is getting really old.   It was bad enough to waste a lovely spring day by watching that shitty game, so I don't think I will add to the damage by writing much about it.

Our "ace" this season, Johnny Cueto (5-6), is not up to the job.  Today (game score 20!) was another version of the same problem this year: the long ball.  Three today...yuck.  The only difference was that he had only given up one at home all year (with 13 on the road).

Any one else feel like they were in a hurry to get out of town?  Why on earth would they want to go to Denver?  We are in deep poop.

Congratulations Warriors!

I was away for a couple of weeks.  Saw some beautiful scenery, some awesome wildlife and was out of touch with the innertubes for a good part of it, which is a good thing.  On my return, not much changed.  I find the Giants still playing shitty, sub-mediocre baseball.  They haven't won a series in my absence and won't win one against Kansas City.  I have to consider the possibility that my presence or absence has little effect on this team.

I heard the Giants 13 - 8 win on the radio as I was driving through heavy traffic and a terrific electrical storm between Sacramento and Vacaville.  Real rain in June?  But today, the Giants lost again, back to the 1 run offenses that we have become accustomed to seeing.  Kansas City now has a better record than the Giants, that didn't used to be true.  Thank goodness for the Filthies and the Pudres.  Those teams, by the way, are the only 2 teams with a worse record than the highly paid, World Series winning Giants SINCE THE LAST ALL STAR BREAK.  We're almost up to one year of a record vying for the worst in baseball.  Some accomplishment for this overpaid team.  Let's face it, no slump goes on this long.  Get ready for the fire sale.

Kansas City's Jason Vargas against Ty Blach.  Ty Blach managed 5 2/3 innings, gave up 7 runs.  He pitched well and not so well in the last couple weeks.  Is he about spent for the season?  Did everyone figure him out?   He was kind of a bright spot for awhile, now, I'm not so sure.  About much of anything.

How 'bout those Dubs, though!

Comeback!

SF 13  MIN 8
The Twins chased Matt Cain in the 5th and appeared headed for another victory but somehow the Giants scored NINE runs in the final two frames to stave off a series sweep. Buster Posey and Hunter Pence were, fittingly, the hitting stars. The bullpen took a 13-5 lead into the 9th and gave up three runs (FNG Sam Dyson faced four batters and got none of them out, three scored) but the 8-run cushion saved the day. That's right, the Giants had an 8-run lead at one point. Crazy, eh? Eduardo Nunez and rookie Austin Slater also had big days at the plate. The 13 runs is a season high. Joe Panik, The Brandons, and Denard Span were all on the bench. Kelby Tomlinson took the leadoff spot and had two hits and two runs scored. Whatever works!

Off-day tomorrow and then the Royals are in town for two with Blach and Cueto on the hill.

GO GIANTS!

--M.C.

p.s. Eight doubles (Hernandez, Slater, Posey, Nunez 2, Pence 3) by the club tied an SF record.

Giants Come Up Short--Again

MIN 3  SF 2
Go to the ESPN MLB statistics page. Select the ALL MLB Player Pitching link. Click on Expanded II Pitching Stats. Find the RS column near the right-hand edge. One click will sort ascending, click again to sort descending. RS is 'run support average per start.' Coming in to today's game you would have seen that Giants starter Jeff Samardzija was fourth on the list. That is, he had the fourth-worst run support in the game at 3.08 runs. It should be noted that Matt Moore, Matt Cain, and Ty Blach are all in the top twenty. Such are the signs of a stinky season. The Shark allowed three runs today in his six innings. The Giants, in their nine innings, scored two. That's easy math, mates.

--M.C.

Ervin Magic

MIN 4  SF 0
Ervin Santana came to town with some interesting numbers behind his season: only 23 runs allowed, third-best among starters; 0.89 WHIP, also third-best; .520 OPS against, second best; 81 IP, tied for first; and two shutouts, the league leader. So he proceeded to throw another shutout and his bases-clearing double in the 4th broke the game open. That was his first hit, he had DH'd in his 12 previous starts. He had never faced the Giants in his 13-year big league career. I think he made an impression. The Giants were helpless: they only saw 91 pitches total and managed four hits and a walk. With a 1-0 lead in the 3rd Santana yielded a leadoff triple to Aaron Hill. Two pitches later it was two outs and two pitches after that the inning was over. That summed up the Giants night.

--M.C.

Late Runs and a Lying President

Win, 9-5(10) @ MIL 

On my desk , while I was giving my Biology students their final exam, I had my phone playing today's game as my desktop streamed the Congressional Hearings with the former FBI director.  Talk about multi-tasking.  The exam taking was very boring but the other two events were smokin' hot.  So, while James Comey detailed how the POTUS lied and obstructed justice, our beloved boys pulled off a highlight packed thriller.  By the end of the crazy ass game, I was at a retirement party for a couple dear friends! Needless to say, it was an odd and fun day.

Some game notes:
*  JohnnyC can't seem to lose against the Brewers; the last time was in 2012. He sure didn't  seem comfortable at any point today though.  5 innings, 2 er, 6 hits, 4 walks, 4 k's  game score 39
*  Austin Slater crushed his first homer,  a 461 ft. shot that is the longest rookie dinger this year
*  Melancon blew it for the third time.  He regrouped but yuck.  Are we suppose to forgive him due to lack of work? Hmmm.
*  Five hits in a row in the tenth inning!!! Sweet!  Four runs before we made an out.  Even Pence contributed!
*  Aaron Hill is quietly making a difference.  I think that is three or four big pinch hits this week.

Sorry if I missed a few tidbits, but I was a bit distracted.  In fact, time for me to get back to my MSNBC feed.   Go Giants!!!    Resist!!!

The Beat Goes On

MIL 6  SF 3
Well, the beat-down, anyway. Giants get beat-down in Milwaukee for the second night in a row. It looked good for a little while, what with Buster Posey giving the team the lead in the 3rd with a two-run homer, but in the end the Brewers were better. They scored in the 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th and got three scoreless innings from their 'pen. Ty Blach had a rough night with nine hits and five runs in his six innings. George Kontos kind of summed up the season in his two innings of relief: struck out four but allowed a homer. Can't have the good without the bad, I suppose.

JohnnyC tomorrow to finish the series and the road trip.

GO GIANTS!

--M.C.

Brewers Prevail

MIL 5  SF 2
Matt Cain pitched five innings again, unfortunately he allowed 10 hits and five runs. He got clobbered by a good lineup and had a little bad luck as well. The Brewers were sitting on the curveball, Cain's new weapon, and that was that. Matty has hung on as a fifth starter but the lack of strikeouts (5.9/9) and the high walk totals (3.8/9) aren't sustainable. He's putting 1.5 guys on base every inning and that can't last. I don't know what's going to happen but I think when MadBum is back and Cueto gets traded they'll call up Tyler Beede and either send Cain to the 'pen or cut him loose. It's that kind of year. I see the team picked up a former stud closer who has fallen on hard times, Sam Dyson. The Giants, it seems, love projects. The best I can say is to quote FanGraphs' Jeff Sullivan: "It's Anyone's Guess What Sam Dyson Has Left."

--M.C.

Shark Attack

SF 7  MIL 2
Jeff Samardzija overpowered a potent Brewers lineup tonight in Miller Park, at one point he retired 19 in a row. The big righty bounced back from a stinker last time and delivered one of his best starts of the season, especially when you consider it was on the road against a good team. He threw a season-high 119 pitches and struck out 10 in 7-2/3 IP. The Giants made it a laugher late but The Shark was the difference tonight. Belt, Posey, and Nunez all had two hits; Strickland and Melancon did their jobs, the closer got it done with six pitches. A great win, something much too infrequent this season!

--M.C.

Familiar Loss

Loss, 5-3 @ PHI 

This game report has been written a bunch of times already in this sorry ass season.  Solid starting pitching is betrayed by shoddy bullpen work and a feeble offense that makes a mediocre opponent look outstanding.  Sound familiar?  Today it was Johnny Cueto (5-5, game score 54) doing pretty good for six innings but when he handed off a couple baserunners in a tie game to Strickland it all went BOOM.  Meanwhile, some minor league wonder pretty much handcuffed us for 7 innings.  If not for a small uprising in the ninth, this game was a total waste of a lovely Saturday afternoon.

So, one day after a great "up lifting" victory, we are right back to the drawing board.  It seems like the crucial question for this team is "Are they capable of putting together a winning streak?"  If we stand a chance we need to do a 22-8 kind of thing.  Even 14 of 16, to get us around .500.   Can we do that??

Blach Leads Giants

SF 10 PHI 0
It was the best game of the season. Ty Blach threw a 112-pitch shutout and the lineup got 15 hits and scored 10 runs. It was the kind of game the Giants need to play, oh, ten more times, at least. I'm happy the rookie is looking good, we need young blood badly on this club. Giants beat up on a team much worse than them--let's hope they keep doing that.

--M.C.