Sweeeeeeeep!

GIANTS 6 - A'S 2

With their 6-2 victory over the A's today, the Giants completed a 3 game sweep of the A's.

Isn't revenge sweet?

The A's swept the Giants in Oakland last month in what had to be the lowest point of the Giants season so far.  Well besides maybe losing 7 in a row to the Padres.  But during the 3 game series against the A's the Giants only managed one single run.  Matt Cain lost a complete game 1-0 in which the only run given up was unearned.  It looked like the beginning of a long, slow, painful, downward slide for the Giants.

They came home, Freddy Sanchez got comfortable, Buster Posey came up, and since that sweep the Giants are 13-6,  They have scored 3 runs or more in 11 straight games, and they finished their last road trip with a winning record!

Matt Cain pitched his usual good game going 7 strong and allowing 1 earned run.  His ERA for the season is 2.05 which is good for 5th in the NL.  His 6-4 record is a crime.
Yesterday's game may have been the arrival of Aubrey Huff.  Huff's 2 homers in the same game at AT&T are noteworthy enough but even more so because he is a left hander according to Andrew Baggerly of the San Jose Mercury News.  They are even more noteworthy because he hit both homers to left center field which is was the spot where only Barry Bonds used to hit homers with consistency.  Earlier in the season, after Huff hit his inside-the-park homerun, Huff noted that it was going to be tough to hit homers at AT&T park.  He admitted the park got into his head: "First month of the season, I tried to beat it," he said. "I got in some bad habits. but then he decided to play the park: "I just gave up (on trying to pull the ball), said I'm going to try to hit .300 this year." Well he's hitting .303 to lead the Giants in the average department and he's tied for the team homerun lead with Juan Uribe.

Speaking of Uribe, he hit another homer yesterday to keep pace with Huff and he is leading the team in RBI.  Huff and Uribe are making Brian Sabean look like a genius again.

Next up for the Giants is the Baltimore Orioles who just snapped their 10 game losing streak.  They are also chasing history.  As in the 1969 New York Mets who had the worst record of all-time.  Also, In case you didn't know, the Orioles are the only other team in baseball to wear orange and black.  This has led the Giants marketing wizards to come up with the lame marketing campaign: "Halloween in July" Although they will be wearing the cool orange uni's!

The matchups look to favor the Giants.  But when a club is 17-46 they almost never match up well do they?

Tonight:

Chris Tilman 0-2  Vs. Jonathan Sanchez 4-5 2.82

The only Giant to face Tilman is Pat Burrell who is 2 for 6 with a homerun so expect a Burrell, Torres, Huff OF today since Whiteside should be catching Sanchez.  Sanchez should rack up a lot of K's so as long as the Giants score a few runs he should even up his record at 5-5.

Tuesday:

Jake Arrieta 1-0, 4.50 Vs. Joe Martinez  0-0, 0.00

This will be Arrietta's second start in the Majors.  He did pretty good in his first start.  He held the Yankees to 3 runs over 6 innings and got the W.  Joe Martinez will be making his first start in the bigs his season.  He was both pretty good and terrible in his short stint in the majors last season.  In the minors this season he was pretty good going 5-2 with a 3.07 ERA.  His last start for Fresno was a complete game in which he only allowed 1 run and struck out 7.

Jeremy Guthrie 3-7, 3.83 Vs. Tim Lincecum 6-2, 3.13

Guthrie has been the Orioles most consistent pitcher this season having quality starts in all but 4 of his starts.  Lincecum should be Lincecum.  If that happens then expect double digit strikeouts from the freak.

On the farm:

The Grizzlies beat Tacoma 7 -3 and the offense just kept rolling.  Brett Pill and Brock Bond each had 3 hits.  Pill hit a HR and had 3 RBIs.  John Bowker had 2 hits and a HR.  Pill and Bowker also each stole a base.  Tyler Graham only went 1 for 4 and his average plummeted all the way down to .404.

Paul Konerko:

It's been a week since MLBTraderumors and ESPN's Buster Olney reported that the White Sox are ready to deal.  No word from the Giants camp but I really think that the Giants need to do everything in their power to get Paul Konerko. 

Konerko is a lifetime .278 hitter with the potential to drive in 100 runs and hit 40 HRs a season.  He has a championship ring so he brings that postseason experience to the club.  He would be one of the few players on the Giants to have rings.  The others are Burrell, Rowand, and Uribe.  Rowand and Uribe's came with the same White Sox team that Konerko got his with.

He does have a no-trade clause in his contract so any deal would probably come with an extension but with Lincecum only signed through next year and Matt Cain due a raise from $7 million to $12 million in 2012 add that to Barry Zito's $19 million for 2012 and the window of opportunity for these guys to win a championship together is reeeeallly small. 

We have the prospects to get a deal done.  It's just a matter of if the Giants brass have the guts to get a deal done.  If they pulled the trigger they would instantly become the favorites in the NL.

I started a facebook group named: IF the Giants get Paul Konerko they will win the World Series.  Come over and join and hopefully we can get enough people to pressure Sabean into making the deal.

Nate Watch:
Nate was 0 for 1.  Although I have to admit that while the Giants are scoring 6 runs a game, it's getting harder and harder for me to keep complaining for Nate to play more.