Things sure started out good for the Giants. They scored two runs in the first off of Phillies starter Roy Oswalt in an innings which was highlighted by former Phillie Pat Burrell hitting a homerun.
Barry Zito battled through the first four innings and held a 2-0 lead into the 5th and then it all unraveled for him when he gave up 2 runs in the 5th and 2 in the 6th.
The only other highlight came in the 7th when the newest Giant, Jose Guillen, hit his first homerun as a Giant. At this point it was still a game because Guillen's homerun made the score 4-3 Phillies. But then Chris Ray, who had been pretty reliable since coming over in the Bengie Molina trade, came in and gave up 4 ERs without recording a single out to make a manageable deficit become unmanageable.
Much is being made about the Giants' alleged lack of success against teams with winning records. But this is where the Giants season goes back to their atrocious record against the Padres. the Giants are 31-41 against teams with winning records. If the Giants had been able to win say 3 more games against the Padres so far this season and have a record of 5-6 against them, their record against winning teams becomes slightly better at 34-37. They are still not world beaters but they are at least closer to .500 which is what you want to be against the good clubs.
Hopefully tonight's matchup of Matt Cain and Joe Blanton starts the Giants on the right path. It's a winable game considering Blanton's 5.69 ERA. The Giants need a win tonight to reclaim a tie in the wild-card standings.
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