Bad Calls and Pratfalls

Sigh.  Another day, another L.  Madison Bumgarner was on the mound, and by the time he coughed up 4 in the 3rd inning, the game was over.  He was charged with 2 more in the 8th before he could manage an out.  That is 15 earned runs in the past 18 innings.  The thing is, he could have pitched much better and still come out with 3 L's in the past 3 games.  The offense is bad.

Tyler Colvin hit a home run, 1 of 2 hits for him and that was the Giants' sole run.  Michael Morse got 2 hits, so did Hunter Pence.  Pablo Sandoval and Brandon Crawford each got 1.  Angel Hernandez's interpretation of the strike zone is a much a fantasy as Anton Scalia's interpretation of the Constitution.  In two games in Oakland, it is 11 (A's) to 1 (Giants).  That's no fantasy, though, that's just bad.

Oddly, what with all the losing going on, the Giants are 1 game back to LA, who lost big to Detroit.

Relaxing Tim

Game Summary:
Tim Lincecum and some lovely insurance runs helped secure the series win by beating the camo-clad pudknockers, 5-3 at PetCo.  This game should have been a snoozer with us in total control but a dose of feeble Sergio made it a wee scary at the end.  Wee scared is much better than last week's suicidal depression, don't you agree?

Tim Facts:
Start #18  Win!  (8-5,  3.91)  3 hits 1 run 1 earned run  4 walks  6 strikeouts  1 hr

Timmeh's 23 inning scoreless streak went away but the wins keep rolling in.  The Giants have gone 12-6 when Lincecum starts this year, including the last three during the death spiral.  This rather dominating job was almost tension-free and "mellow."   Believe me, that is not an adjective I use to describe Tim with very often, or ever. He was a little wild and threw too many pitches but this is the new Lincecum quality start.  BTW that means the starters have posted NINE QUALITY STARTS OF THE LAST ELEVEN OUTINGS. Sweet!!

High and/or Lowlights:
Hunter Pence had a great game (3 runs scored!) and got rewarded with an All-Star birth. Well deserved, I would say.

Congrats to Madison Bumgarner (though he can't pitch in the game) for his All-Star assignment. Two in a row! No Hudson?! That sucks.  Oh well...

Giants Win!

Oh, how sweet it is to write those words. The Giants pull off a dramatic and historic win, hitting home runs in both the 9th and 10th innings to beat the Padres in San Diego 5-3. They had not pulled off a feat like that since 1986. The Dodgers, bless them, lost to the Rockies. The Giants have played baseball about as poorly as it can be played at the major league level. The win percentage, the loss of a 9-1/2 game lead in mere weeks, and the futility on both sides of the ball reached epic status. The Giants didn't shrink from having a bad run--they embraced it fully, as a team, when it came. They wrote new chapters in the annals of losing. And after all that, after throwing away a month of baseball while their rivals were turning on the jets, they are a mere half-game out of first place. It seems inconceivable, but there they are. One win certainly does not stop a streak, and I really thought The Freak's no-hitter was that "spark" the team would respond to. But this was certainly a big win nonetheless. Speaking of The Freak, he goes tomorrow afternoon.

GO GIANTS!

--M.C.

Cain, Giants Out of Gas

It seemed that Matt Cain had lost it by the 6th inning this afternoon in San Diego. He got the third out, but had nothing left for the 7th and was pulled after four hitters and one out. Thankfully Jeremy Affeldt got the magic double play ball and the Giants still had a chance. Actually the Giants, these days, only have a chance if the pitcher throws a shutout. Normally if a starter gives a club 6-1/3 and two runs you'll hear "did the job" and "kept the team in the game" and "quality start" and all that jibber-jabber. (Ain't that right, Ryan Vogelsong?) Normally teams score about four runs a game (the league average), too. But that's not how it works for the orange-and-black these days. Shutouts and no-hitters are the only way this team can win. So I reckon that his effort today makes Matty a choker. Zeroes only from this point forward, laddie! You give up runs you are a loser. Want proof? Check the box score: there's an "L" next to "Cain." For $20+M/year we want nothing less than "W" every time!

The Giants continued on their hell-ward spiral today. They couldn't hit and they couldn't string together the hits they got. They couldn't stop the other team from scoring. They were utterly feeble and over-matched by the second-worst team in the league. It's some kind of sick punishment by the baseball gods. Just shy of a month ago I retired from my profession of schoolteaching after 30 years. On Sunday, June 8th, the Giants swept the Mets and stood atop the baseball world at 42-21. Since then the team has gone 5-18. It's not just that they stuck a knife in our hearts, it's now they've decided to twist it, and prolong the agony.

I used to be implacably calm when Matt Cain pitched. You knew, over the long haul, that the Tennesse Stud would deliver. He would grind out quality innings after quality innings and give the team big starts time and time again. These days I'm scared when the big righty pitches. He's not the same as he was. He looks vulnerable, like the league has figured him out. Tim Lincecum fell off a cliff, remember? But here lately maybe, just maybe, he has started to make the adjustments and turn himself around. I never thought that he wouldn't. (How's that for negating negatives?) The same thing seems to be happening to Matty. He is no longer the same guy. He has to re-invent himself, just like Timmy. I believe he will. Athletes are prideful creatures--they like to play the hero and impress the crowd. I think Cain is made of that sort of stuff, too. He wants to be The Horse. The Man. The leader of the pack. It's weird to write this after a good start. It's not like Cain gave it up today or sucked big time. Far from it--he "pitched well enough to win" and in April and May the Giants would have won this game easily. But these June and July Giants are a very different animal, indeed, and it's hard to know what to expect from one day to the next.

The Giants stand at 47-39 or .547 ball after 86 games. I thought, when the season started, that this was a 90+ win team. A 90-win team is .556 ball. That means the Giants have to play, percentage-wise, better baseball from this point forward than they have so far. They have to go 43-33 or .566 just to get to 90, and we know that might not be enough. To get to 94 will take 47-29 or .618 which seems increasingly unlikely. Of course they could snap out of their funk at any moment and run off some wins--this is indeed a possibility. But watching today's effort makes it hard to be optimistic. After the team fell behind 2-0 in the 3rd it was like the air was let out of the balloon. They had nothing and did nothing the rest of the game. Please, Gods of Baseball, say it ain't so. Give me a sign the Giants are awakening from their .217 stretch and are still contenders.

I hope you all had a relaxing Fourth. Happy Independence Day, everyone!

--M.C.

Post Mad. Bummer.

Well, I had, if not hope, exactly, then expectations for something better.  But today the Giants and Madison Bumgarner dropped the series against the St. Louis Cardinals and Carlos Martinez.  The Giants have only won 1 of their last 7 games, 2 of their last 10 (both Tim's) and 5 of their last 22.  Madison didn't pitch well enough.  He gave up a home run after a walk that he did not agree with in the 1st inning.  Then in the 3rd, Adam Duvall threw away what should have been a double play, and the Cardinals wound up scoring 3.  Not to be outdone, Yusmiero Petit also threw away a double play ball in the 7th, allowing the Cardinal's 6th run to score.  But by that time, you had a sense that our punk offense would not mount a comeback.  In fact they did tease us with runners on base, but they consistently couldn't push them across.  Remember when the Giants would score first and get 2-out rbis?  Me neither.
Carlos Martinez kept the hitters off balance for the most part.  Madison Bumgarner was much less of a pitcher than he is capable of being, although he did pick up 50% of the Giants' rbis.  Madison's numbers: 5 innings, 5 runs (4 earned), 6 hits, 6 K, 3 BB.  That is his second start in a row in which he pitched less than 7 innings and gave up at least 4.  We need better from our #1.  So many holes in our line-up right now.  Blanco, bless his inconsistent little heart, got 2 hits today and scored the first run.  This team is driving me to drink and that is about the only good thing I can say about them right now.

Pre-Mad

Well, no one has posted here about Vogie's game and last night's loss to the Cardinals, 2 - 0, so I guess I will.  It might seem devastating in the wake of that dreadful June, but I don't really feel that way.  Adam Wainwright, one of the best pitchers in the major leagues, shut us down.  Our # 5 pitcher, Ryan Vogelsong, only allowed 2 runs and our relief did a pretty good job (actually, Romo was excellent in the 9th and was the only pitcher warmed up if the Giants would have scored).   So I think that today's game will be much more telling.  We have our #1 starter on the mound.  According to the Chronicle (Henry Schulman) Gregor Blanco will not be batting lead-off, at least not when Belt returns on Friday.  Hunter Pence will take his spot.  I think this is an excellent idea.

In other news, Marco Scutaro is making progress, playing in the Arizona rookie league and gradually increasing the number of innings played.  Angel Pagan is going to get another epidural injection in his lower back today.

Superhero Tim

Game Summary :
 JUNE IS OVER! Can we dream that the nightmare is over? Well, maybe if Tim Lincecum pitches every night! The Freak delivered a second consecutive dominant performance and beat the tough Cardinals 5-0. It all came together: huge starting pitching, good defense and, yes, a dinger.  A special dinger at that as Pablo got his 100th career home run! Add to that the doggers getting thumped (they hit into a triple play! what losers) and July is looking real good so far.

Tim Facts:
Start# 17  Win  (7-5, 4.09)  8 innings  4 hits  0 runs  0 earned runs  2 walks  6 strikeouts  0 hr

Not quite as awesome as the no hitter, but actually it was very similar. Once again, Timmeh had total command of all four pitches. Also, he seemed totally comfortable in the stretch. Case in point was the amazing job Tim did in the fourth to get out of a bases loaded no out jam. That is a HUGE difference from earlier in the year, as reported here repeatedly. Tim has really figured something out and HE CAN REPRODUCE IT. First time in his career to get back to back 8 inning scoreless games.  Let's see how long he can ride this pony. Isn't nice to be excited about Tim again? I can't wait to be excited about the whole team again.

Highlights and/or Lowlights:

Some nice offense from Pablo (2b, HR), Hunter (2 hits, 2 runs) and Buster (RBI). Pablo and Brandon  Crawford made a couple great plays. But the absolute hero, actually SUPERHERO, was totally Tim. If it wasn't for Lincecum, this last couple weeks would have been intolerable. Not just because of getting some wins but giving us some RESPECTABILITY.  Let's see if we can't rebuild and get this back on track. Tim has done his part, now it is time for every one else.