Giantsblog

The Giants are trying to dig themselves out of a hole and while they still sit in fourth place, they’re just 2 1/2 games back of the first place Dodgers in what’s been a four team race so far.  After tough stretch, the Giants have won three straight and it’s been the pitching staff that’s carried them.

The best outing came on Monday when Noah Lowry and two relievers combined to shutout the Astros in a 4-0 win.  Matt Morris gave up just one run on two hits with nine strikeouts in a complete game and then last night, Tim Lincecum improved to 2-0 with eight solid innings.

In the meantime, Barry Bonds hasn’t hit a homerun since May 8.  That’s coming up on two weeks although he doesn’t seem to be too troubled by it.  And while his OPS has come down, it’s down to “just” 1.121.  I’ll still take that.

The Giants finish up with the Astros tonight and then the Rockies come to town for three games after a day off tomorrow.  Barry Zito gets the start tonight and he’s had two rough outings in a while.

Fred Lewis had a career day today.  He hit the first triple and homerun in his career today en route to a five for six game in which he hit for the cycle.  He drove in four runs and scored three times as the Giants racked up 15 runs and 22 hits all without Barry Bonds in the lineup.  All nine Giants starters had at least one hit and they each scored at least one run in the 15-2 win.

It was also nice to see Matt Cain get some run support.  He picked up his second win of the season and he gave up just a single run on five hits and three walks with six strikeouts in six innings of work.  That stops a string of two rough starts and hopefully this will help Cain get back on track.  It was also his first win since April 22 when he pitched his first complete game of the season.

So the win pushes the Giants just above .500 and they’re 3 1/2 games back of the Dodgers.  Tomorrow is an off day and then it’s three in Houston.  I like the pitching matchups in all three of these games so while a sweep would be a lot to ask for, it’s not out of the realm of possibility.