Giants hammer Cubs to retake NL west lead but it's really all about the pitching

GIANTS 13 - CUBS 0

The San Francisco Giants took over first place for what seems like the one hundredth time in the last two weeks.

They did it in their usual Dr, Jekyll and Mr. Hyde fashion.  After scoring 1 run over the last 2 games, the Giants offense erupted for a season high 13 runs.  They broke through with 9 runs in the second inning for the first tie since 2008.  They also pounded out 19 hits, also a season high.

Juan Uribe had a standout game  inning.   In the second inning he hit two homeruns, including a grand slam, and drove in six runs.  All in the second inning!  For some historical perspective on Uribe's inning click here.  Buster Posey contributed a homerun and Cody Ross hit his first homerun as a Giant to help power the attack.

But the Giants could have scored one run and won the game.

The luxury of having a rookie number 5 starter come in and throw 7 shutout innings at a red-hot team during a pennant race is something that can not be understated.  It's something that is almost unheard of.

But that's exactly what Madison Bumgarner did last night.  He didn't just shut the Cubs down, he dominated them, striking out seven Cubbies over his 7 innings of work.  He only gave up one walk while scattering 7 hits over those 7 innings of work.

The Giants rotation has assumed their position as the best rotation in baseball.  They lead all of baseball in team ERA with a 3.39 mark.  They lead in strikeouts, BA against, K/9, and H/9.  Quite simply, the 2010 Giants are all about pitching.

Not to shabby for a team that started the season with Todd Wellemeyer in the starting rotation.

1917 World Champion White Sox

Bumgarner's gem continued a streak that places the 2010 Giants staff amongst the best pitching staffs in all of history.  The Giants pitchers have now gone 17 consecutive games where they have allowed 3 runs or less and 22 straight of 4 or less.  The Giants are only the second team ever to go that many games only allowing 3 runs or less.  You have to go all the way back to the dead ball era and the 1917 Chicago White Sox (who won the world series that year) for a team that has had that kind of a streak.  The Sox' streak went from May 20th through June 12th so it wasn't even in the middle of the pennant race!

Think about that for a second.  The Giants pitching staff, in the modern game of baseball with it's homeruns, high powered offenses,bandbox stadiums, and chicks who dig the longball, have sustained a streak of pitching excellence that is unmatched in the ENTIRE LIVE BALL ERA!

If the Giants don't make the playoffs this season then they will have wasted one of the most impressive pitching feats ever.  That will be a crime to these pitchers who have stepped it up in a way no other pitching staff has ever done.

There are just nine games left.  These are going to be the 9 games that make or break this team.  The Giants enter these final nine games by facing the third place Rockies who have stumbled to 3.5 games back and they end with three games in San Francisco with the second place San Diego Padres.  The season will be decided over these next 9 games and anything can happen.  But one thing will be for sure.  The Giants' pitching staff will be leading the way.

The old, Tired, feeble Giants fall out of first place

CUBS 2 - GIANTS 0

The 2010 Giants new theme

Jonathan Sanchez pitched well, even if he wasn't very economical with his pitches.  Bochy pulled him in the 6th but not for a pinch-hitter finally.  Although he may as well have because the Giants still didn't score any runs last night. 

They were on their way to being shutout by the Cubs 2-0

In the last 13 games the Giants have played, they have been held to one run or fewer 8 times.

Which means while the pitching staff is on the verge of historical greatness.  The Giants offense is a lesson in futility.  To add insult to injury the Dodgers rolled over for the Padres again and lost.  So now the Giants are back in second place.

I also have to wonder about Bochy's benching of Pablo Sandoval during the game last night.  Sure Pablo has been having a rough year on the field this season.  But I don't understand how he is the guy who gets benched when the entire Giants' offense has scored a total of 1 run in the last 19 innings they have played.

I don't know who else should sit, but Bruce Bochy's lineup tonight had better include at least 3 faces we haven't seen in a while.  I'm talking about guys Nate Schierholtz, Travis Ishikawa, Darren Ford, Emmanuel Burriss, Elmo, Sheriff Woody.  It doesn't matter at this point because they can't score less than zero runs.

Or can they?

Giants pitching dominates! Offense? Not so much....

GIANTS 1 - CUBS 0

The San Francisco Giants played their seventh 1-0 game of the season last night.  Bet you can't guess what their record is!  I'll tell you at the end of the post.

Matt Cain reinforced his argument that he is the best Giants starting pitcher by going 6 shutout innings.  He didn't have his strikeout stuff, but he only allowed 2 hits.  Matt Cain, Ramon Ramirez, Sergio Romo, and Brian "Too Much Awesomeness" Wilson are the heroes of the game

 The Giants offense strengthened their case to not receive any playoff shares. 

That includes Buster Posey.  Sure his solo blast in the 8th was the Giants only run of the night, but he was up with the bases loaded in the fifth and couldn't get the job done so he is just as much to blame for the offensive struggles as the rest of the offense is.

Sure, he is still my leading candidate for rookie of the year and I would even go so far as to say he has a shot of NL MVP.  But the Giants have scored 2 runs or less in 7 out of their last 10 games.  Which means in case you hadn't realized means the pitching staff has carried this team.

Maybe Bruce Bochy and Brian Sabean need to have a closed door meeting with all of the hitters like they famously did with the pitchers a few weeks back.  I don't know.  Bt the offensive drought has really got me worried.  What happens if the Pitchers give up 2 runs one night?

It's time for the offense to step up in a big way the rest of the season.

The Giant's record in 1-0 games this season is 2 wins, 5 losses.  Ouch

Giants win with the help of the Ex-Phillie show

GIANTS 5 - CUBS 4

You see the Giants offense put up 3 runs in the first inning against the Chicago Cubs and you start to think good things are going to happen.

But, keeping in line with the torture theme of the 2010 Giants, they had to make it interesting.

The Cubs actually managed to tie the game twice before 2 ex-Philadelphia Phillies decided to step up and show San Francisco that they can hit HRs somewhere other than the bandbox that the Phillies play in.

Aaron Rowand, the man who makes Giants fans blood boil every time his name is inserted in the starting lineup, hit a solo homer in the 6th to put the Giants up 4-3.  After Zito gave up a game tying homerun to Tyler Colvin in the 7th inning, Pat "The Bat" Burrell came up in the 8th inning and put the Giants ahead for good with a solo homer.

Pat Burrell is the latest in the long line of players who have taken their turn carrying this club.  From Pablo Sandoval, you probably forgot just how hot he was in April, to Juan Uribe, Aubrey Huff, Freddy Sanchez, Buster Posey, and now Pat The Bat.  This is the biggest difference between last year's Giants and this year's Giants.  Last season it was all pretty much Pablo Sandoval and this year it has been pretty much a different guy every night.  Hell, even Aaron Rowand and Edgar Renteria have come through in the clutch a few times this season.

Oh and don't look now but Pablo Sandoval has hit in 5 consecutive games and has a .421 average during those contests.  That's all I'm saying about him.

Lastly, the Giants made a trade.

No, not an exciting trade but a trade that was necessary all the same thanks to the frailness of Juan Uribe and Edgar Renteria.

In keeping with their tradition of saving on airfare costs by trading for a guy on the current visiting team, ala Freddy Sanchez last season, the Giants made a deal for Cubs utilityman Mike Fontenot. All they gave up for him was an unspectacular A baller named Evan Crawford.  Bay City Ball has a pretty good breakdown of the deal but the Giants basically got a utilityman for a prospect who is, at best, a veeery long way away from the majors if he ever gets there.

One last note:

John Bowker is 12 for 24 since joining the Pirates AAA club.  I can't remember where I read it, probably on Twitter, but this lead another Giants Blogger to dub him a "AAA Hall of Famer".  lol.

Link of the day:
I gotta give credit to the Dodgerhater as the source for this link, but it seems that Mike Fontenot has sort of a claim to fame.  As the guy who was rumored to be romantically involved with Transformers hottie Megan Fox.  Who knows maybe those were Megan's panties.  Follow the link to get a chuckle.

Tim Lincecum can't find his groove

CUBS 8 - GIANTS 6

The San Francisco Giants are trying to get things figured out.  One day it's their offense.  The next day it's Tim Lincecum.

I would say 10 runs in two games would constitute a solid offensive output.  The Giants at this point in the season are what they are.  A subpar offensive group that when a few guys get hot, Posey and Sandoval last night, are a club capable of putting a few runs on the board.  Usually that is enough to win the game given the outstanding pitching they get from the starters.

Except last night.

I can't tell you how shocking it was to see Lincecum give up 4 runs in the first inning last night. Especially when you consider that he gave up four runs in the first inning for the ENTIRE SEASON last year!  Now to get some perspective on Lincecum's struggles I encourage you to read this post from McCovey chronicles which basically tells us that we are spoiled by the greatness that is Tim Lincecum.

Tim's problems are more in his head than anything physical.  In just about every game recap that I read on last night's game they mention that Tim has been trying to wean himself from the help of past coaches and his father who helped him develop his unusual delivery.  The SF Chronicle even quotes him as saying "I'm 26. I don't need a babysitter anymore."

Well Tim I hate to tell you:

Talk to the people who got you there!  You sound like a little whiny kid when you say you don't want to talk to the people who can help you most.  Sure you are 26 years old and are making $9 million this season but if you want another big contract after next season then you need to shut up and call your dad.  Never before this season have I heard of Lincecum messing with his motion so much.  I have also never heard of him giving up 2 homeruns in a game and then 4 runs in the first inning in back-to-back starts either.  He even admits to himself that the problem is in his head and I think the fact that he is inexplicably avoiding talking to his dad has something to do with his struggles this season.  I wonder how much the pot incident in the off-season has strained their relationship?

All of this talk of Lincecum's struggles has overshadowed the performance of the teams other phenom Buster Posey.  Buster was 3 for 5 and drove in four runs last night.  After a little mini slump in Atlanta he is back and producing.  Buster has become the Giants leader on offense.  As Buster goes so goes the Giants offense.  It's a lot to put on the shoulder pads of a 23 year old rookie, but I think he can handle it.

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.