Maybe there is some magic left inside!?!

The second game after "the incident" regarding Buster Posey had Giants fans, and probably Giants players, fearing the worst.  After all, it had been 18 innings since the Giants had scored a run and Shaun Marcum was dealing.

Then, Andres Torres singled, stole second base, and scored on a single by Freddy Sanchez.  Despite this development many fans were still unsure that the punchless Giants could score 2 more runs and even tie this game much less win it.

They were proven wrong in the 7th when the Giants loaded the bases against Marcum and the guy who was taking only his second major league AB showed that the magic is still there if you look hard enough.

Now, I'm sure that most rational Giants fans don't expect that Brandon Crawford is going to be yanking balls out of the yard like Jose Bautista (I can't believe I just said that) but this is the stuff that legends are made from.  Crawford has always been regarded as a slick fielding. light hitting shortstop.  This season he was batting .322 with 3 homeruns but he had only played in 3 games.  But the Giants really don't have any other option at SS so he is going to get a lot of time there.  At least until someone comes off the DL.

But regardless, the Giants formula from last season was there.  Good pitching, although Lincecum gutted it out with less than his best stuff, and a different hero every night.  Last season this team got a boost from a rookie.  This season this team got a boost from a rookie.  

Even if was only for one game

Did the Giants finally get mad?

GIANTS 9 - BREWERS 2

Jose, can you see where that ball finally landed?

Did the Giants get mad finally or did just Jose Guillen get mad?

Guillen basically did what the Giants were hoping he would do today.  He carried the team to victory.  HE hit a grand slam in the first inning just as I was tweeting about how Barry Zito is cursed.  He came up with the bases loaded in the 5th and delivered two more runs with a single and single-handedly defeating the Brewers.  Pat "the Bat" later added some frosting to the cake with a 3 run homer that basically turned the game into a laugher.

Barry Zito turned in another excellent performance and ran his record to 110-6 when the receives 4 or more runs of support.

I don't know if the Giants got mad or not.  I guess we will have to wait until Tuesday in Chicago to be sure.  But things couldn't have gone better for the Giants today.  The Padres fell to the Cardinals 4-1.  The Dodgers proved that maybe Joe Torre isn't a liar by waiting until the 11th inning to stun the Rockies 7-6  after being down 6-1 in the second inning.

All of today's events mean that the Giants are guaranteed to at least be tied for first place on Tuesday when Matt Cain takes the hill against the Chicago Cubs and Carlos Zambrano who of course has been on fire since he has returned to the starting rotation.

Oh BTW, the Giants mathematically eliminated the Brewers from the postseason today.

The Giants are looking old. They need to start looking Mad

BREWERS 2 - GIANTS 1

The only Giant to show some anger

When the Brewers, losers of 10 of their last 15 games, rolled into town the last thing that you would have thought was that they would take the first two games and be in position for a sweep.

But that's how it goes in Giantsland these days.

The pitching has been stellar in September.  They have given up 29 runs the entire month!  That's 16 games.  But they are just 10-7 in September. The Giants should have realistically won all but 2 of those games(the only two in which they gave up more than 3 runs).  But they have scored 2 runs or less in 10 games this month.

The offense needs to look at themselves in the mirror and decide if they like what they see.

That offense slapped 5 measly singles add that to the three singles that they got the night before and that adds up to 8 singles in 2 games.  Not exactly an offensive juggernaut.

Not that the defense has been any better.  In the first game they made 2 errors and could have easily had more if their fielders would have even been able to make it to the ball.  Last night's game came down to Pablo Sandoval's decision to throw home without stepping on third base to at least try for an inning ending double play with the bases loaded.  That gave the Brewers another chance with the bases loaded and they took advantage of it to the tune of 2 runs.  Which was all they needed.

The most telling sign about the state of the Giants was after Tim Lincecum was pulled in the bottom of the fifth inning.  He was heated with his manager (and likely with his offense) at the fact that he was being pulled.  He had been pitching well and the score was only 2-0.  You would think that this would get the team fired up to see their ace so upset.  It did upset them enough to score a run on a booming RBI groundout.  But the anger ended there.

This is the problem with the Giants.  They don't seem to be angry with the fact that they are getting embarrassed offensively each night.  Sure Yovanni Gallardo is a pretty good pitcher but Randy Wolf  was sporting a 4.52 ERA coming in to the game and hadn't thrown a shutout since 2008.  The Giants need to get mad about falling into second.  They need to get mad that the Dodgers refuse to help them.  They need to get mad that they are putting an embarrassing product out on the field each night.

They just need to get mad before it's too late.

Giants squander opportunity to extend NL West lead

BREWERS 3 - GIANTS 0

I know how you feel guys

The Giants offense went MIA last night.  Again.

They were shut out for the third time in the last 7 games.  In 2 other games they scored one and two runs respectively.  Apparently Bruce Bochy's genius only extends for one day as  Edgar Renteria went 0 -4 while the Giants defense looked old and decrepit.   I guess they were too tired from running around the bases last night.

Juan Uribe has been terrible at third lately and good old sleepyhead hasn't promised that Pablo Sandoval will play at all this weekend against the Brewers.  Now I understand the kid is struggling, but I am mystified at the sudden decision to stop supporting and playing him.  Especially at home where he has practically been a mirror image of the guy he was last season.

After the Giants made another bad pitcher look like Cy Young, Wolf's last shutout came back in 2008, Bochy said that he and the staff would get together and discuss lineup possibilities.  I just don't see a lineup combination that can make this team magically find their hitting shoes.  They have scored a grand total of 47 runs in 15 games in September.  They have scored more than 3 runs 5 times out of those 15.  The numbers were even worse before they put up a 10 spot on the Dodgers but they are scoring just slightly over 3 runs a game.

At this point in the season there is no quick fix.  Anybody can should be able to get a chance.  Whether it be Darren Ford, Ryan Rohlinger, Euginio Velez, Nate Schierholtz, or Travis Ishikawa.  I mean seriously, how many less runs could they put up?

The Giants can take heart in the fact that they knocked Joe Torre out of LA the night before.  After seeing the Giants hang 10 on his Dodgers, Torre decided to hang em up.  Don Mattingly took over as manager and Giants fans can take some comfort in knowing they must have had some small part in his decision to call it quits.  After all, he had just watched his team give up 10 runs to a team that got shut out by Randy Wolf the next night.

Giants sweep, Zito's pissed

GIANTS 9 - BREWERS 3

Hey it's only the Brewers but it sure was fun!

I know the Brewers aren't the best team around, but it sure is fun to see runs being scored, your pitching do well , and get revenge for that celebration pictured on the right.

The power display was impressive again last night .  Huff, Torres, and Buster each hit homeruns for the second day in a row.

Barry Zito battled admirably.  He allowed 13 baserunners in 4.2 innings and was pulled while he was only one out away from qualifying for the win.  After the Game Zito said he was "pissed" and when he was asked if that anger was directed at Bochy he said a rather telling "no comment"

Now, Bochy aggravates the Giants fanbase to no end.  Many were upset yesterday that he brought in Bautista to replace Zito.  I have loudly questioned his intelligence this season myself.  But I gotta say I agree with Boch here.    Zito has nobody to be pissed off at but himself.   Bochy didn't allow those 13 baserunners, including the three that were on when he was pulled, and Bochy didn't blow the 6 run lead in Denver.  Hopefully Zito is pissed off enough in his next start to actually pitch well and he won't need to be in a situation to be pulled one out away from a victory.

Aubrey Huff is the Giants best hitter.

You can't even argue with it.  His 17 HRs, and 54 RBIs easily lead the team.  His .298 average is also the highest on the team although if Posey had enough ABs to qualify his .325 would lead the team.  Huff is the one guy who has produced consistently all season and his power display over the last 6 games, with 5 homeruns over that span, has been nothing short of incredible.  I shudder to think where the Giants would be if they didn't have Huff.

Mychael Urban of Comcast Sports Network has confirmed that the Giants are in trade talks with the Brewers for Corey Hart.  The Brewers are reportedly interested in Jonathan Sanchez for Hart.  I still think that this deal would be a monumental mistake for the Giants if B.S. were to pull the trigger.  I'm not sure who the Giants think they would replace Sanchez with. Martinez? Wellemeyer? Hacker?  Although the SF Chronicle is reporting that the Brewers may be saving B.S. from himself since they are reportedly not interested in dealing Hart.

There is a god!

This brings me to my link of the day:

The Crazy Crabbers take a look at whether or not the Corey Hart is a good fit for the Giants.  Again, it appears that Jonathan Sanchez would be to steep a price to pay for him.

Halfway through the season

Last night's 6-1 win over the Brewers marked the beginning of the second half of the season by games played.  So it was good that they started off with a win.

2 weeks ago, everyone was feeling good about the chances of this team making a playoff run and they were ready for the offense to turn a corner.

Well, a 7 game losing streak and the evaporation of the offense has led a lot of people to fell not so good about this team's playoff chances.  

I will admit that I am have been one of those guys.  I even went so far as to buy a Fire-Sabean t-shirt, I got it Saturday and wore it when the Giants finally broke that losing streak!  My Twitter feed looks like a complaint fest.  But I have realized that it's a long season.  At least until tomorrow's game.

So how do these Giants look right now?  What needs to Happen in the second half?  Will Pablo become Pablo gain?  Can we be a little more positive again?

How do the Giants look right now?

Right now the Giants are in disarray.  They have been struggling on offense most of the year while their pitching had been stellar.  Over the last two weeks, the Giants pitching has struggled to go along with the offensive struggles.  

All teams go through a point in their season where things just don't go right.  The Dodgers' 8-14 start to the season  is a perfect example of this.  We Giants fans notice it more when it comes to the Giants because we are so invested in this team.  We have seen 3 World Series appearances in the 51 years the Giants have been in San Francisco and more recently it we have not seen a postseason since 2003.

So yeah we are naturally going to think it's the end of the world when the Giants struggle.  We don't exactly have a winning tradition when it comes to the postseason around here.

What needs to happen in the second half?

They need to find an offense.

Since Bengie Molina was traded last week the Giants have gone 2-3.  They have scored 26 runs in those 5 games which sounds like a lot until you realize that 17 of them were scored in 2 games.  In the other 3 games, which they lost BTW, they only scored 3 runs in each of those games.  

3 runs seems to be the tipping point for the Giants.  If they can score 4 or more runs it's a good bet that they will win that game.  

Now, obviously most teams are going to win games when they score 4 or more runs in a game, but it happens so infrequently with the Giants that it is a huge problem.  We are talking about a team here that has been shut out 7 times, scored one run 8 times, and scored 2 runs 12 times!  That's 27 times they have scored less than 3 runs per game!  In 82 games!

A huge key to the Giants scoring more runs is Pablo Sandoval.  If Pablo can even start hitting close to what he hit last season, then the Giants are going to score more runs.  He is not striking out that much, 39 times in 308 ABs coming into the game tonight, but he is hitting into too many DPs, and he is not making solid enough contact.  More on Pablo in a minute.

They need to win more on the road.

17-23 on the road is just not getting the job done.  If the Giants were playing .500 ball on the road things would be looking a lot better right now.  they would be 45-37 which would have them tied with the Dodgers for second place still.

They have to win in the division.

They are an astounding 9-20 against the NL west.  The only team they have a winning record against is the Arizona Diamondbacks.  Who are 19 games under .500.  But it's not like they are beating up on the D-backs or anything since they are only 3-2 against them.

Will Pablo become Pablo again and can we be more positive?

These two things go hand in hand I think.  Pablo Sandoval is going through a prolonged slump for the first time in his life.  This guy has hit everywhere he has been and when he has struggled, he has righted the ship rather quickly.  He has been somewhat snake bitten this season by the DP ball and there really is no good explanation for that other than rotten luck.

However a more disturbing thing is happening to Pablo.  Maybe to Pablo isn't the right thing to say maybe it's more like around Pablo.

The fans have started to turn on him.

Last season, he was the talk of San Francisco.  There was a huge campaign to try to get him elected to the All-Star game, a cottage industry sprung up around Panda merchandise, and he made a legitimate run at the NL MVP award.  Everybody loved their rotund third baseman.

Now people make fun of the Panda nickname, Pablo is suddenly being called fat instead of pudgy,  message board lurkers are demanding for him to be traded, and fans are loudly questioning why Pablo is in the starting lineup.

The same fans, mind you, that cry when their "pet" prospects don't get enough playing time while some old veteran is allowed AB after AB to come out of his slump.

Just because Pablo doesn't qualify as a rookie anymore doesn't take away from the fact that he is still only 24 years old and is playing in only his second full season.  He is undergoing a bit of a sophomore slump right now and will work his way out of it.  He has got to be wondering how he could have been so loved last season and so vilified this season.

Sure, he has made some bone-headed plays this season.  I think that those bone headed plays can be partly attributed to the way that the fans have treated him.  His slump at the plate and his youth are obviously more to blame but being lambasted by the fans doesn't help.

So that's what I'm hoping that we as fans can do more of the second half of the season.  We can be more positive and supportive of the players.  We can put a positive outlook on things rather than complain even when the Giants win.

We can still bag on Boch and Sabes though!

Lastly, instead of the Nate watch that I have been running for a while, I am going to start posting links to interesting Giants stories that I have come across.  The first one is from the Obsessive Giants Compulsive he provides a lot of interesting analysis as to how the 24th overall pick for the Giants this season, Gary Brown, might be a little bit of a better pick than we thought.  

The only thing I can add to this post is a bit of trivia.  The PTBNL that we got in the Bengie Molina trade, Michael Main, was also the 24th overall pick in 2007.