Gah!

Well, the Giants dropped 2 out of 3 to the D-Backs, placing them squarely behind the 8-ball.  The D-Backs now have a 7 game lead.

Now mired in a somewhat  meaningless series with the Padres (assuming AZ keeps winning), most hope is lost.  The Giants literally have to win out (they might be able to drop one of 2 of the last 21, but they'd have to hope AZ plays no better than 2 games over .500 for that to work).

Still got my playoff  'stache going.  At least until the end.

Brooding Ruben 'Stache

Crunch Time

Welp, after an epic slide combined with an epic win streak - -the Giants find themselves 6 back of the damn D-Backs at the start of September.

Rowand and Miggy were DFA'd yesterday (thank God), the Bat (injury) and Brett Pill (AAA) were activated, and today rosters expand.

The Boys start a 3 game weekend series with the first place D-Backs at China Basin tomorrow.  They've got 6 v the Rattlers in the final 22 games.  I think they've got to win 5 out of 6 and 18 or 19 of 22 to have a shot at the division.

In lieu of a playoff/rally beard: this year I am homaging the great Barry Zito #75 and Tim Lincecum #55 in all of their post-World Series/pre-Season-of-Defense glory and I will do a rally/playoff mustache.  I shaved this morning, and I will grow the push broom out until mathematical elimination of championship repeat.

W....TF?

So, I stepped into media blackout after the final A's game because my wife had a kid

 

my daughter Tyler

 

And I come back and all hell has broken loose.

• 3-6 since then
• Swept by Marlins at home
• Posey has a broken leg (clean or not, unnecessary hit)
• Belt came back and went down
• Crawford might be purty good
• The D-Backs are in first place and the Rockies are below .500?

As my son would say, "That's cwazy!"

Game 37: B-Teamers complete sweep of D-Backs, 3-2

Giants are defintiely on a roll.  2 sweeps, a 6-0 home stand and the boys are looking good.

Hitting: they're scraping by with just enough, but that's how they do it.  A line-up with Whiteside, Schierholtz, DeRo and Miggy popped just enough hits to let Torres and Huffy come in.

Truth is Schierholtz is looking good, 3 for 4 with a double and a RBI.  Plus, Parra hit a ball that bounced off the bricks in right field, Schierholtz played it perfectly and gunned a strike to second base to cut Parra down.

Big question time:  How about an OF of Torres, Ross, and Schierholtz?  (Burrell and Rowand off the bench)

Who plays left?  Ross?  Seems reasonable.  At least until Schierholtz starts to sputter.

Bochy sat Weezy for the save, let Lopez get it.  And Cainer pitched very well, even doffed his hat.

Game 36: Finally! Tejada shows life, Giants win in comeback fashion 4-3

Miggy hit a quick-hopping ground ball into left field to start the Giants scoring in the bottom of the 4th: Posey scored and D-Back's pitcher Armando Gallaraga's shutout was broken, the score was 3-1.  In his next at bat, Miggy smacked a single-and-a-half that he stretched into a double.  Tagged up on a deep fliy to right, and scored on Andres Torres's ground rule double to give the Giants the lead 4-3.

Which they kept.

Sanchie took a few innings to get going, but eventually calmed down and was rewarded with the win after 6 strong.  He could've probably went 7, but Miggy's double pushed Bochy to pinch hit for him.

Weezy closed out his 12th save of the season, he gave up a lead off double, and walked a guy, but got out of it via K, ground ball to first base, and a very quick footed play from Andres Torres in deep left center that stole a double and got the final out.

Giants have won 5 in a row.  That's a damn streak.  And if they win this afternoon, it'll be a hot damn streak.

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Game 35: Lincecum gets a no decision because Mark DeRosa Sucks, but Giants win 1-0

Lincecum gets a no decision because Mark DeRosa sucks (0 for 3, GDP, 5 LOB)

But, my man Rossi stays clutch-- he so is, walk off win.

Timmy looked no-no good.

Weezy has 3 of their 4 wins on the homestand (haha)

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Upcoming: 3 vs Arizona

Giants are hot suddenly.  A sweep vs Colorado will do that to you.  Unfortunately, 3 of their top 4 batting averages are on the DL and the 4th is a pitcher, but they've been piecing it together.  Let's not forget that if their pitching keeps it close, they just need to string together 4 or 5 hits in a 7 batter inning once a game to win.

When everyone is expected to hit .275, and everyone starts off hitting .220, you know that the hits will come in a bunch.

Giants took 2 out of 3 from the D-Backs in April, and the one that they dropped shouldn't have been dropped.

This week they send a pumped up Freak, a steady Cainer, and a temperamental pitcher to the mound.  I <3 it when the top three start a series.

2 our of 3 is not necessary but expected.  A sweep would officially make it a hard core win streak, which they could continue into this next weekend Chicago, and then only need to pull a .500 record when going to Colorado and LA before coming home next next weekend.

Rossi might be starting to hit (I hope), I think Buster's almost out of his slump.  He's really hitting the ball on the screws.  I'd like to see him go deep and get a couple extra base hits on top of that to avoid a double dip slump which comes sometimes when you quite bust through a slump (Miggy's in like a quadruple dip slump aka the career-ender).

Anyways, 2 out 0f 3, but if Sanchie pulls it together, a nice little streak maybe?

Game 15: Poor defense coughs up lead, cool Giants' bats give D-Backs win in extras; 6-5

It's tough to win when you can only get 6 hits in 12 innings, and your starting pitcher gives up 8 hits and 4 runs in less than 7, but a Buster Posey game-tying blast and a Panda Bear following him directly with the go ahead gave the Giants ample opportunity to win.

Unfortunately, Miguel Tejada's spotty defense led to an extended 8th inning, and the D-Backs tied it up and then won in 12.

Miggy is not impressing me.  The guy's got a decent cluthc potential, but a lot of times that clutch is making up for runs or baserunners that he gives up.  Even in cases where defense extends the inning but doesn't lead to runs-scored: the extra pitches that a pitcher has to throw gives the other team that much more exposure to the pitcher.

Giants finish with 2 out of 3 from the D-Backs, their 3rd series win in a row.  Tonight they head into Denver to play 3 vs the Rocks.  This'll be where mettle is tested.

In other news: Zito'son the DL.  Vogelsong will take his place in the ro-ro.

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Game 14: Zito gets hurt just as he started making the game interesting, Giants win 5-3

Giants clinch the series with their 4th consecutive win Saturday night. 

Buster hit a 2 run ding dong in the 1st, and the Giants jumped out to an early lead.  But 2 runs is not a safe lead with Z on the mound and he promptly gave up 2 in the second (one on a Zito error).

2 batters after giving up the lead, Z lunged after a bunt back to the mound, came down funny on his right foot and sprained it.

Mota came in and pitched 1 run ball over the next 4.1.  His longest outting ever.

Offensively, the Buster dinger might have been the lone highlight, especially after they hit into 5 double play over the 5 innings that followed Buster's blast.

But Fred doubled in Rowand in the 6th to tie the game at 3, then singled in a couple runs the next inning to put the Boys up for good.

Rowand got 3 hits.  He seems to be hitting for average this year and might be making a claim to create more drama in the outfield.  (or perhaps increasing his trade value)  Rowand is 7 for his last 17 at bats in the last 4 games -- impressive enough, but then take into account that on Friday he was 0 for 5.  Thusfar, Row-Waaand is hitting .359.

Belt might be climbing out of his start-of-the-career funk.  A pinch hit last night put his average up to .217.  About 60 points higher than this time last week.

The Boys are starting to play well, get on base.  If only we could cut out the double plays -- Oh how frustrating.  I would have rather won today over yesterday, so I guess they're just going to have to sweep the D-backs in their own house.  Ha ha.

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Game 13: Cainer pitches 6 strong, Panda goes yard, Giants win 5-2

Didn't watch the game tonight, checked in a bit on MLB.com and listened to the bottom of the 6th on the radio.

Panda Bear went yard in the 1st, which was nice because they had a couple runners on with 2 outs.  It's nice to see the Boys clean up on a rally.

Cainer ran out of steam in the 6th, like right on top of his 100th pitch.  Got a little harry there.  Lopez and Wilson got a little drama going in the 9th too.

Looking at the box score: Tejada hit his 4th double on the year, knocked in Sandoval in the 3rd.  Posey was 2 for 4.  Cainer had another great outing.  6 IP, 4 hits 2 walks and only 1 run.  He's 2-0 with an ERA under 1.5 and he is looking good. 

Weez got save 3.

Tomorrow is the gravy game, if the Giants can pull a win, I'd expect them to sweep the series.  If not, they should still pull out the last game and take momentum in Colorado.

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EDIT 10:43 p.m.

Just realized that Daniel Hudson had 10ks in 6 innings.  Sheesh, talk about major whiffage.

Upcoming: 3 @ Arizona

The Giants first non-Opening Day-related road trip will whisk them away to the magical land that they occupied not 3 weeks ago: Phoenix, Arizona.

The Giants will send Cain, Zito, and Bumgarner agaist Daniel Hudson, Joe Saunders, and Barry Enright.  Combined those 3 D-Back pitchers are 0-4, but Hudson is sporting an ERA just above 3 (the other 2 are at an eRA of 6)

Cainer should be able to handle the Zonas, even with their "best" pitcher on the mound. 

I worry about guys that have high ERAs after 2 starts because you know that they're due for a reaosnable start.

Saunders gives up baserunners, whereas Enright is a bit more stingy in that department.  I see another bullpen game in Z's future, but I see Maddy pitching a little more comfortably against a sub-par team.

Saunders will let the Giants hit, and I hope that it'll wake up Belt in that game in particular.  The Giants are going to have at least one 6, 7, or 8-run game, and I think that middle game will be the horse race.  It should also be the gravy game.

Game 3 moight be lower scoring, but I'd like to see Maddy take a 4-1 win in his pocket and go 7.

The way Panda Bear and Fred have been hitting, and with the hopes of an andres Torres return by Saturday, plus the Giants on an upswing, nothing would be better than taking a 3 game sweep into Colorado next week.  That would also put them 3 games over .500.

Road Trip Preview

Now that the season has "officially" begun, and now that there will be very few occasions for pre-game ceremonies or Sammy Hagar-worthy National Anthems, we can look at the Giants first legitimate road trip.

In-division road trips are never anything to scoff at, even if one of the locations is Phoenix versus the hapless D-Backs. 

Their first destination, Phoenix, will be a decent test for the back end of the ro-ro.  Whilst we all have enormous confidence in Cainer, Z and Bummy have been less-than-adequate in their first two starts.  And the Diamondbacks love to take all of nothing swings.  Cut down on the location mistakes, give 6 and let your lively bullpen arms blow hard cheese past the yuckadoos from Zona, the Giants should still take 2 out of 3.

The Rockies are another story.  Whereas the Dodgers came out of the gate looking to show everyone that they are actually a quality team, especially now that they're Manny-free; the Rockies have no need to prove their worth.  With a best-in-MLB 10-2 start, a 6 game winning streak, and home field advantage on their side, the Rocks are laying claim to the NL West throne.

Even with their best pitcher out for a bit, their hitting has pretty much cashed them in versus all opponents.  Tulo's got 7 dingers, this Herrerra kid's hitting .458 and the team has scored 68 runs in 12 games.

The only condolence is that their current 7-1 streak (6-0 in the last 6) comprises itself on 2 4-game series vs the Mets and the Pirates.  But, all 8 games were on the road.

The Giants will send Timmy, Sanchie, and Cainer against the Colorados, so we'll be praying for 2 ou of 3, and I foresee Cain pitching the rubber match.

Offensively, the boys are waking up, and the trip to the hot air and the thin air ought to spark Belt.  If he scuffles ont his trip, he's definitely headed back to AAA.