Giants dodge a bullet and Bochy is the whipping boy

GIANTS 3 - BRAVES 2

The Giants looked destined for a 2-1 loss last night.  Then a couple of errors, a couple of walks, and a sacrifice fly later, the Giants were 3-2 winners in extra innings.  They had 4 hits all night and all of the scoring was done on an RBI groundout, a throwing error, and a sacrifice fly.

You might say the Giants were lucky.  Brian Wilson said:  "I don't feel fortunate, we won the game because we played the fundamentals of baseball and we lasted a little longer than they did. We're going to play like the stud ballclub we are."


I agree with Brian.


The Braves struck out 10 times last night against Barry Zito, who continued his excellent season on the mound, and 15 times total against the Giants pitchers.  The Giants were outhit 4 to 6, but six hits isn't all that much better than 4 until you realize that the extra two hits from the Braves were homeruns.  (By the way, all of the Braves runs in this series have scored via the longball)  The Giants drew 8 walks to the Braves 2.

The reason all of this is important is because, after a 90 minute rain delayed start to the game, the Braves spent a lot more time in the field when they got to the crucial 9th inning.  Because they had been putting the ball in play all night long rather than striking out, they had been putting pressure on the defense all night to make plays.  That pressure finally got to the Braves when it mattered most and the Giants, like the good stud ballclub they are, took advantage of it.

It seems like Bruce Bochy has come under more fire than ever before this week.  Lefty Malo was all over him, so was the Bleacher report, hell there even is a fire Bruce Bochy facebook page!  I have my problems with the guy like why is Juan Uribe still batting 5th instead of Pat Burrell?  But really, would the Giants be any better than 63-47 with any other manager at the helm?

We will never know.

Link of the day:

Saturday August 14th is Bruce Bochy Bobblehead day at AT&T park.  It makes me wonder how in touch with reality the Giants marketing department is.  I mean seriously, do they really think that kids will be begging their parents to take them to the ballpark so they can get a bobblehead of THE MANAGER?  Also, do they think that the fans actually like Bochy?

I don't know the answer to either of those questions but I have provided you with photographic proof that there is indeed a Bruce Bochy Bobblehead out there.

Oh and last but not least:

The game recap from the San Jose Mercury News  reports that the Giants did indeed put in a waiver claim on Adam Dunn.  They were blocked by a team with a worse record.  Who do you think that team was?  Well if you said the Dodgers then you would be correct.

I hate those guys.

Round one goes to the Braves

BRAVES 3 - GIANTS 2

The game started off good.  The Giants had Jair Jurrjens on the ropes in the first inning and were unable to deliver the knockout blow.  The same in the second.  As a matter of fact he was on the ropes in almost every one of the first 5 innings.  But one of the things that has plagued the Giants all season long came back to bite them.

Hitting with runners in scoring position.

The Giants were 1 for 10 with runners in scoring position,  They hit 5 doubles and were only to get Andres Torres home in the 1st.

Tim Lincecum did not pitch too poorly either.  He went 6 1/3 innings gave up 6 hits, walked 3, and struck out 7.  He hung a curve to Alex Gonzales which landed in the left field bleachers and Eric Hinske took a high fastball over the centerfield fence on a flyball that just seemed to keep carrying and carrying and landed maybe 2 feet over the wall.  In fact, both homeruns Timmy gave up just barely made it out.  That's how close this game was.

This has led some people to theorize that their great July was against subpar competition and not against any first place teams.  They say that August will be much tougher and the Giants will be exposed against teams like Atlanta, San Diego, Philadelphia, St. Louis, and Cincinnati.

What they fail to realize is that, other than San Diego, the Giants have winning records against all of the teams mentioned.  The Braves did tie the season series at 2-2 last night, but the Braves have the best record in the NL and the best record in baseball at home.  A split in this series would be a huge success and is still very possible.

Link of the day:

We should know the fate of Adam Dunn sometime today.  Apparently the Giants put in a claim on him but a team lower in the standings blocked them.  It could really be any team other than the Padres and Braves since they are the only 2 teams with better records than the Giants.  I wouldn't be surprised if it was St. Louis.

The Royals DFA'd Jose Guillen yesterday as well.  The Royals have 10 days to trade, waive, or release him.  I guess that the Giants are internally weighing their options with him but nothing is concrete.  I, for one, would not be too disappointed if we didn't get him because the more I think about it, the more I think he duplicates Pat Burrell and he could possibly not be a good fit in the clubhouse.

Ace Killers

GIANTS 6 - MARLINS 4

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

OK so they didn't beat Josh Johnson or Ubaldo Jimenez.  They did put 7 runs on the board against Jimenez earlier this season before the the Rocks tied the game.  The Giants did eventually win that game.  Against Johnson, they put three runs on the board which might as well be seven runs since JJ had not allowed more than 2 runs in a start in 13 straight starts.

Now 3 runs in 7 innings is still a quality start and Matt Cain matched Johnson run for run only allowing only 3 runs in 7 innings.  He actually pitched a little better than JJ did allowing only 4 hits to Johnson's 8.  Cain's only 2 mistakes turned into all 3 of the Marlin's runs on the day.

The fact that Cain allowed 3 runs and wasn't tagged with the loss marks a change in the Giants, and Cain's fortunes.  In the past, Cain would have taken the hard luck loss after giving up 3 runs.  Last night the Giants scored 3 runs for him while he was in the game and even went on to win the game after he left.

The other big news of the night is obviously Buster Posey extending his hitting streak to 20 games.  He has now moved in to the position of favorite for rookie of the year.  Posey's numbers rival Jason Heyward's with about 150 less ABs.  The other favorite, Washington's Stephen Strasburg was scratched from his start Tuesday night  and the clock is ticking until the Nats shut him down for the season.  I can't really come up with any other NL rookies who can compare to Posey.

Trade Rumblings:

I'm not too thrilled with the rumors of the Giants interest in the Blue Jays' Jose Bautista.  The guy has hit 28 homers so far to be sure but he is hitting in a Blue Jays lineup that has considerable more pop than the Giants do, his home games aren't currently being played in AT&T park, and he is only hitting .245 on the season.  Is he going to be an automatic out when he isn't hitting homers?

Jose Guillen is a head case, All through his career he has been up and down performance-wise.  Last season he only hit 9 homers to go along with 40 RBIs.  He does have 59 RBIs and 16 HRs this season and he could be the Giants' target seeing as he will probably come cheap since KC will be looking to dump salary.  A package deal that brings Scott Podsednik along would be a great move for Sabean provided A) the price is right and B) Guillen doesn't have an attitude like he did with the Angels

Adam Dunn is the guy I would most like to see the Giants get.  The guy bats around .280, he hits bombs, and has seven  30+ homer seasons in his career.  He is 7 away from his 8th and the best part about Dunn is that he will only be 31 this offseason.  He hits bombs that will easily get out of AT&T and he is OK defensively.  Although the asking price is reportedly Madison Bumgarner and if that's the case I'll pass.

At this point Guillen and a left handed middle reliever seem to be the most likely moves the Giants will make.  If they can somehow come up with Podsednik too, then the moves look good.

Well that was disappointing.

NATIONALS 8 - GIANTS 1

Matt Cain appeared to have things under control.  Adam Dunn had different ideas.

Cain was pitching OK until the 6th inning.  The only hiccup was the solo homerun to Adam Dunn in the 4th inning.  In the 6th inning the Nats scored 2 runs that pretty much put the game out of reach.  Then the 7th inning came along with another Dunn homer, a 4 run outburst, and Cain was done after allowing 8 runs 7 of which were earned.

Cain allowed 11 hits for the second time in his career.  The last time he allowed that many hits in a game was way back in 2006 .

With Cain, the problem has always been lapses in concentration.  It's nothing new.  Cain won't pitch again until after the break so hopefully he can work on that concentration.

Not much else to tell.  The Giants struggled against Strausburg which was too be expected.  They had him on the ropes in the first inning and worked him into throwing a lot of pitches.  Then they all of the sudden went into a slumber and made it easy for him to throw 6 innings.  The Giants also managed only 1 hit off of 3 Washington relievers.

The fact that the Giants were unable to keep the runs coming after the offensive barrage in Milwaukee was disappointing.  Again, Strausburg is a tough order but you would have liked to see them score more than one run.   Hopefully they look better the next 2 games before the break.

The biggest development of the day is the injury to Andres Torres.  He left the game in the 5th inning and everybody's favorite Giant Aaron Rowand came in and went 0 for 2.  I expect Torres to be allowed to heal until after the break giving Rowand plenty of chances to strikeout.

It would be too easy to give Nate Schierholtz a chance to show what he could do with two starts in a row.

Dan Runzler was also placed on the DL and Joe Martinez was called up to replace him.  Runzler is expected back in 6 weeks.  This leaves Jeremey Affeldt as the only lefthander in the Giants bullpen.

Link of the day:

The Giants will be monitoring Madison Bumgarner's workload.  he threw 140+ innings the last 2 years so he is maybe going to be allowed to throw 160 innings tops this season.