Giants overcome the cubs in 11

GIANTS 4 - CUBS 3

The Giants managed to put the Cubs away when they finally managed to score 4 runs in a game for the first time since August 3rd.  They weren't able to win the game in regulation despite a decent start by Madison Bumgarner and 5+ excellent innings by the Giants bullpen.

After the offense was held down by some pretty good pitching in Atlanta, you could make a case that it was the excellent pitching and not the necessarily the Giants offense that was responsible for not scoring.

Last night, against the horrible Carlos Zambrano, the Giants had no reason for not putting up runs on the board. Cubs pitchers walked 11 Giants last night, gave up 11 hits, and the Giants had the bases loaded in every inning. (well at least it felt that way)  hell, Travis Ishikawa was even thrown out at the plate in the bottom of the 10th inning.

The bottom line is the game should never have got to the 11th inning, or the 10th for that matter.  I'm going to wait until the end of the Cubs series before I get too worried.  But the offense is officially in a slump.  The best available option is Jose Guillen and he doesn't sound like he is all that great of an option anyway.  At least not if we have to give up anything for him.  So this is it as far as the Giants offense is concerned.  I think it will be enough to get us in to th post season but after that it's a crapshoot.

Tonight is another winnable game against Ryan Dempster who is OK but not great.  The Giants will be throwing Timmy out there tonight and he should be racking up the Ks.  Hopefully the Giants can muster a few runs against Dempster who is better than Zambrano at this point so it's likely that the Giants won't be receiving 11 free passes tonight.

Link of the Day:

If you haven't seen it already, this is classic.  This guy at a Houston Astros game flinches when it comes time to catch a foul ball and it winds up hitting his girlfriend.  The Astros version of Amy Gutierrez interviewed the couple in the stands and promptly gave the guy the nickname Bo "the bailer". It doesn't stop there.  She calls him a little chicken and tells the girlfriend that his actions tonight may make her want to reconsider their future together.  Funny stuff.

Cain Fails

ASTROS 7 - GIANTS 5

It's tough to figure out what to make of this series. 

The Giants lost 2 out of three to the worst team in the National League.  Their offense looked lost at times, but last night they managed to scrape together 5 runs.  Matt Cain had his shortest outing of the season allowing 7 runs in 2 2/3 innings.

Are the Giants a team that isn't very good?  Did the law of averages finally catch up to them?  Is the Giants pitching staff in trouble?

The Giants at this point in the season are just pretty good.  They aren't a great team.  Sure they have great starting pitching but beyond that they are mediocre at best.  The offense is at times terrible and at times pretty good.  There are a few guys in the bullpen who are somewhat reliable and there are a couple of guys who have just been disasters.   Brian Wilson has been pretty much lights out closing games, but lately the Giants have had trouble getting the lead to Wilson in the first place.

The law of averages did catch up to the Giants a little bit here.  On Monday the Giants won their 9th game in a row against the Astros dating back to last season.  The Astros had to beat the Giants sometime.  Sure, it would have been nice for a season sweep of the Astros but those are rare and 7-2 against a team over an entire season would fall under the category of domination.

The pitching staff will be fine.  Again, it's a little bit of the law of averages here.  Barry Zito has been pretty much lights out against the Astros in his career so a rough outing against them was inevitable.  Cain had been lights out against everybody recently so he was due for a little correction too.  Plus he may just have trouble against Houston or trouble pitching in Houston.  In his fist start of the season, Cain gave up 4 runs in 6 2/3 innings which, up until last night was his second worst outing of the season.  He had a no decision in that game and the Giants eventually won 10-4

So you can see how tough it is to gauge much from this series because it does not necessarily reflect how the Giants may be playing but it was just something that was going to happen sooner or later.

Some notes from the game:

Aaron Rowand was 3 for 3 so he will be starting for the next week I am sure.  He could have been 0 for 10 last night however and would have still started tomorrow against Tim Wakefield whom he owns an impressive .647 average against.  Overall against Wakefield he is 11 for 17 with 4 home runs and a double.   As bad as Rowand has been lately those kind of career numbers against a guy demand that he plays against him.

Edgar Renteria had 2 more hits last night.  If this guy keeps hitting like this all season then the Giants will be extremely happy.  Hopefully he can make us forget last year.  Also hopefully it doesn't earn him a 2 year contract extension.

Pat Burrell hit another homer.

Bruce Bochy has stated that Buster Posey will catch at least once a week.  This is good news and it probably mean that he will be catching Joe Martinez.  Or, hopefully, Madison Bumgarner but at this point it seems pretty likely that J.Mart will get the start on Saturday.  Madbum is scheduled to start tonight in Fresno so if he doesn't pitch tonight it may be a good indication on who starts Saturday.

Nate watch:

Nate wasted away a little more on the bench.  Rowand's 3 for 3 day almost guaranteed he won't get another start for at least a week unless someone gets hurt.

Giants dominance of Astros ends for a game

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.

Lincecum defeats Oswalt.

GIANTS 3 - ASTROS 1

Tim Lincecum only allowed one unearned run in 8 innings against the Astros.  He has defeated Roy Oswalt in all 3 matchups they have had this season.  Oswalt only allowed 2 runs over 7 innings and if there was ever a guy worthy of hard luck loser it's Oswalt.  He held the Giants to just 6 hits and all of them were singles, all 7 hits the Giants mustered tonight were singles.  His record is 5 and 9 with a 3.08 ERA.  Compare that with Lincecum's slightly better ERA and an 8-2 record.

It's finally official.  Mark DeRosa will have season ending wrist surgery.  I wonder what took so long to finally make this announcement and I almost feel like the Giants didn't really believe the injury was as severe as DeRosa was letting on.  In the story from the Mercury news there is one scary sentence:

"The Giants would like to salvage something from their investment in DeRosa, but Groeschner couldn't be certain that the veteran will be completely recovered and healthy for 2011."

Wow.  What a disaster this guy was.

Nate watch:

Nate came on in the 7th as a pinch runner for Pat Burrell.  He got a single in the 9th to drive in Juan Uribe.  Hopefully this 2 out RBI gets him a start or 2.  As Duane Kuiper said during his AB in the 9th: "Here's a guy who could benefit from a start or two."  (I'm paraphrasing)