Freakshow

GIANTS 3 - DIAMONDBACKS 1

Tim Lincecum struck out 11 Diamondbacks last night en route to his 16th victory of the season.  The San Francisco Giants magic number has bee reduced to three!

After the Giants announced that they would be flip flopping their rotation some more this weekend.  It was up to the anchor of that staff to go out and pitch.  Lincecum went out and proved all the flip flopping was a good idea.

Despite the 11 strikeouts, Lincecum wasn't dominant.  He walked four Diamondback batters and allowed 6 hits, one of which was Stephen Drew's homerun to lead off the game.  That would be the only run he would allow to score.  It ran his record to 16-10 which gives him one more win than he had last year in his second Cy Young season.  It's hard to believe but for all his struggles Lincecum is still probably going to win his 3rd straight strikeout title and is tied for fourth in the NL in wins.

Pat Burrell has to be one of the best early season waiver wire claims of all-time.  I, and many other fans, thought it would be nice to see a bay area boy come home and get some ABs off the bench.  But this guy played his way into the starting lineup since day 1.  I honestly don't know where the Giants would be without him.  There have been at least 3 games this season where the only runs the Giants would score would be on Pat Burrell homeruns but it would be enough to win the game.  Including Lincecum's last 2 starts.

San Diego's win last night ensures the Giants have to beat the Pads at least once in San Francisco to win the division.  It will sure be nice watching the Giants celebrate at home against the Padres.  Hopefully there are some good shots of Mat Latos crying while the Giants are celebrating.

Sanchez, Sandoval, Schierholtz all Deliver to stretch the Giants lead to 2

GIANTS 4 - DBACKS 2

The Giants' final homestand of the season kicked off in winning fashion last night. That, along with the Padres loss to the Cubs stretched the Giants lead to two games for the first time since April 18th.

As has been the case with the Giants this season, a new set of Giants came through to win this game.

The tale fall of Pablo Sandoval has reached epic proportions this season. But with 2 out in the 6th inning, the Kung Fu Panda Karate chopped a two out double. Bruce Bochy continued his lack of faith in the ability of the offense to put runs on the board and pulled Jonathan Sanchez for pinch hitter Nate Schierholtz. Big Nate stroked a single to left field and the Panda rumbled home to put the Giants ahead to stay.

Jonathan Sanchez raised a big middle finger to everyone who was crying for his trade this season by becoming the first Giants lefty since Ray Sadecki in 1968!

Corey Hart, who was the guy the Giants were most likely to get for Sanchez at the trade deadline, had 28 homers at the deadline and is now sitting at 30.

Everything is going right for these Giants right now.  They are getting great pitching, just enough hitting, and the Padres continue to play themselves out of the postseason.  Now, that all could change by this weekend, but I am going to be watching, or at least checking in on gamecast from work, all the way.

Let's see how this rag-tag bunch of misfits led by a manager with a big head pulls this off!

Its a six game season!

The San Francisco Giants will begin the final 6 game stretch of the season with a 1 game lead over the San Diego Padres.  That one game advantage, plus the fact that the last 6 games are at home while the Padres last 6 games are on the road give the Giants a nice advantage coming down the homestretch.

It's great isn't it?  The last 156 games have all led up to this point.  Think of everything that has gone on this season.  Todd Wellemeyer, Bengie Molina, The Posey controversy, Torres' appendectomy, the losing streak to the Padres to start the season, the great pitching run, the sputtering offense.  All of it has been getting us ready for these last 6 games.

I would love it if the last 3 games of the season were merely exhibition games, but the only way for that to happen would be if the Giants swept the D-backs and the Padres got swept by the Cubs.  An unlikely scenario.  So most likely the season will be decided this weekend when the Padres roll into town for the final 3 games of the season.

The Giants-Padres saga has really been THE storyline this season.  The Padres, the team nobody thought would even be good, have been battling the Giants for first place over the last few weeks.  This after the Padres dominated the Giants to open the season and having leads of 735 and 6 games at two different times in the season.  Hell, the Giants were 6 games back exactly one month ago on August 28.

So get your popcorn, your beer, head down to the yard, read your favorite blog, whatever you need to do to get ready for this 6 game stretch.  We don't know what is going to happen, but it's going to be fun finding out!

Hard Luck Zito

ARIZONA 3 - GIANTS 1

Barry Zito pitched well enough to win.  He went 6 innings, gave up 3 runs, and struck out 7 against the Diamondbacks.  If you had told any Giants fan that this was going to be Zito's line before the game they would have jumped up and down.  If you would have told them that Freddy Sanchez was going to hit another homerun they would have said the Giants were gonna go into San Diego riding a five game winning streak.

If I told  that same Giants fan that they would continue their terrible hitting with runners in scoring position by going 0 for 6 then they would have groaned.

That's what the Giants did last night and as a result they only managed to scratch one run across the board last night on Freddy Sanchez's solo homerun.

I'm not going to lie, it wasn't the type of performance that I want to see the Giants have on the eve of the 4 game series in San Diego against the suddenly hot Padres.  It's actually the type of performance that the Giants have had in just about every game against San Diego this season.

The Giants sit 2 games back of the Padres in the NL west and the only way that they can even leave San Diego tied is to win 3 out of 4 games against the Padres in Petco park.  It will be the toughest task that the Giants have faced yet.  The Giants pitchers are all coming off of solid starts so it's safe to assume the Giants pitching won't be the concern in this series.  

Although it hasn't been in the season series against the Padres so far.

There is hope.  The Giants and Padres talent level is just about even.  Odds dictate that the Giants should not continue to get dominated by a team that is so similar on a talent level.  But then again this is baseball and since when do odds mean anything?  Consider this:  The Giants and Padres have played 11 games so far this season and the Giants have faced Matt Latos and Clayton Richard in 8 of them!  Yes they will both be facing the Giants in this series.

Timmy gets his K on!

GIANTS 6 - DBACKS 3

Tim Lincecum struck out 10 Dbacks in 6.2 innings of work last night.  Over his last 2 starts and 14 innings he has struck out 20 batters.

That is the Tim Lincecum we all know and love.

The offense scored six runs , behind 3 homers, in support of Timmy and allowed him to get his team leading 13th win.  What makes that so special is the fact that they scored all of their runs off of the impressive rookie Barry Enright who had allowed no more than 3 runs in any of his 12 starts to begin his big league career.  The Giants welcomed him to the big leagues properly tonight!

Not too much else notable went on in the game last night.  Pablo Sandoval was benched and Bochy hinted that he may be benched more on the road where he is batting an atrocious .208 compared to .336 at home.  I couldn't even begin to tell you what the problem is there.

Steve Decker joined the Giants coaching staff.  Of course they are saying that it is to help with the young kids.  Hopefully it leads to some kind of managerial change next season or the season after!

Nate Schierholtz got in the game but didn't get an AB.

Hey Remember me?

GIANTS 2 - DBACKS 0

His name is Nate Schierholtz for those of you who forgot and he has been up with the Giants since opening day. He wasn't some mid season acquisition or September call-up.  He is a guy who has been there for every one of the team's wins and losses.  He hasn't been given a whole lot of opportunity, he has only had 3 ABs in a game once since July 23, and to be fair he hasn't really taken advantage of the few opportunities he has been given.

But he took advantage of this one.

It sure didn't look like he would at first.  When he was called upon in the 7th inning to pinch run for Pat Burrell Nate was picked off and the inning was over.  At a point in the game where the team was desperate for runs they could ill afford to have a runner picked off.  But he did get picked off and, in making one of the few good decisions he has made all season,  Bochy actually left him in to play the outfield.

In the 11th inning after the Giants got runners on first and second with two outs Nate got his second AB of the game, he lined out in the 10th inning,  and delivered.  He fouled off the first pitch he saw from Dbacks reliever Aaron Heilman and then smoked the next pitch into the right-centerfield gap to score Buster Posey and Aubrey Huff.

Ballgame.

So does this mean that Nate will get more PT as the season winds down?  Doubtful.  But hopefully he will continue to make the most out of any opportunities that he happens to get from here on out.

Did you know that the Giants' pitchers are working on a 25 consecutive scoreless inning streak?  It started in the 5th inning of Saturday's game against the Dodgers and has continued through tonight's 11 inning affair.  I think it's safe to say that the starting rotation's slump is over.

Lincecum vs. Enright tonight.   Seems as though Enright has not failed to go at least 5 innings in each of his 12 starts this season or give up more than 3 runs.  Tonight would be a good time to put an end to one of those streaks.

Are the Giants really any better than they were last season?

Here we are 131 games into the season.  They have a record of  72-59. There are another 31 games left and to the casual observer the Giants this season would be a better team than the team we had last season right?

That's extremely debatable.

But Aaron Rowand and Edgar Renteria are on the bench!  We have Aubrey Huff and Pat Burrell!  Buster Posey instead of Bengie Molina!  Hell, even Jose Guillen is hitting .372 since coming over from the Royals!

Sure those names sound better than Fred Lewis, Randy Winn, and Rich Aurillia.  But does the result on the field look any different?

Exhibit A:

Through 131 games last season the Giants had a record of ............. 72-59.  they were 6 games back in the standings to the LA Dodgers.  Well I guess since they are only 5 back of the Padres they must be doing something right!

Exhibit B:

Last season the Giants team Batting Average was .257.  This season it's .263.  or about the difference that Jose Guillen's .372 has been making over the last week or 2

Exhibit C:

The pitching has been much more dominant!  Last season's ERA 3.55 to this season's 3.70!  Yes the pitching this season, this includes the starting pitching and the bullpen, has a HIGHER ERA  than the Giants pitchers put up last season.

The Giants need to go 16-15 the rest of the season to match last season's 88-74 record.  After losing 2 out of 3 to the Diamondbacks that looks like a tall order.  The hitting is prone to go into deep sleep and the pitchers just look worn out.  From Tim Lincecum's struggles to Jonathan Sanhez's inconsistency.  The only thing that is saving this season right now is the fact that the padres may finally be fading having lost 4 in a row and the Giants still have 7 games left with them.

At this point, the Giants are what they are.

They are a mediocre team in a mediocre division.  The fact that the entire National League seems to be mediocre helps their situation tremendously in the wild-card hunt.  There is no team that looks capable of running off 10 wins in a row right now.  So the Giants should remain in the postseason picture until the very end of the season.

I want to say it will be a fun ride.  But based on the season so far, I think it is going to be more like a torturous one.

Is Tim Lincecum tipping his pitches?

DIAMONDBACKS 6 - GIANTS 0 

In the few game recaps I read about last night's game I only saw it mentioned once.  I'm sure it's not something that the Giants really want to have get around the league, but judging from Lincecum's horrible August it already has., but in Chris Haft's game recap on SFgiants.com the 11th paragraph reads:

"Giants manager Bruce Bochy downplayed any edge the D-backs might have received by saying, "All teams do that." But Bochy acknowledged that Lincecum made an adjustment. And Lincecum himself admitted that he started setting his hands closer to his body so nobody could detect the wiggling of his fingers as he prepared to grip the ball."


Apparently, Boch's remarks were in response to the fact that some  were saying that Stephen Drew was signalling pitch location to Adam LaRoche when he hit his 3 run homerun in the first inning.  I didn't see the game and the replay they had on MLB.com didn't show Drew and it was really hard to see Lincecum's glove but tipping pitches is a huge problem for a guy like Lincecum who relies more on his deception than anything to get hitters out.


It also explains Lincecum's constant fiddling with his mechanics.  One thing that has really seemed odd to me is that after just about every start Timmy is changing the positioning of his hands, swinging his glove over his head, or holding them "closer to his body son nobody could detect the wiggling of his fingers as he prepared to grip the ball"  


All this has gotten into Lincecum's head.  It helps explain his lack of control and velocity as well.  If you know the other team knows what's coming do you really want to throw that pitch in the strike zone?


The good news is: it's fixable.  It will take someone a whole lot smarter than me to tell Licecum what he is doing and how to fix it but it can be done.


All that said, the Giants still could have won this game.  4 runs in 6 innings is not a disastrous start by any stretch of the imagination.  But it is when your team scores 0 runs!


Now I could go on and on about how the Giants wasted all of those runs in the Reds series on the Reds but I think it has more to do with the guy on the mound for the Dbacks tonight than anything like that.


Barry Enright is a rookie this season.  He has pitched pretty well considering he was 4-2 with a 2.75 ERA for this horrible Arizona team coming into tonight's game.  In addition to stranding a whopping 86% of the runners he allows to reach base.  He has gone 10 consecutive starts in which he has allowed 3 earned runs or less.


Make that 11.


None of this excuses the Giants lack of support for Lincecum however, the Snakes did throw out two mediocre relievers that the Giants couldn't manage to get anything going against either.  I would just chalk it up to a letdown from Wednesday's epic game but the off-day yesterday should have erased any of those letdown tendencies.


The Giants also received a scare when Buster Posey came out of the game in the 8th inning with a mild forearm strain, but it doesn't sound serious.  However with news of Stephen Strasburg having season ending and career threatening Tommy John surgery dropping earlier in the day the Giants I am sure were just a little jumpy.

Huffman and Robin

GIANTS 3 - DBACKS 2

Batman had 3 different Robins.  Just like Bruce Wayne had Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, and Tim Drake.  Aubrey Huff has now had multiple sidekicks to his Batman performance.

First it was Juan Uribe.  At one point Aubrey and Juan were trading homeruns left and right, knocking in runs all over the place, and taking turns being the heroes each night.

Then Juan got cold.  Until last night's grand slam he had been hitting .213 with one homerun and 7 RBIs over his last 20 games.

In the meantime, Aubrey's sidekick has been Buster Posey.  Over the last 20 games all he has done is hit .438, 7 homeruns, and driven in 22.  He also is in the midst of an 18 game hitting streak and seems to be winning games on a nightly basis.

Huff has been nearly as hot as Posey.  Over his last 20 games he is hitting .363 with 7 homeruns and 17 RBIs.  he is also the proud owner of a 12 game hitting streak that has been somewhat overshadowed by a certain rookie's streak.

If it wasn't for Aubrey Huff, I'm not sure where the Giants would be.  Sure Posey has transformed the Giants since his arrival but it was Huff who carried the team to the place it was before he got there.  One could argue that the Giants could have been nowhere near contending this season if Huff wasn't here.  Posey didn't have nearly as much pressure on him as he would have if there wasn't at least one guy providing some offense. 

Huff has also made it easier for the Giants to absorb Pablo Sandoval's season long slump.  Hopefully once the Panda comes back from handling his personal issues in Venezuela he will be the third Robin to Huff's Batman.

So Buster and Aubrey led the Giants to a four game sweep of the lowly Diamondbacks.  I know a lot of people like to point out that the Dbacks aren't a very good team but good teams are supposd to dominate the bad teams.  Besides, four game sweeps on the road just don't happen that often.  Even against bad teams.

Link of the day:

SF Chronicle writer Henry Schulman points out in his recap of the game that the Giants play only 19 of their final 63 games against teams that have a record below .500 at this point.  Which means that they will have to prove that they can beat winning teams.  Which is something that the detractors love to point out that the Giants have trouble doing.  Now a lot of this poor record against teams above .500 can be attributed to the fact that the Giants have lost 7 out of 8 to the Padres and 6 out of 9 to the Dodgers.

The Giants will be tested starting tomorrow since the Marlins come to town.  The fish are almost as hot as the Giants having won 7  of their last 10.

Do you want the bad news or good news first?

GIANTS 10 - D-BACKS 4

A lot of stuff went down in Giants land since my last post.

We'll start with the good.

The Giants crushed the Diamondbacks 10-4.  Led by Juan Uribe's grand slam and Madison Bumgarner's 4th straight win, the Giants really beat down the Dbacks like the belly-crawlers that they are.  Buster Posey extended his hitting streak to 17 games, Aubrey Huff had 3 hits, and the Giants won their 8th game out of their last 10 bringing themselves to a season high 12 games over .500!

It wasn't all good news however.

Eugenio Velez took a Pat Burrell foul ball off the head while sitting in the dugout.  Reports are that he is OK with a concussion.

Pablo Sandoval will leave the team today to return to his native Venezuela for a "personal matter".  Andrew Baggerly of the San Jose Mercury News is reporting that it is related to his pending divorce.

Jeremy Affeldt was placed on the 15 day DL with an oblique strain.  There is no telling how long he will be out.  Sometimes players come back from these right away, other times they miss the rest of the season.  Joe Martinez was called up to take his place leaving the bullpen with no lefties.

Pablo Sandoval's departure and Velez's injury will leave the Giants extremely short-handed.  Expect Velez to be put on the DL today and Ryan Rohlinger to be called up today.  Hopefully Pablo's trip to Venezuela helps him put whatever is on his mind to rest.  It can't be easy to be 23 years old, struggling on his job, booed by fans, and going through a divorce all at the same time. 

Good luck Pablo.

link of the Day:

John Bowker was 3 for 4 and scored 2 runs last night for Fresno.  He has heated up again after a mini slump.  he definitely needs another look in the bigs this season.  It's just not going to come right now.  The 2 players the Giants are short are infielders so they are calling up Rohlinger to fill the hole.  Bowker will get another chance but it may not be until September.

If the Giants rash of injuries continues.....

Huff Muscles the Giants past the Snakes!

GIANTS 7 - DIAMONDBACKS 4

Last year any time the Giants would fall behind you could pretty much write them off.

This season they are proving that coming from behind is something that they are capable of doing.

Now, one run down may not seem like an insurmountable lead but the way that the lead was given up, having blown a 3-1 lead, usually seemed to deflate last years team.  Last night they actually answered Arizona's 3 spot in the 6th with a 3 spot of their own in the 7th.  Granted it was fueled by some Arizona errors, but with the luck the Giants have been having with double plays and calls at home plate this season, it was time for a few things to go our way.

I can't help but think of Marvin Benard every time I hear someone proclaim Andres Torres as the "real deal" but I'm starting to become a believer.  He has been so key to the Giants' success in the second half that I would have to rank him as the 3rd most important offensive player behind Buster and Huff.  He hits homeruns, triples, and tracks down balls in the outfield that Rowand would just play off the wall, and say what you want about his offense but Rowand is a pretty good defender.  Torres is really starting to become the feel good story of the season and  I hope the Giants can make the playoffs in order to get this guy some national recognition.

What to say about Aubrey Huff?

I have always, for some reason, liked Aubrey Huff as a player.  I remember thinking that the Giants should pick him up from the Devil Rays way back when Bonds was still with the team somewhere around 2003-04.  I think there were even some rumors to that effect back then.

For whatever reason, Huff wound up with the Orioles and had the opportunity to play on a bunch of bad teams.  Last season, after a late season trade to Detroit, Huff seemed like he might not have too much left in the tank.

Boy were we wrong.

The Giants were able to get Huff for what now looks like a steal of a deal at $3 million dollars for this season.  He has 19 Homeruns and 3 multi homerun games counting last night. He is a scrapper and he is the heart of this Giants team.  I believe the difference that this team does not fall on it's face when they are down is because they have assimilated Huff's attitude.  I mean the guy went to a contender last season for the first time in his life and fell on his face by hitting .189 in 106 ABs for the Tigers.  He wasn't offered a contract by the team at the end of the season and I don't think that many other teams were lining up to throw money at him.

Enter Sabean and the Giants.

Sabean made what has to have been the best free agent signing of his Giants career when he picked Huff up off the scrap heap.  Huff has rewarded the team with his attitude, his bat and his quotes.  he's another candidate for feel good story of the year.

Link of the day:

I was looking for an Aubrey Huff quote to use above but instead I found this story on him from 2007.  This radio interview seems to be perfectly in line with his personality that he has shown in SF.  He seems to be a guy who is just having fun but, like most of us clowns, can get management upset when the team is losing.

The article also points out that Huff sang on an MLB produced CD "OH SAY CAN YOU SING" that was produced way back in 2005 which I will now leave you with:

Cain throws a gem

GIANTS 3 - DIAMONDBACKS 0

8 shutout innings, 3 hits, and 9 strikeouts.

That was Cain's line against the D-backs last night.  That easily qualifies as a dominant start.  Also, don't believe that because the Diamondbacks are in last place that they are a team that gets dominated like this all the time.  they are 6th in baseball in homeruns, 9th in slugging, and 5th in walks.  They are good at providing offense.

Matt Cain is one of the more maddening pitchers on the Giants' staff.  He has the stuff to completely dominate.  So good he has been compared to Hall of Famer Tom Seaver.  He never seems to get any runs, the bullpen has given up more leads for him than probably anybody in the majors, and at times he is just awful. 

He will then rattle off a start like he did last night and everyone will remember why they love this kid.  He has the potential to do this every time he takes the hill and more often than not he does.  You just can't help but wish he would put it all together a little more often. But Cain is young.  In fact, he is younger than even Tim Lincecum.  he will be 26 this October so even though he is already in his 6th big league season, he still has plenty of time to put it all together and win a lot of games.

The Buster Posey show continues.  He now has a 16 game hitting streak which is currently 3rd best among Giants rookies all time.  Behind only  Orlando Cepeda and Willie McCovey.  Not bad company to be in.

Link of the day:

Nice story in USAtoday about the Giants newest Hall of Famer, Jon Miller.  Best line is about how Miller told his wife he was in the hall.  He asks her: "Did you ever sleep with a member of the baseball Hall of Fame?"

Zito hard luck loser once again

DODGERS 2 - GIANTS 0

I think Barry Zito is still pissed.

After being pulled while being just one out away from a victory the start before last, Zito has been excellent on the mound.  He has only given up 3 runs in his last 16 IP.  The Giants however have only managed to scratch across one run for him in that time.  I'm not sure why this happens to certain guys, although until recently almost everyone on the Giants staff could say the same thing, but Zito and Cain seem to be bitten by the lack of run support bug especially hard.

The lack of offense was troubling.  Especially since the Giants struggle with their offense so much.  I'm not going to panic too much since the Giants also had trouble scoring against the Mets in the first 2 games of that series and were still able to take 2 out of 3.

The Giants head to Arizona where we will see the power of good pitching on display.  The D-cracks, despite having guys like Chris Young, Adam Laroche, and Mark Reynolds, are 19.5 games back because they have horrendous pitching.  I expect this series to be similar to the series in Milwaukee at the end of the first half!

The only other Giants news last night involved Buster Posey stretching his hitting streak to 15 games.  The Giants record for a rookie hitting streak is 22 which is held by Willie McCovey.  Buster's hitting streak is the longest rookie hitting streak since the 15 game hitting streak put together by one of my favorite all-time players, Mr. Mullet himself, Dan Gladden from way back in 1985! 

Looking for a Gladden picture was kinda disappointing since A. I remember him as  more of a power hitter than a guy who only hit 74 homeruns in 11 seasons.  B. Most of the pictures of him online were of him as a twin.  Oh well.

Link of the day:

Aubrey Huff has a blog now.  I guess someone in the Giants PR department decided that they just couldn't do without a player blog since the trade of Bengie Molina.  I can't be happier with who they picked to write this blog, although I think he probably dictates it to someone who then writes it for him.  How do explain Bengie Molina being able to write in perfect English while hardly being able to speak it? 

Anyway Aubrey's inaugural entry offered some insight into how the Giants perceived the Dodgers reaction to the beanball war last night and once again proved how the media bias towards the Red Sox - Yankee rivalry is bad for baseball.

Posey, Burrell are each making some noise.

Maybe this kid is the savior?

Buster Posey had 3 more hits today against Ian Kennedy who, in case you forgot, held the Giants to 3 hits over 8 innings 11 days ago.  Two of those were doubles so he actually improved over last night in the power department.  But he only drove in 1 run and his average dropped from .750 to .667.  I guess this kid will never make it.

Obviously I'm joking.  It sure is nice to see someone actually making some things happen for the Giants.  Over the last few weeks leading up to this homestand it seemed that every player on the Giants was just kind of taking things as they came. Nobody went out there and took control of things, well except maybe Andres Torres who I keep expecting to turn into Eugenio Velez any day now.  Posey is doing that.  What a story this kid could be if he really does stick with the big club and reignites this offense.  This club has always been lacking the big hit.  Not necessarily a homerun but something as simple as a 2 out RBI of which Buster had another today.  I'm trying to not get too excited in case this kid comes back to earth but nothing he has done at any level he has played at indicates that he will.  Tomorrow is his biggest test yet against Mr. Ubaldo Jimenez who is trying to replace the Freak as the Cy Young award winner in the NL.

In other news, Pat Burrell went 2 for 5 with a HR and 2 RBI for the Fresno Grizzlies today.  This means one of two things: 1. Brian Sabean is right about the quality of pitchers in the PCL or 2. Pat the Bat is getting ready for a comeback story with his hometown team.  I find it highly unlikely that Burrell is going to lead the Giants to the playoffs by single-handedly transforming the Giants into a feared offense.  Playing at AT&T usually lowers the power numbers of anyone not named Bonds but more troubling is his career .253 average.  The last thing this team needs is another .250 hitter who will be just another easy out while the Giants are getting one hit by some middle of the rotation guy. 

Now I'm not saying that Burrell wasn't a safe gamble in case he can magically find his stroke.  I just wonder what guy with potential gets the shaft once this guy gets called up to the big club.  Mr. Schierholtz and Mr. Ishikawa I'm looking at you!  I don't believe that Bochy will let this guy come off the bench.  I believe he will start.  What proof do I have?  Look at all the ABs Aaron Rowand gets.  His career numbers are just like Pat Burrell's with less power and a better glove.  Although, to be fair, Rowand never batted .209 or .221 in a season in which he was given 400 plus ABs.

I'm also starting what I'm going to call the Nate watch.  It's where I will break down the contributions that Nate Schierholtz makes for the team whether he hits or not.  It's called the Nate watch instead of the Schierholtz watch cuz I don't want to type Schierholtz over and over!

Today Nate went 0 for 4 with a walk and a strikeout.  Not much to write home about offensively but he has been hurt and hasn't been allowed to play consistently since he has been declared healthy.  Nate was however responsible for the two most crucial plays of the game.  In the top of the 7th with the game tied 2-2 Adam Laroche drew a walk and Gerardo Parra hit a one-out single to right.  Nate got the ball in to Freddy Sanchez who gunned down Laroche at 3rd.  The next batter, Chris Snyder, singled to left which would have scored Laroche had he still been on 3rd.  In the 9th inning Kelly Johnson singled to right .  This time it was Ryan Roberts who got thrown out at third.  The next batter, Justin Upton hit a double that scored Johnson.  Which would have also scored Roberts and made the score 7-4 at that point.  Since the Giants only scored 6 runs today I would have to say that Mr. Nate was the difference in the game today. 

That's something that none of the coverage I saw of the game even gave more than a passing mention to.  The most I saw was "Almost lost in the valiant comeback were the solid defensive efforts of right fielder Nate Schierholtz (two outfield assists) and Sanchez who, in the sixth inning, threw out Arizona's Kelly Johnson after Johnson tried to stretch a ball that ricocheted off first baseman Buster Posey into a double."  Even when they did mention it Sanchez's play got more credit than Nate!

Do you really think that John Bowker, or Andres Torres, or even Pat Burrell makes those 2 plays?