Giantsblog

Jonathan Sanchez did not have his best stuff today, but the Giants were able to squeeze out a comeback win against Colorado to win the series. Two runs in the sixth and seventh innings helped the Giants take the lead and were able to hold on for a 3-2 win.
After scoring a run in the second inning, Sanchez had a small lead to work with, but gave up the only two Rockies runs of the game in the fifth inning. Merkin Valdez earned his first Major League win in relief when he came in and retired four straight Rox. The entire bullpen was sharp, and did not allow a hit; Tyler Walker pitched the eighth, and Brian Wilson earned his ninth save of the season.
Offensively, the Giants scored just enough to win once again. Centerfielder Aaron Rowand leadoff the second inning with a homerun off Rockies starter Ubaldo Jimenez to give the Giants an early 1-0 lead. Leftfielder Fred Lewis tied the game in the sixth inning when he reached base on a walk, advanced to second on a groundout, and then scored on Randy Winn’s single. What would end up being the winning run was scored by third baseman Jose Castillo on another leadoff shot in the seventh inning to put the Giants up 3-2. Defensively, San Francisco made three errors, none of which were costly though.
The Giants will have a well deserved off day tomorrow, which will likely be used to travel to Philadelphia. They will start a weekend series with the Phillies on Friday. Rookie Pat Misch is scheduled to start the first game against Kyle Kendrick.

This loss was probably the toughest one to swallow yet this season, hopefully it will be the last. After maintaining a 2-2 tie through most of the game, the Rockies scored the go-ahead run on a balk by Tim Lincecum in the seventh inning to give them a lead they would not give up. Colorado held on to win 3-2.
Apart from giving up two early runs, Lincecum was pretty dominant. Although he gave up eight hits through seven innings of work, he limited the damage. Rockies third baseman, Chris Iannetta scored the second run in the second frame on a solo shot. The winning run was scored on a balk in the seventh inning, it was a questionable call when catcher Bengie Molina called time out while Lincecum had set to pitch. Giants manager, Bruce Bochy was ejected for arguing the call. Vinnie Chulk and Jack Taschner handled the eighth inning to keep it a one-run game. Merkin Valdez pitched a perfect ninth to keep the Giants within one run of putting it in extras.
The Giants scored their only runs in the first inning when they strung together a couple hits. Molina and centerfielder Aaron Rowand each drove in a run. After getting a leadoff walk in the ninth inning, shortstop Brian Bocock bunted Jose Castillo over to second, but Randy Winn swung at a 3-0 pitch in the next at-bat to put the Giants one out away from defeat. Pinch-hitter Dan Ortmeier struck out to end the game.
Jonathan Sanchez will start the series finale tomorrow at 12:45 p.m. and look to add some more strikeouts to his stats. Ubaldo Jimenez will be on the mound for Colorado.

On the same day that Matt Cain earned his first victory of the season, shutting out the Rockies 4-0, the Giants announced they would be moving struggling starter Barry Zito to the bullpen. Rookie Pat Misch will take over for Zito or Kevin Correia, who recently went on the disabled list.
The Rockies batters made Cain work, but did not score off him in five and a third innings of work, however they did reach base five times thanks to walks issued by him. Vinne Chulk finished off the sixth and seventh innings, and allowed just one hit before giving the ball to Tyler Walker. Walker pitched a near perfect eighth inning, also allowing just one hit. Brian Wilson secured the shutout win in the ninth inning, he gave up two hits, but retired the Rockies with three strikeouts in the ninth.
The Giants scored two first inning runs to give Cain a lead to work with, and added two more in the fifth. Shortstop Emmanuel Burriss reached base on a bunt single in the first, and advanced to second on a balk. Ray Durham drove him in with a bloop single before putting himself in scoring position with a steal of second base. Centerfielder Aaron Rowand helped score Durham with a two-out single. The Giants other two runs were scored via the bases loaded walk, twice! The fifth inning rally was produced by the Rockies pitchers inability to find the strike zone. San Francisco leads the Major League in stolen bases now, with thirty-one; last night they stole four, two were by Durham, and the other two by Eugenio Velez and Randy Winn.
Emerging star, Tim Lincecum will look for his fifth win of the season tonight at 7:15 p.m. in the second game of the series. Aaron Cook, who is 3-1 with a 2.91 earned run average will pitch for Colorado. It should be a well pitched, low scoring game.

Looking for his first win of the season after being beat in his first five starts, Barry Zito did not get it. The Giants were killed 10-1 after Zito was roughed up once again. He continues to look like the worst waste of money in baseball history.
Struggling is a good verb to describe Zito. He lasted three innings, giving up runs in each of them, six in the first, and one in each of the second. He allowed a total of eight earned runs on seven hits and three walks. Rookie Pat Misch relieved Zito and filled in nicely for the rest of the game, going six innings and giving up five hits, two of which were solo homers to Reds second baseman Brandon Phillips.
By the time the Giants got a chance to bat, they were already down by six runs, and only managed to produce one run during the entire game. All together, the Giants had seven hits, none of which were extra-base hits. The one run the offense put up was scored by pinch-hitter Emmanuel Burriss in the third inning, and driven in by rightfielder Randy Winn on a single.
Zito is still not recieving the run support he needs to be successful, but he really is not helping himself by pitching too effectively either. The Giants will send Matt Cain to the mound tomorrow when they will host the defending National League Champs, the Colorado Rockies in a three game series. The Rockies will start Franklin Morales at 7:15 p.m.

It appeared it was going to be a rough day after Giants starter Kevin Correia was forced to leave the game after retiring just one batter due to a strained oblique muscle in his left side, and it was. Although the pitchers game up tons of runs, the offense came out swinging today, but still fell short 10-9 against the Cincinnati Reds.
Brad Hennessey came into the game cold once Correia got hurt, he gave up three runs on six hits over three innings before handing the game over to the rest of the bullpen. They will need a rest tomorrow after having to work so much in relief today. Keiichi Yabu and Jack Taschner each surrendered three more runs before Merkin Valdez and Vinnie Chulk worked near perfect innings, each only giving up one hit.
The Giants batters did not quit today, but could have at least used one more run late in the game. Leftfielder Fred Lewis looked like a smaller version of Barry Bonds, homering into McCovey Cove for a “Splash Hit”, he also singled and tripled, scoring three of the nine Giants runs. Batting second, Eugenio Velez drove in three runs, also hitting a triple and a single. Rich Aurilia also hit a solo homer and singled tonight. Despite coming up with four runs in the bottom of the ninth inning, the Giants lost the game, but offensively it was a good sign.
Hopefully Correia’s injury is not serious, but if it is, Noah Lowry will be returning to the rotation soon. The Giants will wrap up their series with the Reds tomorrow at 1:05 p.m. Barry Zito will continue to look for his first win of the season and will match-up against Edinson Volquez.

Another close victory, this time 3-1 over Cincinnati extended the Giants winning streak to three games, and improved their overall record to 11-13. Pitching has been key to the Giants success so far this season.
Jonathan Sanchez had another amazing performance, striking out ten Reds over eight innings of work while only giving up four hits. He attempted to go for the complete game shutout, but was taken out after giving up a leadoff homerun to pinch-hitter Brandon Phillips, followed by a Ryan Freel single in the ninth. Brian Wilson had to come in to secure the win, and did just that. He earned his eighth save of the season by shutting down the opposition after Sanchez had allowed the leadoff homer.
Once again, the runs trickled in slowly, but the Giants offense provided just enough to get the job done. Rightfielder Eugenio Velez and catcher Bengie Molina each had doubles in the fourth inning to put the Giants on the board first. The offense did not show up until the bottom of the eighth when Velez singled in leftfielder Fred Lewis who led off the inning with a double. Velez then stole third base before scoring on Molina’s sacrifice fly to give the Giants a 3-0 lead heading into the ninth.
Kevin Correia will look to extend the winning streak tonight with another quality start. The Reds will send Matt Belisle to the mound at 6:05 p.m.

Tim Lincecum dazzled again in a 1-0 win over San Diego to sweep the two game series. Words cannot express how great this guy is, and how much of a franchise player he is. Every fifth day he goes out and gives the Giants a pretty good shot at winning. Bruce Bochy may want to consider switching up the rotation to start Lincecum against number one starters to allow struggling Barry Zito to start against “easier” opponents.
I don’t care what people say about wanting to see homeruns, a good old fashioned pitchers’ duel is way more entertaining. Lincecum had to leave the game after six and a third innings pitched because of a high pitch count, but could have gone on. He struck out nine batters, but also walked five while giving up four hits before handing the game over to the bullpen. Once again the bullpen did a good job holding onto the lead; Jack Taschner, Vinnie Chulk, and Brian Wilson controlled the Padres batters.
The Giants offense was pretty weak again, but one run was all that was needed with Lincecum on the mound. A solo homer off the bat of veteran Rich Aurilia in the seventh inning was the highlight of the games’ runs. Aurilia deposited a full-count off-speed pitch from Padres starter Chris Young into the leftfield bleachers.
After a long road trip, The Giants return home tonight for a series against the Cincinnati Reds. Jonathan Sanchez will pitch against Aaron Harang at 7:15 p.m.

After trailing 1-0 the whole game, a solo homerun in the ninth inning put the game into extra innings. The Giants were able to rally in the thirteenth inning to hang on for a 3-2 victory over the Padres. In doing so, they denied Greg Maddux his three hundred fiftieth career win.
Matt Cain and Maddux almost matched each other pitch-for-pitch, with the exception of the run Cain gave up in the fifth inning. He gave up five hits, walked three, and struck out seven batters. Jack Taschner, Tyler Walker, Merkin Valdez, and Keiichi Yabu pitched scoreless innings. Brian Wilson closed out the game in the bottom of the thirteenth with a 3-1 lead, but nearly blew it after allowing a run on two hits and two walks.
The Giants did not provide much offense until the ninth inning when catcher Bengie Molina hit a one-out solo shot off Padres closer Trevor Hoffman to tie up the game, 1-1. Rookie shortstop Emmanuel Burriss led off the thirteenth inning with a double, Fred Lewis followed up with a bloop single that scored Burriss, and advanced to second on the throw home. Lewis then moved to third on a groundout. Padres reliever Glendon Rusch then intentionally walked Molina, and then gave up another single to Aaron Rowand (who went three for six) that scored Lewis.
Youngster Tim Lincecum who has been pitching as if he was a veteran, will start tonight in the short series’ finale against Chris Young. The game is scheduled for 7:05 p.m.

After taking a quick 3-0 lead in the second and final game of the short series with Arizona, Giants starter Barry Zito ran into some trouble, and allowed the D-backs to get back into the game. Ultimately, the Giants fell short of a comeback and lost 5-4.
Zito is still looking for his first win this season, in last night’s game he allowed five runs before being taken out during the fourth inning. He struggled with his command, walking three batters and appeared to be uncomfortable with using his trademark curveball. Despite Zito’s struggles, the bullpen was perfect, shutting down the opposition for over four innings. Keiichi Yabu, Vinnie Chulk, and Tyler Walker were superb to keep the Giants within comeback range. Walker struck out all three batters he faced in the eighth inning. However, the D-backs bullpen was nearly as perfect too.
The offense jumped out quickly against Arizona ace Brandon Webb to finally give Zito some run support. Fred Lewis and Ray Durham led off the game with singles, and Lewis scored the game’s first run on a sacrifice fly by Randy Winn. The next inning, Brian Bocock led off the inning with a single and was sacrificed to second. Lewis then drove him in with a single, who was then driven in by Randy Winn again. From then on, Webb was on his game and the Giants were unable to generate any more offense until Lewis was involved in driving in Emmanuel Burriss with a double off D-backs reliever Tony Pena.
From Arizona, the Giants will head to San Diego to take on the Padres in another two game series before returning home to host the Cincinnati Reds. Tonight Matt Cain, who will be coming off his worst career start will face Padres veteran Greg Maddux in a 7:05 p.m. start.

Playing the best team in the NL, the Giants dropped a close game to Arizona, 4-2. A baserunning error, lack of plate discipline, and inconsistent offensive performance led to the Giants defeat.
Altough starter Kevin Correia allowed eight hits, he was able to work himself out of several jams, however the three runs he allowed came off two homeruns (like most of the runs he has given up this year). After completing the sixth, Correia gave way to Merkin Valdez who allowed another solo shot to D-backs second baseman, Orlando Hudson. Brad Hennessey, who has been struggling lately, pitched a scoreless eighth inning, allowing just one hit.
The offense did not help out much, they ruined some of their own chances with some overly aggressive plays. Despite taking an early lead, thanks to a Fred Lewis solo homer in the third, pitching gave it back to Arizona. Lewis went two for four, but grounded into an inning-ending double play in the seventh inning on the first pitch with runners on first and second while the Giants trailed 3-2. Shortstop Emmanuel Burriss made his major league debut and was hitless, but was key in turning a double play in the third inning to help Correia get out of a jam. John Bowker had his first hitless game. In the eighth inning, Eugenio Velez leadoff the inning with a double, but attempted to stretch it into a triple and was thrown out. Replays showed he was safe, but the umpire made a bad call; it was still a bad decision to run themselves out of a potential rally with no outs.
The Giants will wrap up the final game of this short series today at 6:40 p.m. The offense will have to start scoring some runs for starter Barry Zito instead of just expecting him to dominate, which he has not even been doing. Reigning Cy Young winner Brandon Webb will start for Arizona.