Astros 6 - Giants 3
It's one of those things that had to happen sometime. The Giants finally lost to the Astros after 10 consecutive wins against them. Barry Zito also lost to the Astros for the first time this season after having gone 2-0 and having given up only 3 earned runs to them in 13 innings this season.
The loss could just be that law of averages catching up to them. It could also point to something bigger.
After a streak of 12 games in which they scored 3 runs or more in every game, the Giants have now endured a stretch where they scored 3 runs or less in 5 of their last 7 games. The offense that appeared to be clicking now seems to be struggling once again. The Giants did manage 4 extra base hits a night after they didn't have any. They did miss a ton of scoring opportunities which seems to be the story of this team this season.
Andrew Baggerly of the San Jose Mercury news had some interesting insights to Posey and Molina.
On Posey he said that Buster's wrist has been bothering him. Buster said that it's been something that has bothered him all season. Bochy insisted that there was nothing to read into Posey's absence and that he would catch against Joe Martinez on Saturday.
"Sometimes it's good to get a couple days," Bochy said. "He's just getting a little break right now."
I find that statement strange since Bochy is the same guy who kept insisting earlier this season that Pablo Sandoval didn't need a day off because he was 23 years old and should be able to handle playing every day. Posey, who is also 23, however gets what amounts to 3 days off in a row after Monday's off day.
Bochy knows these guys better than I do so it's tough to say what it was that led to the way that they were each handled but it does seem strange.
On Molina, Baggerley said that he was getting the same feeling of frustration from Giants management that he was getting right before Aaron Rowand's banishment to the bench. There was also some talk of an elbow injury with him, which could explain a lot of his problems throwing out baserunners this season although he did throw one out last night, I would not be surprised one bit to see Bengie spend an extended period of time on the bench.
Some good news is that Edgar Renteria is batting .333 since he has returned to the lineup. It's only been 9 ABs but he has been hitting at a .326 clip all season besides his multiple trips to the DL. How he fits into an already overcrowded infield is a nice problem to have. But given that Bochy is trying to achieve a "sense of oneness." I think he will get his share of ABs.
Nate watch:
Nate popped out with runners on first and second base in the 8th inning. At this point, Nate must stand in the on deck circle before each at-bat and think that it doesn't matter what he does because he won't start the next day. Burrell, who wasn't supposed to start every day has and he started out OK but he is now 4 for his last 19 which works out to a whopping .235 average. One of those 4 hits was a HR though.
Burrell has never been much of a hitter for average. His big thing is working the counts to get the walks so that he has a very good OBP and to get the pitches that allows him to blast homers out regularly, which he has done with the Giants. Because of the tendency for bad batting averages, he will have cold streaks and once he has cooled down sufficiently, I think we'll start to see Nate in there again.
ReplyDeleteBesides, Nate has no one to blame but himself. If he would have just DLed himself after hurting himself in late April/early May, he wouldn't have had that awful stretch of hitting which benched him. He would have served his time on the DL, got healthy, and the Giants would have put him back into the rotation, like they did last season in August, they brought him back and played him, but, again, he hit poorly enough that he got sat back down after a while.
He's proven to the Giants that he can be a contributor and that is why he's still around. The key thing is to be able to produce regularly enough, which is a big reason why Lewis is gone, one moment he's the best hitter around, the next big stretch he was lost and not contributing much of anything, and his defense went down the tubes as well.
I think Nate's superior defense and steady offensive production up the minors will get him more rope than other prior Giants prospects. I expect that the Giants will keep RF open for him and Bowker to compete for in 2011, though I would think the competition will be with Rowand and Torres as well for playing time again, much like this year. DeRosa I expect to become the super-utility guy who plays regularly but mostly by giving the starters regular rest each week or two.