It's Pablo Sandoval's time to shine

There is no way to argue that this season has not been a huge disappointment for Pablo Sandoval offensively.

Last season the guy was a revelation.  It seemed like just about every other game he was getting a big hit or homerun.  He was easily the most exciting player, offensively at least, on the Giants in 2009.  His .330 BA, 25 HRs, and 90 RBIs were numbers that hadn't been put up by a player in San Francisco since that guy named Bonds left town.  He narrowly missed making the All-Star team last season(and he would of if it weren't for that ridiculous Bran-Torino marketing campaign) and he would have won the 2009 rookie of the year award had he only had like 10 less ABs in 2008.

2010 started where 2009 left off.  As late as May 4th he was still batting over .330.  Then in the 61 games from May 5th through July 11th Pablo hit .231 with 3 HRs and 24 RBIs.  He turned into Mr. GIDP and the man who created a cottage industry for Panda hats was suddenly a fat guy trying to play third base.

He looked like he was going to break out of his slump early in August but he floundered.  His struggles have come to a head on the most recent road trip in which he hit a weak .136.  He had 1 RBI in 8 games and was benched for 2 of the games in the Padres series.

Why will he shine now?

The Giants play 12 of their final 18 games at home.  He must like the Rice-a-Roni or something because he has raked at home this season.  He is batting .336 at home, 8 of his 12 HRs have been hit at AT&T, and 37 of his 59 RBIs have been picked up on the shores of McCovey cove.  The numbers get even more ridiculous at home for Pablo.  His home OBP is a Bondsian .391, his home OPS is .926, and he even has 3 triples at home this season!

All the games for the rest of the season for the Giants are going to be huge.  With the Padres, Rockies, Phillies, and Braves are all battling for the Wild Card in addition to the 3 team race in the west.  The Giants can't afford to lost ANY games let alone the ones against division rivals.  Pablo Sandoval will have the chance to join the Buster Poseys, Aubrey Huffs, Juan Uribes, and Andres Torreses who have each stepped up to carry this team at different point this season.

The injury to Andres Torres provides a hole offensively that the Giants need to fill.  If Pablo steps up and produces in his absence and during these super important games he will be able to win back the hearts of all of those Giants fans who abandoned him while he was struggling.  He has struggled this season and he has even been the goat in a few games this season.  But the guy is 24 years old.  These are the most important games of the season.  He will prove that he has the heart of the champion.

He has to if the Giants want to make the postseason.

The Giants will not win the NL west if they can not figure out the Padres

PADRES 8 - GIANTS 2

There is no way around it.  if the Giants can't figure out the San Diego Padres they will NOT win the NL west.  End of story.  They may not even win the wild card when you consider that the current lead that the Giants enjoy is a measly .5 game.  Then you consider that the Giants have 7 more games against these Padres and things start to get scary.

There is really nothing that explains the Padres Dominance.

Do the Padres have better pitching?

Well sort of, coming into today the Padres held the edge in team ERA at 3.24 to the Giants 3.46.

What about hitting?

The Giants are sporting a team BA of .261 which is good for 5th in the NL while the Padres are sporting a .251 average which is good for 13th among the 16 NL teams.

Well the Padres must be scoring more runs than the Giants!

Giants 516 runs Padres 500

Power, that's it the Padres must be hitting more homeruns than the Giants!

Giants again, 106 HRs to 93 for the Pads

There is nothing to explain the Padres dominance over the Giants this season.  The Giants have played every other team well this season.  The lowest win % they have against any other team in which they have played more than 3 games against is .417 which is against Colorado and they are 5-7 against them.

You think the Padres are dominating the NL west?  Nope. They are dominating the Giants and Diamondbacks.  Against the Giants and D-backs the Pads are a combined 17-6.  Against the Dodgers and Rockies they are 9-17.

The Giants bats just fall asleep against the Padres.  they have allowed 40 runs to the Padres in 11 games and have a 2-9 record against them.  They have allowed 43 to the Dodgers and are 6-6 against them.  They have allowed 45 runs to the Rockies and are 5-7 against them.  37 runs to the D-backs and are 7-2 against them.

There is really nothing in the numbers that can explain why the Giants should be getting dominated by the Padres other than just dumb luck.  The Padres and Giants aren't that different that the W-L record should be that different.  Neither team holds a decided edge in any statistical category other than record against each other.

The head to head record is something that is in the Giants heads by now.  Which is funny because snatching a victory from the jaws of defeat like they did yesterday would seem to be the kind of thing that would set them rolling against the Padres but it wasn't maybe this was just karma biting the Giants for beating up on the Padres in all those years the Pads were the laughingstock of the league.

The only good thing about the fact that the Giants and Padres are so statistically evenly matched against one another means that, according to the law of averages, things need to even out.  If that is correct, then the Giants have a lot of winning ahead of them over the next 7 games Vs. the Pads.

Tim Lincecum

Tim Lincecum is another headscratcher.  You would think that a guy who had 6 strikeouts in 3.2 IP would be dominating.  But then you realize that those 6 Ks were sandwiched in between 11 baserunners(8 hits and 3 walks) and you realize that Tim pitched horrible.

Now those 8 hits were all singles so it's not like the Padres were knocking the ball all over the yard, they were dinking and doinking him to death.

I would chalk today's struggles up to just more Padres mojo if Timmy weren't struggling against other teams just as bad.  It's not like he is struggling terribly as the guys at McCovey chronicles show isn't the case.  It's just that he is struggling at inopportune times like today against the Padres.

Like I said, it's another headscratcher for sure, but it's a headscratcher that the Giants need to solve or it's going to be a long August and September.