The Giants lost to the Padres for the 8th time in 9 games. If the Giants had managed to win 3 of the 8 games they lost, which is less than half by the way, the Giants would be sitting in first place right now. But no, the Giants can't even win a game against the Padres pitcher, Clayton Richard, who has been struggling in his last few starts.
Jonathan "Mr Guarantee" Sanchez pretty much lost the game by way of his horrible bunting in the second inning. With runners on 1st and 2nd and nobody out, Sanchez bunted right back to the pitcher which enabled the Padres to throw out Juan Uribe at third base. This is like the 8th time that Sanchez has been unable to execute a bunt properly this season. I think 7 of those came against the Padres.
The Giants must win these next two games against the Padres. If they don't they will be 5.5 games back. They still play the Pads 7 more times after but if they can't win these next two games then I have no reason to believe that they can win any of the other 7 games they will play against them.
Oh and don't think that Bruce Bochy didn't have his hand in this debacle. For some unexplained reason, Aaron Rowand was in the starting lineup again. Not only did Rowand get picked off of second base in the 2nd inning, he struck out to end the game with the tying run on first base. Rowand should be nowhere near the starting lineup at ever again this season. If the Giants want to win this thing they can't keep trotting out the closest thing to an automatic out that the Giants have. I am actually glad that the Giants got Guillen now if it means that Rowand will get even less playing time.
The other bonehead Bochy decision? Batting the slumping Freddy Sanchez second. In the 40 games since Sanchez was last at a .300 average, Sanchez is batting .223 with a horrendous OBP of .289.
Pablo Sandoval has been having his own struggles this season but he has been coming on in August. Even if you go back 40 games with Pablo he is batting over 40 points better than Sanchez .265 to .223. During the month of August, even with the 0 for 3 last night, Pablo is batting .326. this would make him the perfect guy to bat in the 2 hole.
Bochy is a fan of saying that he likes to "Play the hot hand" yet for some reason the "hot hand" was hitting 6th and the stone cold hand was hitting 2nd. A lineup that makes more sense, now that Guillen is in SF, looks more like this:
Torres, Sandoval, Posey, Burrell, Huff, Guillen, Uribe, Sanchez
Oh and the Padres even broke the Giants' Orange Friday mojo by handing them their first loss in the Orange unis.
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