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.

Giants to Padres: Our Ace is better than yours

GIANTS 6 - PADRES 1

The game was supposed to be a tight pitchers duel just like the two previous games were.  After all, the Padres young up-and-comer Mat "Hey there's a T missing" Latos was facing the defending 2 time Cy Young award winner Tim Lincecum.

That pitcher's duel never materialized.  Instead the Giants broke both of Latos' streaks today.  The first streak they broke was Latos' record streak of consecutive starts of allowing 2 earned runs or less.  They also broke his 16 start unbeaten streak.

On the other hand, Lincecum has been struggling this season.  He had a streak of 5 straight losing decisions in August and at 3.69 his ERA was at the highest it had been since his rookie season.

Instead, the Giants lit Latos up for 5 earned runs over 4 innings and looked like he had no idea where the strike zone was. Lincecum meanwhile allowed 1 run in seven innings and struck out 9.  It cemented Lincecum as the answer to the question: "Who would you rather have on the mound to start one must-win game?"  there is no question that this was as close to a must-win game that the Giants have played all season.

On Offense, the Buster Posey show continued.  His 2 run HR got the scoring started and had Latos reeling in the first inning.  Posey's habit of carrying the offense and getting the hits at exactly the right time only have added to his case for rookie of the year.

Tomorrow is an off day for the Giants who can take the day to figure out what they are going to do to replace Andres Torres over the next 10 days at least.  Bochy jumped at the chance to give Aaron Rowand a start in center and he was vintage Rowand going 0-5 and left 4 runners on base.  On the positive side, he only struck out one of those times!  I think the Giants would be better off with Cody Ross patrolling centerfield and the Giants would get more for the $13 million they were paying for Rowand if they released him and he stunk it up for another team.

Tuesday marks the start of a 3 game set against the Dodgers at AT&T.  Kershaw against Zito.  Hopefully the Dodgers lay down and die for us like they did against the Padres the other day.

Giants back in second after terrible offense catches up to them. But all signs point to a win today!

PADRES 1 - GIANTS 0

The Giants are 6-3 on their current road trip including last night's loss.  The crazy thing is they are batting a meager .205 on this trip.  

Other than July, when the Giants scored more runs than anybody in baseball, runs have been extremely hard to come by for this team.  Since the additions of Cody Ross and Jose Guillen they seem to be having even more trouble scoring runs than they did before.  Now I'm not blaming the Giants lack of offensive production on the acquisitions of those guys but the timing sure is odd.

The bottom line is the offense needs to produce.  The Giants realistically could have won every game on this road trip.  The most games they gave up in a game was 4, which they gave up to the Dodgers in back to back games, in the two 4 run games they were 1-1.  It's not as if the Home/Road BA splits for the Giants as a team are that dramatic (.269 home/.248 road), they hit more home runs on the road (62 home vs. 74 road), but they strike out slightly more on the road (443 or 19% of the time at home to 529 or 21% of the time on the road.  K% are necessary to get a true understanding of the strikeouts since the Giants have about 300 more ABs on the road than they do at home since they don't bat in all 9 innings in a home win and do in a road win.  they also have played 5 more road than home games to this point)  They also score more runs on the road (305 to 315 road) again since they have played more games there.

So the Giants, according to the statistics, should be able to hit better and score more runs than they have been doing over the last 9 games.

They haven't.  So this bodes well for the Giants in a number of ways.  First, they are due to score more than 1 run today (although the Padres probably are too) second, Mat Latos has allowed 2 runs or less in 15 straight games which is a record.  He is also due to give up a few more runs than he has been.  (So was Josh Johnson the last time the Giants faced him and they snapped his streak). Tim Lincecum owns a 2.15 career ERA against the Padres while Mat Latos owns a 0.96 ERA against them. (although Lincecum has thrown 79.1 innings against the Pads compared to Latos' 28.1 IP against the Giants).  Latos' ERA against the Giants is the lowest against any other team he has thrown more than 12 innings against in his career. (the lowest being Arizona with a 0.75 ERA in 12 IP)

What do all these random statistics mean?

Well, on the surface they point to a Giants victory today.  The Giants, statistically speaking, score more runs today and give up about as many runs as they have been allowing.  Mat Latos is due to see his ERA vs. the Giants spike and Tim Lincecum is on track to have his stats against the Padres remain roughly the same.

But this is baseball and they play the games for a reason.  So sit down with your favorite beverage, some good food, a few friends, and watch the Giants battle for their share of first place in the N.L. West!