.167 Road Trip

1 win in 6 games.  The Giants went to Arizona and San Diego, two NL West division rivals and they had to throw a complete game shutout to get a win.  The final loss, in San Diego, assured them of a losing record for the season.  It was their 83rd loss of the year.  They could sweep September and still not crack .500.

Ty Blach threw the rubber match in San Diego yesterday.  He threw 5 2/3 innings, 99 pitches, and gave up 3 runs on 5 hits and 2 walks.  2 of those hits were home runs, including 1 to Travis Wood, San Diego's pitcher.  The Giants lost 5 - 0.  Kyle Crick allowed an inherited runner to score and Josh Osich allowed an unearned run in the 8th.

Although I have argued and will still argue that the Giants biggest pressing need is relief pitching, this road trip highlights their second biggest need, one that is harder to fix, offense.  Buster Posey has been out a couple games, and was clearly injured before that, and Brandon Belt has been out, but:  1 for 10 yesterday with runners in scoring position.  The Giants got 6 hits and 6 walks.  Ty Blach got 2 of those hits.  No one scored.  3 for 21 on the series, and 4 for 33 on the road trip.  4 for 33.  That's not good.  The Giants got shut out 3 times in 6 games.  They scored only 10 runs in 6 games.

Buster Posey and Brandon Belt notwithstanding, the Giants have to do better than that to compete in the major leagues.  Plenty of time to discuss particulars once the blessed offseason finally gets here.    At this point, I don't even know why it upsets me so much to have this kind of performance out of this team.  I should expect it, or at least be numb to it by now.

Really? The Best the Giants Could Manage Was a Split Against the Phillies?

Wait, let me guess.  Relief pitching?  Of course.   So with two wins in the books and our two best pitchers (Ty Blach and Madison Bumgarner) on the mound we lose both games?  Against the team with the worst record in the major leagues?  And lack of offense to boot (today, anyway)?  How positively 2017.

Ty Blach on the mound Saturday against the Phillies.  Ty was not his sharp self.  He gave up 1 in the 2nd, allowing Philly to tie the game at 1 each, and 3 in the 3rd, allowing Philly to take a 4 - 3 lead after Span's rbi single scored Jones and Tomlinson for a 3 - 1 lead.  The Giants tied the game at 4 all in the 5th, then gave it up in the 6th.  Blach got the first out, allowed a double and a single for a run and was replaced by Osich.  Gearrin relieved Osich later that inning and by the time it was the bottom of the 6th, the Giants were behind 11 - 4.  They staged a rally in the 9th, but fell by a final score of 12 - 9.  That wasted a Denard Span first inning lead off inside-the-park home run, the first by the Giants since 1945.  That was exciting.  The final score, not so much.  Suarez threw the final 3, allowing 1 and looking pretty good.

Madison Bumgarner on the hill Sunday.  Madison threw 6, struck out 7, gave up 1 run on 4 hits and 1 walk.  A Buster Posey single scored Tomlinson in the 4th, and Madison Bumgarner scorched a single in the 5th to score Ryder Jones and stake the Giants to a 2 - 1 lead.  Mark Melancon took the 7th, gave up 2 hits and struck out 2 but allowed no runs.  Hunter Strickland was a different story.  He made it through the 8th, but gave up 6 hits and 3 runs.  Kyle Crick gave up 1 more in the 9th.  The final score was 5 - 2.    We are 3 - 4 against the Philadelphia Phillies this year.  We have games left against St. Louis and Milwaukee, both of whom are fighting for a playoff berth, the White Sox, and the NL West.  We're back under .400, where, apparently, we belong.

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??

Thank God for Gin

Ah, Gin.  The spirit that soothes the worried mind (when taken in sufficient quantity).  My mind is worried.  The doormats of the major leagues lost again, their 5th in a row and second to a Mets team beset by injuries, but reveling in the gifts brought by San Francisco.  Every team in the major leagues must be checking their schedules to see when they can rest their regulars and still pick up a couple wins at the Giants expense.  You'd think the Giants could stumble their way into a win just by random chance.  Apparently not.  Here's the gist.

Tonight, in a new display of ineptitude, the Giants' outfielders (Nunez and Hernandez) refused to catch the ball.  Maybe it was a slowdown to protest working conditions.  I did that once in my career as a government bureaucrat, but after a couple months I realized that no one had noticed, so I called it off. There were not errors charged because the outfielders just stood there and let the balls go by, so Jeff Samardzija, who was so brilliant in his last start, was charged with earned runs.  They were not.  The Giants scored 1 run on 2 hits.  2 freaking hits.  The 1 run was because Buster hit a pitch into the seats.

Apparently, now Mark Melancon is on the disabled list.  I don't know what he is suffering from.  Ennui, perhaps?  I think this drink is called an Etonian.  Or at least, I had a drink like it the other night and tried to replicate it tonight to help me forget that I am a fan of the San Francisco laughing stock of a baseball club.  I can only hope I am humiliated by this post in the very near future.  Take a strong, but floral gin.  I used Nolet's, which comes in at something over 90 proof.  Put 1.5 or 2 oz on ice in a shaker.  Add 1/2 oz Luxardo Maraschino Cherry Liqueur and 1/2 or 1 oz Lillet.  Add orange bitters, like Fee Brothers.  Mix.  Strain into a glass and add a lemon twist.  Drink.  Repeat.  Or if you're not into gin, drink something else.  It's all we have left.

Lousy Way to Start a Road Trip, Guys

You put your ace on the hill and he blows chow.  This was a lousy game.  The defense was responsible for 2 of the runs, but really, Madison owns this.  To be fair, the home runs from Andrus and Beltre appeared to be at their eyeballs, but they were obviously hit-able.

The game was over before I could finish my martini, and I hate that.  It was over in the second inning, and the Giants made it a quick one by stringing together a series of wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am innings for Texas against Nick Mediocre, a Martinez pitcher if there ever was one.  The Giants added a score to make it 6 - 3 in the 9th, but really, that was pointless.  The announcing team tried to make a point about how it is hard to go to a place where it was hot, but I'm not buying it for a second.  They had this game lost before they could work up a sweat.

Madison's pissy act whenever someone looks at him, or whatever, is wearing thin.  Pitch like a stud and then work up a hissy-fit.  You were a turd tonight.

The Lost Weekend

Not the movie with Ray Milland. I mean this weekend in San Francisco at AT&T Park. Although that 1945 film was about an alcoholic and in one scene he experiences the delirium tremens. That was what it was like watching the Giants play against the Diamondbacks today. Heston didn't pitch badly, he just got no help. It's a lost weekend, lads. But now it's over. Fresh start tomorrow.

GO GIANTS!

--M.C.

Giants Mount Comeb....oh, never mind

The Giants came back in the 9th to tie the game, only to give up a home run in the 10th.  They came back in the 10th to tie the game, only to give up two in the 12th.  They came back in the 12th, but not back enough.  They lost again, 7 in a row.

Madison Bumgarner was on the mound.  Madison threw 94 pitches and 71 of them were strikes.  That usually means a good game from Maddy, 70%+ strikes, but a couple, at least, were very hittable strikes.  He gave up 4 runs on 2 home runs, a solo shot to Mark Trumbo in the 2nd and a 3 run bomb on a fattie in the 5th to Paul Goldschmidt.  Madison gave up a total of 6 hits and walked 1, but those hits did a lot of damage.

The Giants scrapped.  Matt Duffy had 2 hits, including a single to score Blanco in the 9th and a double to score Belt in the 12th.  Joe Panik, dropped in the batting order, had 3 hits, including a triple to score Buster and tie the game in the 9th.  Brandon Crawford hit a 2-run bomb.  Ultimately, though, it was another L.  Arizona used all their relief pitchers, so maybe they are worn out a bit.  One can only grasp at straws.  Peavy up.

Giants Try to Give Game Away, Succeed

The Giants lost tonight by playing some of the stupidest baseball I have seen this year.  It wasn't easy though, it took a complete effort by players and coaches.  Madison Bumgarner faced off against Cole Hamels for the Phillies.  Madison pitched pretty well, although not efficiently, using 110 pitches to get through 7 innings.  He struck out 9 and gave up only 4 hits, although 1 of them was a home run, resulting in the only run while he was on the mound.  Jeremy Affeldt relieved Madison in the 8th, but gave up a 2 run home run, and the game went into extra innings.  The Giants got a big knock from Michael Morse off of Hamels in the 4th for 3 runs.

The thing is, the Giants should have been up at least 5 - 3 by the time the 9th rolled around.  However, in the 6th, Bruce Bochy stupidly decided to replace Morse with the speedy Gregor Blanco after Morse hit the ball twice better than he has in two months and drew a walk.  Blanco stole second, went to third on one of Joe Panik's two hits and then stupidly ran into an out on Brandon Crawford's weak contact.  Then, in the 7th, with Madison still the pitcher of record, Angel Pagan led off with a double and then stupidly decided to steal third with Buster Posey at the plate.  Just a note here, Buster Posey is a pretty good hitter.

Two hitters into the 8th, the game was tied.  Cole Hamels was relieved by Ken Giles, who gave up a single to Pablo Sandoval to lead off the bottom of the 8th.  After a sacrifice that put Pablo on second, Tim Flannery stupidly sent Pablo home on a Joe Panik single to shallow right field.  Pablo was out by at least 30 feet.  In the 9th, the Giants put runners on via walks and moved them up via a wild pitch, but managed to escape with the score tied.  They did not, of course, score. 

In the 10th, Javier Lopez rounded out the display of incompetence by barely hitting Chase Utley with a pitch with the bases loaded, before giving up a sacrifice fly to make the final score 5 - 3.

Yuck

If you saw the first half-inning,  you saw the game.  To say that Madison Bumgarner, coming into a desperate win-needing situation against Pittsburgh, was not sharp would be kind.  He was crappy.  4 runs before the Giants could get to bat aided by 2 walks among the first 3 hitters, a crappy strike zone and a crappy defense.   It took more than 40 pitches to get through the first as the Pirates batted around.  Madison gave up a home run in the 2nd, but then settled down and pitched pretty well, as did the bullpen.  Too little, too late.

The Giants, meanwhile, were their all-too-familiar feeble selves.  Vern Worley faced 29 batters for a complete game, and it would have been 28 if not for Hunter Pence's 2-out triple in the 9th.  That was the only Giants base runner to get past first.  I don't know about anyone else, but I am getting awfully tired of the unable-to-score-at-home theme.  It doesn't make any sense.  The Giants are a bad, bad team right now.  With this loss, we are under .500 at home.  A desperation trade for "someone with pop" is not going to help.  It sure feels like we are in another one of those slides where we cough up 9 games or so, doesn't it?

The only thing I wanted from Spring Training was . . .

. . . no major injuries.

So much for that. You can put a positive spin on the Jeremy Affeldt injury news. You can, trust me. It goes like this: "hey, at least (insert prospect name here) gets a chance to pitch now!" Marco Scutaro will likely not be ready for the Opener, either, but I was prepared for that. And I would like to see Ehire Adrianza get some playing time. But the bullpen is another matter. The Giants have to pitch better this season than last season. There's no way around that. And the guys who've got the talent and experience need to be on the field getting the other guys out.

Like I said before, let's get the goddamn season started already.

GO GIANTS!

--M.C.

Big Fly Burns Cain, Giants Fall Apart

The Baltimore Orioles lead the world in hitting home runs. They have 156 in their 117 games, tops in baseball. Their .440 slugging percentage ties them for the lead with the Detroit Tigers. They are third in total bases and fourth in runs scored. Matt Cain kept the lid on them for six innings, but left one up for power-hitting shortstop J.J. Hardy and he hit a two-run homer in the 7th to give the visitors the lead they never relinquished. The Giants looked like they might pile up some early runs, getting two in the 1st, but they fizzled after that and left it up to the pitching. One in the 6th, two in the 7th, four in the 8th, and three in the 9th took care of that notion and the team racked up its 65th loss in this lost season.

Matty gave up nine home runs in the month of April (six starts). Since then, he's had 17 starts and given up nine more home runs. His career average is 0.8 HR/9 but it's ticked up to 1.1 HR/9 this year. The most he's allowed in any season is 22, which he did twice (2009 and 2010). Lots of guys give up home runs. Curt Schilling gave up 347 dingers in his 3261-inning career, or 1.0 HR/9. And a seven-inning three-run start isn't bad. In fact, it's pretty good (Game Score 59). A lot of teams will win games if their starter goes seven and gives up three. But this is the Giants, and the team is in a shambles at this point. The bullpen collapsed completely today, but even if they had held the line, the offense has been so feeble that they likely would not have won the game anyway. The Giants are 29th of 30 teams in homers (only 69!), they slug .374 (third from the bottom), they are 25th in total bases, and 27th in runs scored.

The team has not pitched well, hit well, or fielded well in 2013. It's no wonder they are in last place. They travel tomorrow, and open up a three-game set in D.C. on Tuesday.

GO GIANTS!

--M.C.

Another Beautiful Start, Another Loss

Remember when, a couple weeks back, we opined that it couldn't get worse?  It has.  Another 1 run loss to a team that defines mediocrity, the Chicago Cubs, decade in a decade out.  Today's lineup featured a trio of Giant cast-offs, among them Nate Schierholtz, who hit a solo home run, in the NINTH FUCKING INNING to win 1 - 0 today.

No offense for the Giants.  None.   Chances - RISP in the 5th, 6th and 7th.  No runs scored.  Then, in the 8th, there were bases LOADED with NO outs.  Did the Giants score?  They did not.  In the 9th, there were bases LOADED and ONE out.  How would a double play work to make the game suck in totality?  In the words of Duane Kuiper - "Unbelievable!"   If there is any, tiny upside to this, it is that we are not likely to make a move to hope to boost the Giants into the playoffs.  Because they need soooo much more than a boost.

Cain, Giants Almost Win

I have to think that Matt Cain pitching well and the Giants struggling to score is actually a good thing. I mean, this is the Matt Cain we know and love. Mr. Hard Luck, Mr. No-Decision, Mr. Undeserved Loss--that's our boy. Life is ordered, the universe is in balance, the yin's yanged, and the yang's yinned when no. 18 gets minimal run support. Hey, I'm reaching here, OK? The Giants are fighting tooth-and-nail with the equally feeble Chicago Cubs to stay out of the cellar. And they are now TEN GAMES below the .500 mark. I don't know what to say about that, it's a little too disturbing to contemplate, so I'll do what any red-blooded, self-respecting American would do and simply ignore it. Jeff Francouer delivered a two-run single in the 7th (after Matty's 115-pitch night was done) to overcome the 1-0 deficit and give Cainer and the ballclub a shot at the win. Unfortunately the 'pen could not get the job done, and just when it looked like Sergio Romo would get the last out, Brandon Belt couldn't come up with the hard smash from Rizzo and the Giants were doomed.

Vida Blue said on the pre-game show that Cain needed to mix it up on two-strike counts, that he was too predictable and thus giving up big hits when he should be getting outs. It's worth noting that the Chicago sequence that scored the run in the 6th (Nate Schierholtz double and Starlin Castro single) were both two-strike hits. None of this means a goddamn thing. I've been watching baseball all of my life and still don't understand pitching. Or hitting. Or fielding. Especially tonight's fielding. I mean lack of fielding. Tony Abreu should have stopped the ball that led to the Cubs first run, and Belt was in the right spot for the very type of ball that Rizzo hit, yet could not knock it down and end the game.

Matt Cain pitched well: 7   6   1   1   1   7, Game Score 67. That's something. My mom offered me a shot of bourbon in that horrid 9th, and when I said "no, thanks" she countered with a Jameson. You're all right, Ma, you understand. It was a great visit today, other than the game. Dwight Yoakam has a song, It Won't Hurt, where he sings in that plaintive drawl "but even whiskey cannot ease your hurting me." That was tonight. No sense wasting good whiskey.

--M.C.

42

A few days ago I was astride a granite boulder that rested in the scree along the edge of a Sierra lake. I was craning my neck to examine a small plant through a hand lens--it was a wild orchid, the tiny white flowers spiraling up a short stem that clung to a crack in the rock. The afternoon sun had crisped my forearms umber, and the wind whipped my hat enough so that I needed my chin strap. Down the mountain was a stream strewn with Tiger Lillies in the shady spots, and I soaked my hot, tired flesh in a surging pool eddying out from a small waterfall. The butterflies abounded along meadow verges, iridescent Melissa Blues and stately Lorquin's Admirals, and warblers chased each other among the lodgepoles. A few days before that I was dumping my companions and the beer cooler from the canoe and into the Russian River with an unfortunate maneuver. Fortunately, all was recovered, the summer levels being quite low, and we wrestled our craft back to action and finished the float. There were Fourth of July fireworks from an Oakland Hills vista, a famous play in a small theater in the big City, a Sonoma wine-tasting excursion, a seafood dinner along the Carquinez Strait, and many wonderful long days and late nights with family and friends. In short, it was a hell of a holiday.

And speaking of hell, how the hell did this happen? This 2013 Giants team? Poor performances, sure. Key injuries, of course. But collapse? This is not one of the scenarios I envisioned. At the very worst, I thought this a .500 club. I did not believe this team was capable of playing this poorly. Every baseball team puts up stretches of .350 ball. Sometimes it even lasts a whole season--just ask the Astros. But this sustained run of bad baseball is a shocker. On May 12th, the Giants had just taken three of four from the Braves and were 23-15, in first place in the West by two games. They've gone 19-35 since, including a stretch where they lost 16 of 19. They are now in fourth place, 6-1/2 back, fighting it out with the Padres for the booby prize.

The 2009 Giants won their 42nd game on July 1st (Game 77). The 2010 Giants won their 42nd game on July 5th (Game 82). The 2011 Giants won their 42nd game on June 24th (Game 76). The 2012 Giants won their 42nd game on June 26th (Game 75). The 2013 Giants piled it on in San Diego last night, finally racking up win 42 on July 12th, their 92nd game. That's the kind of math I don't like. In terms of seasonal innings, Games 73-90 constituted their fifth 18-game cluster, and cluster it was. They went 3-15, an unimaginable stretch of bad luck and worse ball-playing. That's 11-7, 10-8, 8-10, 8-10, and the unfathomable 3-15 for the five innings. On a bright note, two wins in Games 91 and 92 gets the sixth frame started off with a nice 2-0 record. If you break it down by month, April was 15-12, May 14-13, June a swooning 10-17, and July a wretched 3-8. If any team could use an All-Star Break, it's San Francisco.

I'm back home, my friends. I'm plugged in again. I'll admit that I took a vacation from the Giants as well--when I go AWOL I go all the way. I did not know about Homer Bailey beating Tim Lincecum and his mates with a no-hitter. I did not know about Zack Wheeler besting Matt Cain and the boys, Matty throwing his shortest start ever, on the heels of getting clobbered by the Dodgers. What's up with Cain? I'm dumbfounded. We watched Tim be just about the lousiest starter in the NL last year, now we get the pleasure of doing it all over again, this time with no. 18. I swear I have not insulted the gods! In fact, I make my regular offerings, just like always. Perhaps more drastic measures are needed. Thanks for holding down the fort in my absence.

GO GIANTS!

--M.C.

Two Touchdowns Will Do It

I'm usually ready to call it a game when the score is 14-0, even if they miss the extra points. Ryan Vogelsong's beautiful streak ended tonight, and I come to praise him, not to bury him. What a superb run of pitching we've seen from him these last two seasons, and what many more outstanding efforts we will see going forward. The Vogelstory has been told, it needs not retelling. The Vogelsaga has been written, it needs not rewriting. The Vogelsong has been sung, it needs not karaoking. I thought of Madison Bumgarner and that crazy game last year where he gave up hits to the first eight guys--he turned out OK after that. The Nationals showed they can do it all and are the real deal. You'd think the Giants would have realized that after the lovely series in D.C. last month, but no, they are a stubborn bunch. Uh, hello, this is a great team, OK? Let's put together a wee bit better effort tomorrow, eh?

--M.C.


p.s. I went to this game. I was a high school kid. My brothers and I won the tickets for walking twenty miles for a muscular dystrophy fundraiser. Maybe it was another cause, I can't recall. Candlestick still had astroturf, and when only a few thousand showed up it was like watching a game in a tunnel. That was bad, especially since it was an hour's drive to the ballpark. The Cardinals got 23 hits and scored 17 runs, and wore light blue, tight-fitting uniforms. It only lasted 2-1/2 hours though, about 45 minutes shorter than last night's game.

You Have To Stay Strapped In, Man

I am a passenger

And I ride and I ride

You've been there. You've gone a few drinks over the limit. Hell, more than few, and you are waiting for the bomb to drop. Or you took that extra tab because the first one wasn't working, and it's just tickled your cortex and said "Here's, Johnny!"  The shit hasn't hit yet, but it will, and you know it won't be good. You'll stumble around, unable to talk. Or you'll curl up in a ball and yip like a puppy if someone strays near you. And the aftershocks--something mild, like a dry-heaves hangover, or a little more fun, like temporary psychosis--will come, too. And you know this, and it feels real bad. And you're stuck. Fucked up. Hella fucked up, with no place to go but down someplace worse. That feeling, that dread, that "what have I done to myself?" moment has got you by the short hairs and you just have to ride it out and take what comes.
 

I am a passenger

I stay under glass

That feeling I was talking about? That's what tonight's game felt like. Every moment was one of fear, and loathing. Matt Cain looked ready to implode on every pitch. He lasted only five innings, his shortest start of the season. Every Met got pitches to hit and pitches to laugh at, and got lots of them, over and over again, and every inning recapitulated the entire season in a comic opera of great pathos and sensitivity. Every half inning, that is, as the Giants worked on their offense-minimizing strategies to great success, and the batting thing moved along briskly and didn't interfere with the rest of the show.

We'll be the passenger

We'll ride through the city tonight

See the city's ripped insides

We'll see the bright and hollow sky

It's a commitment. You have to stick it out. There are going to be games like this. Again. And again. This isn't the last time you will want to gouge out your molars with a Leatherman tool rather than watch another batter. So get over yourself already. Enough with the melodrama. We're grownups here. Professionals. We don't do those stupid adolescent stunts anymore. When we go over the line, we know it, we plan it, we live it, we love it. Cinch up the harness, mates, you ain't goin' nowhere.

Oh the passenger

He rides and he rides

He looks through his window

What does he see?

Fer chrissakes, Giants, win the next fucking ballgame.

--M.C.



p.s. Thanks to Iggy Pop for inspiration.


He sees the stars and hollow sky
He sees the stars come out tonight
He sees the city's ripped backsides
He sees the winding ocean drive . . .

Feckless Giants Flop in Finale

Not to disrespect Ryan Vogelsong, who gave it a hell of a go, but he does that every time. He doesn't have to prove he can hang with the best, we know he can. The Giants drew the short straw after the debacle on Saturday, having to face their Arch Nemesis in the last chance to salvage the series. Clayton Kershaw, predictably, dominated from start to finish. And finish he did, throwing his second shutout of the season. All the home team had to do was avoid a sweep. That's it. Two wins would have been nice, but one would have meant LA leaves town still two down. Instead, the Dodgers get to share the top spot and are looking to push our boys out.

The Giants amassed 21 hits in the three games, 18 of them singles. The Dodgers had 15 extra-base hits. If I were more poetic I'd wax on about these perilous days being a true test of character for the lads. After a good shellacking it's best to pick ones self back up and dust ones self off, chin up there, bucko, put up those dukes and let's see those combinations again, eh? Because today sucked. So suck it up and stop sucking, goddamnit.

--M.C.

Boring

The Giants lost last night.  The game was boring.  Texas won.  Zito pitched.  Not well, not too poorly.  He pitched well enough to keep his team in the game.  Well, not HIS team, A team. A DIFFERENT team.  Texas scored 5 runs, not a big offensive outburst but more than they needed.  If you would have gone to bed early, you wouldn't have missed anything.  No late rallies.  No sort of rallies, really.  5 hits total for the Giants, no one had more than 1.  First shutout of the season against us.  Tejas is a good team, but then, they just had lost 3 of 4 to the A's.  But they beat us.

We are doing better today, up 3-0 as I write.  Sandoval just contributed, 4-0.

Oh, goody, we play the American League for the rest of the month.

Blah-blah-blah

Matt Cain pitched another great game blah-blah-blah run support blah-blah-blah RISP death blah-blah-blah anemic offense blah-blah-blah I've written this post too many times before blah-blah-blah.

I'm only going to say this once: fuck, shit, goddamn motherfucking shit.

There's a few throwbacks out there who will get excited about speed and bunting and stolen bases and little ball and execution and the rest of the little things and playing the right way and blah-blah-blah but that ain't me by a long shot. The Giants needed another long shot tonight, one was not enough. The double is a fine thing, but it doesn't work in San Francisco, it is only two bases and not four and thus not a run-scoring hit. A double followed by a double is a lovely thing, no doubt, but that's just not how the Giants roll. A double play is more their style, blah-blah-blah.

Lame, Giants. Get a fucking RBI hit, fer chrissakes.

Lame, lame, lame.

--M.C.