Giantsblog

The San Francisco Giants made a statement to the NL West on Friday night, thanks to pitcher Matt Cain. Cain threw his second straight complete game, and this time Cain got the win. The big news from Friday night’s ball game, Cain threw a one-hitter. Matt Cain only allowed a second inning double to Arizona’s 3B Mark Reynolds, he allowed zero walks. Cain’s record now moves to 3-4, while his ERA drops to 2.50.

More good news for the Giants, the offense displayed some prowess on Friday night. The Giants’ bats put up five runs, which is enough to win on most nights with their superb pitching staff.

Even better news for the Giants, 3B Pablo Sandoval had a monster game in the Bay. Sandoval is the most important player for the Giants this year, Sandoval has to be solid in the field and at the plate. To this point in the season Pablo is hitting .283, his batting average has hovered around the .280 mark all season. The Giants need to see Sandoval’s average go up to the .300 range if they are to be successful this season. Sandoval hit .330 last season.

Friday night Sandoval went 2-3 with 3 RBI. Most importantly he hit his first home run since April. Sandoval only has 19 RBI to this point of the season, but if Pablo gets hot the Giants will become a dangerous opponent in the NL West. If Sandoval keeps his concentration up and his weight down, the SF Giants could win the pennant.

More good news for the Giants, highly touted prospect Buster Posey will be called up to the big leagues on Saturday. Posey, a 23 year old catcher from Florida State will look to make a name for himself and stay in the Giants offense. Posey will most likely play first base for awhile and Aubrey Huff will be moved to let field. Posey looks to light up a poor SF offense. Posey hit .315 in preseason and .349 in 47 games with triple-A Fresno. If Posey is the real deal, look for the Giants to be a triple threat, with solid offense, defense, and pitching.

Jonathon Sanchez will get the start today versus Billy Buckner of the Arizona Diamondbacks. Sanchez has an ERA of 3.00 but only two wins on the season. Look for the offense to put some runs on the board to secure a Sanchez victory.

Go Giants.

The San Francisco Giants showed  some grit on Thursday, coming behind for a 5-4 win over the Washington Nationals.

Sorry to my loyal fans in the Bay Area and across the world but the blog will be on hold for a few days while I attend to family illness/death.

Thank you and stay tuned.

The San Francisco Giants are struggling to say the least. Even worse, Tim Lincecum is struggling. For the third straight start Lincecum gave up five walks. In this outing Lincecum surrendered six earned runs, which is a total of 11 in the last two starts. What is worse, in those two games, Lincecum has only pitched 9.2 innings. Needless to say, something isn’t right with the back-to-back Cy Young award winner. On Wednesday night, Lincecum threw 96 pitches in 4.2 innings, only 56 of those pitches were strikes. Lincecum appears to be pressing the issue. Whatever it may be, the SF Giants need to work out the kinks with their young star. With the poor offense, the Giants can’t afford to have their ace having command problems.

The Giants lost 7-3 on Wednesday night. Aubrey Huff committed an error in the first inning, and Pablo Sandoval committed a mental error in the third, which led to three Washington runs. The Giants have to come to the ball park mentally prepared the rest of the season. Mental mistakes have cost the Giants too many times this season. If the SF Giants are to contend, these next couple of weeks will be crucial to the teams psyche.

The Giants  offense proved to have problems once again Wednesday night. The team went 1-11 with runners in scoring position. The Giants earned only one walk in Wednesday’s game. Clutch hitting seems to be elusive. These numbers must change overnight if the Giants are to succeed. The batters have to put runs on the board at critical points in the game to take the stress off the pitching staff. The only bright spot for the Giants offense Wednesday was Juan Uribe, who went deep with his sixth homer of the year.

More bad news for the Giants. SS Edgar Renteria went back to the DL with hamstring issues. Renteria is hitting .326 in 23 games this season, but has been hampered with a bad right hamstring throughout the season. Renteria no joins Emmanuel Burriss and Mark DeRosa on the DL. Relief Pitchers Jeremy Affeldt and Brandon Medders are also injured at the moment. Between the injuries and the lack of offense, the Giants have not been able to get a solid line-up rolling all season.

Despite the misfortunes, the Giants must continue the fight. The team is now fourth in the division, at 23-22 they are 2.5 games back of the SD Padres. By no means are the Giants out of the race, which will go down to the last days of the season.  From this moment forward, no game is to be overlooked, and the Giants have to be mentally tough.

Barry Zito will look to get lucky win number seven this afternoon at 12:45. This will be Zito’s third attempt at number seven. After starting the season 6-0,  Zito has dropped his last two. Zito will face the Nationals Craig Stammen. Look for the Giants to come out pissed and put up a fight the rest of the season.

Go Giants.

The San Francisco Giants got a fresh breath of air with a win on Tuesday night. The ball club from the Bay actually amassed nine hits and four runs. These numbers aren’t astounding, but considering that the squad only has scored nine runs in their previous five game losing streak, it’s an improvement.

Todd Wellemeyer started the game for the Giants, and had his best outing of the season. Wellemeyer went six plus innings, allowing only four hits, and two runs. This is Wellemeyer’s third win of the season, he will look to improve to .500 in his next outing. Wellemeyer gave the Giants quite possibly their biggest victory of the season, avoiding dropping to 22-22, instead improving to 23-21. Wellemeyer also avoided the Giants sixth straight loss.

The San Francisco Giants brought their bats to the ball park on Tuesday night, or at least in the fifth inning. The Giants scored all four runs in the fifth. Edgar Renteria, Freddy Sanchez, and Pablo Sandoval all had RBI’s. Sanchez plated two runs. Andres Torres and Renteria did a nice job batting in the one and two slots on Tuesday. Combined they went five-for-eight, scoring two runs and bringing in an RBI. This is great news for the Giants, who have struggled too put men on base.

Coming into Tuesday night’s game, manager Bruce Bochy was looking for answers. Bochy experimented with a new solution Tuesday. Aubrey Huff started in left field, Pablo Sandoval played first base, and Juan Uribe manned the hot corner at third. This may be a solution for Bochy since the infield is stuffed now that Sanchez and Renteria are back from the DL. Expect Pablo Sandoval to eventually move to first base permanently in his career. With Sandoval’s size and love for food, he won’t be able to handle third base forever. This was an interesting move on Bochy’s behalf, the SF Giants won with that line-up so expect it again today.

The Giants look to make it two wins in a row when Tim Lincecum takes the hill today. Lincecum will duel with Nationals pitcher, Luis Altilano. The two time Cy Young award winner will look to make a statement, after his poor start last week in Arizona.  Lincecum is in search of his sixth win of the season.

Go Giants.

The San Francisco Giants couldn’t have asked for a better time for an off-day. The Giants go into Monday’s day off on a five game skid. This is primarily due to poor offense. During their five game losing streak, the Giants have only managed to score nine runs, seven coming in one game. This may look strange, but the proof is in the numbers. Yes, that is correct, they have shut out in two of the five games, and only managed one run, twice.

What is worse for the Giants was their weekend series versus the Oakland Athletics. The Giants were swept in the three game series, and only scored a total of one run in the three games.  The Giants starters for the series, Zito, Cain, and Sanchez combined to go 21.2 innings in the series. Those aren’t the bad numbers, the hitting was plain pitiful. The Giants only managed 14 hits in the three games, and went an astounding 0-19 with runners in scoring position. This is ridiculous, how are the Giants to have a chance in the division if they can hardly get on base, none the less put runs on the scoreboard? These last five games seem to bring concern for Giants fans. If the team continues these struggles, they may be out of contention by August.

Look for hitting coach Hensly Muellens to utilize this off-day. Expect extra batting practice for all the Giants hitters today. If Muellens can’t get the Giants’ hitters batting averages to head north then Muellens may be out the door. 0-19 with RISP in a three game series is absolutely terrible. Not to mention the fact that this has to put stress on the Giants pitching staff. How are the pitchers to have any confidence if they happen to give up an early run in an outing?  With Muellens advice, the Giants hitters have to display professional at bats to win back their pitching staff and fans.

Good thing for the Giants, they have 119 games left. Plenty of time to fix their batting woes, but they must get it going in their next game, Tuesday. That’s when the Giants will begin a series at AT&T Park against Livan Hernandez and the Washington Nationals. Todd Wellemeyer will take the mound, looking to bounce back from a rocky start in his last appearance. Look for Wellemeyer and the Giants offense to make a bold statement Tuesday. If the Giants sputter, their record will drop to .500 at 22-22. If that occurs, look forward to much mid-season doubt from critics.

Time to get it going SF Giants…

Go Giants.

The San Francisco Giants pitcher Matt Cain threw a complete game on Saturday, but a defensive lapse brought the Giants to their knees. The Giants fell 1-0 to their AL rival,  the Oakland Athletics.

A third inning error by Aubrey Huff lead to the only run of the game, bringing the Giants to 22-20 on the season and bringing the Giants to their fourth straight defeat.

Cain allowed only five hits throughout the game, striking out four. Cain lowered his ERA to 2.88 on the season. Matt Cain, last year’s 14 game winner is now 2-4 on the season. With an ERA under three, Cain’s record should at least be .500, but the Giants offense is what’s lacking.

It was no secret coming into the season that the Giants offense would be there key to success. With key additions such as Aubrey Huff and Mark DeRosa, the Giants looked to cure their offensive struggles of 2009. So far this year Huff is batting .284 with 20 RBI. Mark DeRosa is on the DL. This wasn’t what the organization was hoping for.

The SF Giants offense in plain pitiful at the moment, and has plagued them at times throughout the 2010 season. The team only put five men on base Saturday, and earned only three hits. This is not big league material. The team is 4-6 in the last 10 games, and have scored only nine runs in their four game losing streak. The bad thing, seven of those runs came in one game, a game in which they lost on a wild pitch by Jeremy Affeldt.

SF manager Bruce Bochy better light a fire in the clubhouse before Bochy is fired himself. It seems that if the team gets stellar pitching, the offense forgets to run, hit, and score. Vice versa, if the offense brings the big bats to the ballpark, the pitching or defense falter. Whatever it is the Giants must fix this fast, or Bochy will get the boot. The team is now third in the NL West, 2.5 back from the San Diego Padres and the surging LA Dodgers. The Dodgers are 16-4 in the month of May and show no signs of slowing.

Jonathon Sanchez takes the hill this afternoon to try and break the four game slide for the Giants. Sanchez will duel with the A’s big off-season signee, Ben Sheets. Sanchez brings a 3.06 ERA into the game with a 2-3 record, similar stats to teammate Matt Cain. Look for Sanchez to lower his ERA to under three and pick up his third win of the season.

The bats must be heard.

Go Giants.

The San Francisco Giants should be a bit concerned after Thursday’s loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks, 8-7. Whatever could go wrong for the Giants did Thursday, topped off with a wild pitch by Jeremy Affeldt that plated the Diamondbacks LF Connor Jackson in the bottom of the eighth.

Things were looking okay for the Giants until the bottom of the fifth. This was two time Cy Young award winner Tim Lincecum’s worst inning of the season, and his worst start. He allowed five runs in the fifth, and Lincecum left the game down 5-2. Tim Lincecum’s stat line was 5 IP, 5 H, 5 ER, 5 BB, and 6 K’s. The five walks are what is alarming. This ties his career high, which he set in his last start. Personally, Lincecum looked like he was rushed on the mound. Lincecum looked like he was over throwing, missing the strike zone frequently. This should bring some concern for  Giants fans. Was it that Lincecum overthrew because he is aware that he must put up good starts because of the poor offense? The main concern is pitch count. If Lincecum can’t find the K zone early, his pitch count is elevated and he has to depart his starts early. Time will tell, but Tim Lincecum will need to find his command once again if the Giants are to succeed.

The real bizarre thing happened after Lincecum left after five innings. Lincecum was set for the loss when the Giants scored five in the top of the sixth. Juan Uribe and John Bowker started the inning off with back-to-back bombs. Before the inning was over, the Giants had a 7-5 lead, and Lincecum was set to earn the win.

That’s when a handful of the Giants bullpen came in to give it all back to the D-backs. Romo, Mota, Runzler, and Affeldt combined to give up 3 R, 4 H, 4 BB, and a wild pitch which let in the game winning run. By the top of the ninth, manager Bruce Bochy was tossed for arguing balls and strikes and the Giants fell to 22-18 on the season, a quarter of the way through the 2010 season.

The Giants open up interleague play tonight with the Battle of the Bay, facing Oakland at 7:05 p.m. Barry Zito will look to steer the ship in the right path, facing off against Oakland’s Trevor Cahill.

Go Giants.

The San Francisco Giants looked bad on Wednesday night. Not only did they lose, but they lost 13-1. Not only did the pitching staff allow 11 hits, they allowed six home runs. The SF Giants bats only compiled four hits on the day. Once again, starting pitcher Todd Wellemeyer struggled and the offense sputtered.

The worse thing about Wednesday’s game, they took a 1-0  lead in the top of the first. That only lasted until the bottom of the second inning, when the Arizona Diamondbacks  1B Adam LaRoche went deep with a solo shot, his first of two long balls on the day.

Homers followed in the fourth, fifth, sixth, and two in the eighth. This stat in itself is pitiful. Giving up six long balls in a game is embarrassing, making the Arizona Diamondbacks look like the 1927 New York Yankees.

Starting pitcher Todd Wellemeyer’s record dropped to 2-4 on the season, with a 5.71 ERA. He gave the Diamondbacks three presents in the form of home runs, bringing his total to nine on the year, in just eight starts. Wellemeyer will remain the fifth starter for now, but if these jagged numbers continue, look for manager Bruce Bochy to make a move replacing the fifth starter after the All-Star break. Wellemeyer has pitched 41 innings, striking out 29, and allowing 27 base-on-balls. These are not numbers that will keep Wellemeyer in the rotation forever, he must have a few quality starts in a row to win back the confidence of his skipper. After all, Wellemeyer was down right disappointing Wednesday night.

The same is to say about the offense, earning only four hits in Wednesday night’s ball game. Two of the hits came in the first inning, and then the stagnant Giants offense showed up. There is not enough time to single out a specific player. It may be time for a closed door meeting, and time for the Boys in the Bay to look themselves in the mirror.

The Giants sit in second place in the National League West, 1.5 games behind the Padres. The Giants also need to be aware that the dreaded Los Angeles Dodgers are nipping at their heels, only a half game back of the Giants. The Dodgers have also won nine out of 10.

Good news for the Giants, Tim Lincecum will take the hill tonight at 6:40 p.m. Lincecum will face off against Diamondbacks pitcher Rodrigo Lopez. Lincecum is 5-1 all time against Arizona. Look for him to improve to 6-0 on the season, and 6-1 in his career versus the Diamondbacks.

Go Giants.

The San Francisco Giants defeated the San Diego Padres for the first time in eight tries this season. This was a giant win for the ball club, splitting the two game series with the Padres.

Things were looking grim for the Giants until the eighth inning when Adres Torres sent a moonshot deep into the right field stands at Petco Park, Tuesday night. It took the Giants 12 innings to get the job done, but Matt Downs ripped a double with men on first and third to put the Giants up. Going in the bottom of the twelve the SF Giants were up 7-4. Closer Brian Wilson made it interesting, giving up two runs in the inning but escaping with his tenth save of the season.

This win brought the Giants record to 22-16, and within a half game of their  divisional foes from Southern California, the San Diego Padres. Considering that the Giants are 21-9 against all other opponent, they look to be in good shape to this point in the season. Although they are 1-7 against the Padres, the last game between the two clubs went the way of the Giants.

Todd Wellemeyer will take the mound in Arizona today. Wellemeyer will square off with Diamondbacks pitcher Ian Kennedy. Wellemeyer looks to bring his record to .500 today. With a win, Wellemeyer will move to 3-3.

On a great note, Freddy Sanchez will be called back to the bigs on Wednesday. Sanchez has been out all season, coming off shoulder surgery in the off season. Freddy Sanchez will tighten up the defense in the infield for the Giants.  Sanchez also holds a .299 batting average.

Batting average is a point of concern for the SF Giants. The offense is the weak spot on the 25 man roster. To date, only one Giants regular is hitting over .300, Nate Schierholtz.  Benjie Molina and Eli Whiteside, who spilt time behind the plate are also hitting over the .300 mark, respectively. As for the rest of the team, the SF Giants must get timely production from their veteran players. Look for manager Bruce Bochy to start pushing some buttons if the averages continue to lag. The team can not suffer from this dilemma if they are to compete for the division the second half. Look for the Giants’ bats to get going against the Diamondback in the desert air.

Go Giants.

The San Francisco Giants fell to the San Diego Padres 3-2 on Tuesday night. Starting pitcher Barry Zito got into trouble early and often, despite allowing only three runs. Zito had seven walks, a season high.

The Giants fall to 18-13, now 1.5 games behind the Padres.

Both teams had their chances, combining to leave 45 runners on base. The Giants left a whopping 18.

This comes one game after Tim Lincecum’s third start in a row where he left with the lead and he earned the no decision. The Giants back up needs to help the two time Cy Young Award winner out. Last season Lincecum got the ND seven times because he received two runs or less. This is not a way to make your franchise player happy. Lincecum will be sure to shrug off the upsetting outcomes of his last three starts by throwing the nasty his next start.

The Giants will send Matt Cain to the mound versus Clayton Richard at 7:15 p.m. Richard came to the Padres last year in the Jake Peavy deal, this kid has some good young talent. Cain needs a statement game for the Giants, who are struggling against the San Diego Padres this early season.

Look for the Giants to come out swinging tonight, the team really needs to show San Diego who’s boss.

On a side note, Mark DeRosa has torn ligaments in his wrist, which was operated on in the off season. He looks to miss significant time. Let’s hope he is back by August. Look for DeRosa come back with fire, wanting to prove to Giants fans that he can make a difference for the ball club.

On a better note, Freddy Sanchez made a minor league start, and knocking in a couple of runs. When he returns he will bring a solid bat and even better defense.

In any event, Go Giants.