Giants Sign Brad Penny and A Day Off to Look At What's Ahead

Brad Penny cleared waivers today and as expected, the Giants signed him for the remainder of the season. Penny will pitch in the #5 slot previously occupied by Ryan Sadowski and Joe Martinez.

Penny's numbers with the Red Sox aren't pretty: he was 7-8 with an abysmal 5.61 ERA, a WHIP of 1.53, and an opp. BA of .299. He also has a reputation of being somewhat of a headcase. However, I think this is still a good acquisition by the Giants. Penny has had very good success pitching in the National League, and we all know that pitching in the NL West is a hell of a lot easier than pitching against the Yankees and Rays. The Giants won't ask much of Penny; if he merely goes 5 or 6 innings while keeping them in the game, the Giants will be happy. Penny is set to hit free-agency at the end of the season, and so, you can count on him to have some extra motivation and to keep his mouth shut. Also, he will relish facing the Dodgers, the team that he left last season on terrible terms. The Giants gave up nothing to acquire Penny, and they're only paying him $100,000, so overall, it's a low-risk high-upside move.

The Giants enter September tied with the Rockies for the Wild Card lead and 6 back of the Dodgers. I'm going to say that the Braves, Marlins, and Cubs are done. The Braves and Marlins both got embarrassed by the lowly Padres at home, and the Cubs, who signaled they were throwing in the towel by placing Rich Harden on waivers, have their own multitude of issues.

The Giants easily play the toughest schedule in relation to the Dodgers and Rockies. The Giants begin a difficult six-game road trip in Philly and Milwaukee, then after three at home against the Padres, they play nine straight against the Dodgers and Rockies. They'll also host the Cubs at home for four games towards the end of September. On the other hand, the Dodgers will play only nine games for the rest of the season against teams with winning records: the Giants and Rockies. Besides that, they face a healthy dosage of the DBacks, Padres, Pirates, and Nationals. Safe to say that the Dodgers will clinch the division sometime in September. The Rockies play most of their remaining games at Coors Field, but along with playing the Giants and Dodgers, they will also face a tough task against the Cardinals. The keys for the Giants to sustain their run will be keeping up their stellar starting pitching, come up with timely hits on the road, and regain their health. Freddy Sanchez will be a welcome addition this week, and the Giants need Bengie Molina back in the lineup and Pablo Sandoval at 100%. No matter how this season ends, we will all be grateful for exciting baseball in San Francisco for the first time in a long while.

Giants Sweep The Rockies

After last Monday's heartbreaker in Denver, I wrote off the Giants' postseason chances. Many of us Giants fans did. Last weekend in Colorado was miserable, and Ryan Spilborghs' grand slam was the icing on the cake.

Bruce Bochy said after Monday's game that he was curious to see how his troops would respond. This team showed its resiliency yet again during this homestand.

The cure for all of the Giants' ills last weekend was simply coming home to the friendly confines of AT&T Park, where they are a dominant 44-21. Except for Thursday's 11-0 beating at the hands of the Diamondbacks, the Giants reversed their disappointing road trip with a 5-1 homestand. The pitching, as usual, was fantastic, but the Giants won these five games with some longball magic. Travis Ishikawa hit a 3-run HR on Tuesday in the 8th inning to break a 2-2 tie, Bengie Molina had his Kirk Gibson moment on Wednesday, Pablo Sandoval homered both Friday and Saturday, and Edgar Renteria had his biggest moment as a Giants today with a grand slam to lay the groundwork for a Giants sweep. Isn't it nice to score runs? This team doesn't need to be an offensive juggernaut to be formiddable because their pitching will always keep them in games. But too often has this lineup been inept, and we saw this homestand that when the Giants produce timely hits, they're awfuly tough to beat.

The Giants' rotation lined up perfectly this weekend with Lincecum, Zito, and Cain, and as expected, the pitching was stellar all series. The three starters combined went 22.1 innings and allowed only 5 runs (including on a day where Matt Cain wasn't himself) with 23 strikeouts. The Rockies had no chance against the Giants' pitching. Lincecum struggled on the road trip, but back in the cool weather of San Francisco, he was his dominant self again, which was a very encouraging sign. But the Giant who shined more than anyone else was Barry Zito. Zito rose to the challenge in his biggest start in a Giants uniform and pitched like the Zito of the 2002 Oakland A's, allowing only 1 run in 8.1 innings with 7 strikeouts. He has a stingy 1.92 ERA in his last nine starts and since the All-Star break, he has not allowed more than 3 runs in a single outing. Zito was Public Enemy #1 for all Giants fans the past two seasons, but he has won the respect and admiration of the Giants faithful through his outstanding pitching all year. You have to give a ton of credit and praise to Zito. He withstood a ton of antagonism from Giants' fans (some deservedly so, some over-the-top) and he worked his tail off to regain his velocity and tighten his mechanics. So many players become disgustingly complacent after receiving a monster contract (see Adrian Beltre), but Zito has accomplished his mission to recapture his form that made him one of baseball's very best. He deserved every bit of the standing ovation and curtain call yesterday. I don't want to hear any more anti-Zito nonsense. The Giants wouldn't be in contention without him.

The Giants now embark on another tough road trip to Philadelphia and Milwaukee. Being a grad student in Philly, I'm pumped that the Giants will be here and I'll be going to either Wednesday's or Thursday's game. Don't think that the Phillies have forgotten about losing 3 out of 4 in San Francisco. The Giants better bring their A-Game to Citizens Bank Park because the Phillies are legitimate World-Series contenders. Also, the Rockies will face the reeling and dysfunctional Mets at home in an effort to return to their winning ways. The sweep of the Rockies was magical, but it won't mean anything unless the Giants can sustain the momentum. Stay tuned.

Giants 5, D'Backs 4

We knew that the first victory following yesterday's nightmare wouldn't come easy. Indeed, it looked like it was going to be another agonizing defeat tonight after Nate Schierholtz overthrew the cutoff man allowing the go-ahead run to be in scoring position with Brian Wilson losing steam. But Sergio Romo came in and promptly made all Giants players and fans breathe a collective sigh of relief.

The pitching matchup of Dan Haren against Matt Cain lived up to the hype. Both of them pitched brilliantly. Matt Cain received well-deserved run support in the 1st half of the season, but all of that has disappeared. In his last three outings, he's allowed only 5 earned runs in 22.1 innings, but with no wins to show for it. Cain lowered his already sparkling ERA down to 2.39 with his effort tonight. Cain is a strikeout/fly-ball pitcher, but tonight, he was able to get the D'Backs hitters to pound the ball into the ground. Tonight Cain got 12 ground-ball outs against 4 fly-ball outs, the reverse of his usual ratio. I can't even imagine the frustration of the Giants' Big Three of Lincecum, Cain, and Zito as they are routinely denied victories by this shabby lineup. But all they can do is keep the opposition from crossing the plate as little as possible.

Player of the game: Travis Ishikawa, who hit a go-ahead 3-run bomb in the 8th inning, but also played some nice defense on a pickoff move from Jeremy Affeldt to nail down Ryan Roberts. Ishikawa has had a few of these all-around excellent games at home this season, but overall, he has been a very inconsistent player for the Giants this year. But the Giants don't win tonight without him.

The Giants cannot settle for 2 out of 3 this series. They have to beat down the bad teams, and the D'Backs are one of the worst in baseball. Let's look for Jonathan Sanchez to continue his run of excellent pitching tomorrow.

Smoke Still Coming Out Of My Ears

No, I'm still not over this loss. No Giants fan is, and none of us will be over it for years to come. Ryan Spilborghs joined Scott Spezio, Jose Cruz Jr., and Steve Finley as villains to the Giants fan base.

I'm dismissing all the talk that the Giants can right the ship and still make a run at the postseason. It's not going to happen simply because the Giants are their own worst enemy. No team wastes a season's worth of stellar pitching like this Giants team. No team becomes worse with runners in scoring position like the Giants.

I'm so tired of Mike Krukow and Duane Kuiper talk about how hard the Giants battled, and that they should be proud of their effort. Baloney! These players in a single season make more money than most of us will see in our lifetimes, and we're now supposed to evaluate their effort? In any professional setting, you are judged solely on your performance, period. And that's the way it should be. When the time came for the Giants to do their jobs, which they're paid so lavishly to do, they failed.

It's true that no one expected the Giants to be playing meaningful games in the thick of the wild-card race in late August. Owner Bill Neukom publicly declared that the goal for this team was a winning season. Even when the Giants fail to reach October, this season will not have been a failure by any stretch. But Major League Baseball is not like the NBA, where over half the teams make the postseason. In baseball, there's no guarantee whatsoever of making a run towards the playoffs, as only 8 of 30 teams reach the postseason (see the 2005 Giants). Thus, when the opportunity to make the postseason arrives, you have to seize the moment, no matter the pre-season expectations. Instead of rising to the occasion, the Giants have lowered their quality of play.

I will watch the rest of the games, because I watch no matter what. But I've already started looking at the 2010 Free Agent Class.

Rockies 6, Giants 4 (14 innings): The Giants Say Goodbye To Their Season

Good riddance, postseason dreams; the Giants just ended their season tonight. Well, at least they hung around this long.

Damon Bruce was fantastic on KNBR after the game. Line of the night: "This is the type of game that gets radio hosts fired! I'm sure Larry Krueger was sacked after a game like this!"

The three worst Giants losses of the last decade: Game 6 of the 2002 World Series (a game that myself and my fellow Giants fans will never get over), Game 4 of the 2003 NLDS (Jose Cruz Jr's infamous dropped fly-ball), and tonight's soul-crushing defeat in Colorado. People can argue the following: they had a decent 5-6 road trip, and they're only 4 games out of the Wild Card with 37 games left. Well, all of that is a bunch of bull!! The Giants, if they knew how to close games, would have had a 9-2 road trip. They should have swept the Reds and even more so, the Rockies, against whom they had leads in all four games of this series!!! This 4-game set against the Rockies proved more than anything else that the 2009 Giants are simply not good enough to hang with the class of the National League like the Dodgers and Rockies, and that they have absolutely no business playing October baseball.

The really good teams don't blow five straight games either with pathetic, unwatchable hitting or with bullpen meltdowns. The real contenders make productive outs to move runners up a base. The teams that deserve to play in the postseason grind-out their at-bats and come through with runners in scoring position, especially with less than 2 outs. The high-caliber squads, as Mike Singletary puts it, "impose their will" on their opposition. The Giants don't do any of the above.

It looked like it was going to be the win of not only this year, but the last six years. Brian Wilson buckled down and single-handedly extended the game to give his team a chance to break through. Of course, it should have never gotten to the 14th inning, because the Giants had the game right there for them in the top of the 9th inning after a leadoff double by Ryan Garko. But Bruce Bochy had a brain cramp and forgot to manage. He didn't have Rowand bunt the pinch-runner Joe Martinez to third and what ensued was three awful at-bats that left Martinez stranded at second base. How does a manager who knows his team has trouble scoring runs not play for the 1-run lead in the ninth inning with your closer waiting to come in? Awful game management by Bochy. The Giants finally did score in the top of the 14th inning, when Eugenio Velez brought home Edgar Renteria and Travis Ishikawa with an opposite-field triple. Randy Winn allowed an insurance run to score with some crafty baserunning on a groundball hit by Juan Uribe. The Giants had what looked like a secure 4-1 lead.

Then the nightmare began. All Brandon Medders had to do was lay a fastball right down the middle to get Dexter Fowler, who was completely out of the at-bat after fouling a pitch off his shin. But Medders failed on the easiest pitch of his career, and Fowler reached 1st base on the walk. Bruce Bochy summoned Justin Miller after Medders got Clint Barmes to pop out. Miller clearly wasn't over his Saturday-night clunker, as he allowed a single by Troy Tulowitzki, walked Chris Iannetta, and most egregious, WALKED RELIEF-PITCHER ADAM EATON!!! The walk to Eaton made the score 4-2 and then off of an 0-1 fastball from Merkin Valdez came the most haunting walk-off grand slam by Ryan Spilbourghs. Medders and Miller showed tonight why the Giants got them off the scrap heap for nothing: Medders couldn't get a hitter on one leg out and Miller walked a pitcher who's had 13 at-bats and no hits all year!

The Colorado Rockies are playing like a team of destiny, as they are now 53-26 since they replaced Clint Hurdle with Jim Tracy as manager. They will make the playoffs, and they will be a force to be reckoned with come October. With the likes of Jason Marquis, Ubaldo Jiminez, and Jorge De La Rosa, they boast a strong starting staff. The back of their bullpen is solid with Franklin Morales, Rafael Betancourt, and Huston Street. They play fantastic defense (Troy Tulowitzki is a hell of a player), and also...they kind of a do a good job swinging those bats. Watch out Dodgers, because these Rockies just might snatch away that NL West title.

Barry Zito stepped up today and delivered another great outing. But right on cue, the Giants didn't back him up at all. On any other team, Zito would have 13 wins. Yes, his command was off as he issued six walks, but bottom line, he held the Rockies to only 1 run in 6 innings. That is fantastic pitching. He lowered his sparkling post-All-Star-break ERA to 2.06. Plain and simple, I've never seen any team in my life squander so many stellar outings by its starting staff. Absolutely pathetic.

I'm going to go fume for the rest of the night.

Rockies 4, Giants 2

The Giants have experienced their fair share of crushing defeats, but today's loss takes the cake. After yesterday's debacle, in which they squandered a 6-1 lead, the Giants had their ace on the hill today with the chance to take the edge in this series. The Giants' record after scoring first has been stellar, but as the past two games have shown, no lead is safe against the Rockies, whose roster features 7 players with double-digit homeruns.

No one will welcome the fog and cooler temperatures of San Francisco more than Tim Lincecum, who had his second straight shaky outing on the road. He limited the damage to three runs, but he clearly was not himself today, as evidenced by his erratic command. 5 walks is absolutely inexcusable in any outing, but especially at Coors Field against the Rockies offense. Seth Smith's homerun to give Rockies the lead in the 7th inning came after...you guessed it...a walk to Omar Quintanilla, who's hitting a paltry .167. Lincecum has uncharacteristically issued 8 walks in his last 13 innings. Whatever mechanical problems Lincecum is having now, he needs to get them fixed before his next start on Friday against the same Rockies. With the Giants so reliant on their starting pitching, they NEED to win every game that Lincecum starts.

When Edgar Renteria is providing your team's entire offensive production, you know you have a problem. Sure, it was great to see him go deep to the opposite field for his first homerun since April 24th, but the fact that he was the sole source of offense demonstrates how badly everyone else looked today against Ubaldo Jiminez. Situational hitting was yet again a problem for the Giants today. They had a chance to promptly tie the score in the top of the 8th, but Sandoval and Molina both couldn't come through. If the Giants miss out on the postseason, it's going to be because of poor situational hitting all across the board.

Tomorrow is the biggest game of the season for the Giants. Any other time, us Giants fans would cringe at the sight of Barry Zito taking the mound in a big game, but he's the Giants' best starter right now, with a 2.36 ERA since the All-Star break. He has to pitch his heart out and the Giants have to have better at-bats in order to avoid falling 4 games behind the Rockies.

Some final thoughts: The Matt Holliday deal has worked out extremely well for the Rockies. Huston Street has 33 saves in 34 chances and Carlos Gonzalez has become a key cog in the Rockies lineup...Did Bengie Molina forget that the count was full on that horrible swing he took on a slider in the dirt with Pablo Sandoval running? Hello Bengie, if you take that pitch a foot outside, you go to 1st base...Many callers on KNBR have suggested putting Aaron Rowand back into the leadoff spot, which is what the Giants did in late May when the team was struggling. Rowand immediately caught fire and the Giants steamrolled into the All-Star break. It might not be a bad idea to reinstate Rowand at the top of the lineup, especially because the Eugenio Velez experiment must stop, but also because the team is scuffling now like they were in May. Who knows; it just might work again.

Rockies 14, Giants 11

The Rockies grounds crew must have forgotten to turn on the humidor. Tonight's shootout reminded everyone of baseball in Denver in the mid-1990s, where every game was 14-11, or 12-10, or 15-14. Everything looked fantastic until that dreadful 6th inning. Nate Schierholtz homered off of a very tough lefty, Ryan Garko hit his first bomb as a Giant, and even Joe Martinez had two hits. But the 6th inning was a debacle of epic proportions, featuring an awful outing by Justin Miller (who's been very good overall this year), a rare defensive mistake by Schierholtz, and the Rockies deep lineup coming to life. Blowing a 6-1 lead in any ballpark is inexcusable, and tonight's loss makes last night's victory that much more of a relief. However, you had to expect that one of these four games was going to turn into a signature Rockies slugfest. You have to credit the Giants for making the end of this game interesting at the least, with Jim Tracy forced to bring in Huston Street to get the final two outs. Aaron Rowand has caught fire, hitting .542 with 3 HR in his last six games. Ryan Garko looks like he's shaken off his early struggles since joining the Giants, as he smacked two towering homeruns tonight. The Giants have obviously shown up to battle this series.

The Giants are still set up very nicely to leave Denver either with a split or a series win with Tim Lincecum going tomorrow and Barry Zito on the mound on Monday. Lincecum is almost always money after a Giants loss, and I'm calling it right here that he has a brilliant outing tomorrow to give the Giants a win.

Giants 6, Rockies 3

The overarching theme of the 2009 San Francisco Giants has been this team's resiliency. After such a disheartening loss yesterday in Cincinnati, the Giants could have easily carried the disappointments of that game into tonight's matchup against the Rockies. Instead, they forgot about yesterday's clunker, and they responded with ferocity and grit to take the first game of this crucial 4-game series. There's nothing better than drawing first blood and making the opposing team play catch-up early, and the Giants did just that by striking for 3 first-inning runs off of Aaron Cook, who stymied the Giants in their previous meeting. Bruce Bochy called on his veteran players to step up to the task, and they responded tonight. Both Edgar Renteria and Bengie Molina had two hits (Molina with a key RBI double in the 1st inning), and Aaron Rowand banged out 3 hits including an opposite-field 3-run homerun to break the game open (a homerun that completely fooled Duane Kuiper). Tonight's win was huge, not only in terms of gaining ground in the standings, but also in increasing the odds of the Giants leaving Denver with a split of the four games with Tim Lincecum and Barry Zito going on Sunday and Monday.

Jonathan Sanchez followed up his solid outing in New York last Sunday with another very good start, although it would have been nice to see him go more than 5 innings. He struck out 8 batters in 5 innings, at times making some of the Rockies' hitters look silly (that splitter he threw to Garrett Atkins in the 3rd inning was absolutely filthy). The Rockies managed only two hits off Sanchez, lowering his opp. batting average to .222. However, Sanchez took himself out of the game with four walks, including one to the Rockies pitcher Josh Fogg in the 5th inning that made Bruce Bochy livid. Sanchez is blessed with so many gifts, and if he ever is able to gain consistent command of his pitches, he has the potential to be a monster, a pitcher who could easily rack up 15 wins in a season. There aren't many pitchers in the big leagues who have such explosive fastballs that hitters cannot catch up to like Sanchez does. With how dominant he looks at times, we can see why Brian Sabean was reluctant to trade him. He's made such marked improvements this season, and hopefully he can continue this upward trend. Add Sanchez to Lincecum, Cain, and a hot Barry Zito, and the Giants have perhaps the deepest pitching staff in the majors that will keep them in the hunt until the very end.

What more can you say about Jeremy Affeldt? He's been one of the best free-agent signings with a sparkling 1.93 ERA in 55 appearances. He sealed the victory for the Giants tonight by getting Todd Helton to ground into an inning-ending double play with the bases loaded. Affeldt has now induced 16 double-play ground balls this season 46.2 innings of work. That's just ridiculous. What a great pickup by Brian Sabean!

Yes, tonight's victory was fantastic, but there are still lots of issues with this team's offense, particularly situational hitting. The Giants had chances in the 6th, 7th, and 8th innings tonight (runners at 2nd and 3rd with 1 out in the 6th and 7th) to really slam the door on this game, yet they didn't come through. Sure, they had a 6-1 lead, but the combination of hitter-friendly Coors Field and the deep Rockies lineup makes no lead safe when playing the Rockies in Denver. Also, very good, playoff-contending teams simply do not squander as many opportunities as the Giants do. All across the board, they have to improve their at-bats with runners in scoring position, especially as they are already a team that struggles to score runs in the first place.

Some final tid-bits: The Giants are catching a huge break this series with the hot-hitting Giants-killer Troy Tulowitzki sidelined with the flu...After an 0-15 slump and a horrible error in left field in the 1st inning, Eugenio Velez, as he should, will probably be relegated back to the bench. The Giants' best chance to win games is when Winn, Rowand, and Schierholtz start in the outfield...Fred Lewis had probably his worst at-bat of the season in the 6th inning tonight with runners on 2nd and 3rd and only one out, and that is saying a lot considering how awful he's been this year. The great Bruce Jenkins of the San Francisco Chronicle has written many times about the marked difference between a good athlete and a ballplayer, and Fred Lewis clearly is not the latter. The time to say goodbye to Lewis was four months ago.

A HUUUUUGGGEEE Series This Weekend

Tonight begins the real test of the Giants' 11-game road trip: 4 games in Denver against a Colorado Rockies team that has been red-hot ever since Jim Tracy took over as manager. The last time the Giants were in Denver, aside from Matt Cain's superb outing, they had no chance against the Rockies. However, yesterday's egg against Cincinnati makes it doubly important for the Giants to AT LEAST split the 4 games with Colorado, maybe even win 3 out of 4. Thus, Jonathan Sanchez's start tonight is crucial. His last two outings on the road (Houston and New York) have been fantastic, and hopefully he can repeat himself against the Rockies tonight. However, both the Astros and Mets do not feature the thump and balance of the Rockies. The Giants have demonstrated resiliency all year, and this weekend would be a perfect time to show it again.

Reds 2, Giants 1 (10 innings)

Is there any other team in baseball that can score only 2 runs after banging out 21 hits? I didn't think it was possible, but for the second straight game, the Giants managed only 1 run despite getting double-digit hits. Who else does that?! Sure, the Giants took two out of three from the Reds, but they absolutely should have won today's game and they wasted yet another superb outing from Matt Cain, who lowered his ERA to 2.43. The Giants had runners in scoring position in the 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th innings today and couldn't bring one of those runners home. Their lone run scored on a strikeout/wild pitch while Ryan Garko was batting.

The Giants should have won this game in the 8th inning, when they had runners at 1st and 3rd with only one out. Travis Ishikawa was due up to hit, but Bruce Bochy took him out in favor of the right-handed Edgar Renteria to face the left-handed Arthur Rhodes. On the surface, this move makes sense, but in this case, Bochy should have stuck with Ishikawa. Ishikawa has a .333 average against left-handed pitching, significantly higher than his .255 average against righties. Ishikawa also has power to drive the ball to the outfield, which is what this sacrifice-fly scenario called for. On the other hand, Renteria, with his sore elbow, hasn't shown any ability this year to drive the ball. He has only 19 extra-base hits all year. Surely enough, Rhodes induced an inning-ending double play ball off Renteria's bat.

I've never thought that Eugenio Velez could be a reliable everyday player, and he confirmed my thinking today. It's true that he can hit a little bit and show some flashes of power, but simply put, he has terrible baseball instincts. In the 7th inning today, he had a chance to give the Giants the lead with Eli Whiteside at 3rd base with one out. However, he flailed at a first-pitch fastball that was way inside and up and popped out to shortstop. He has to know that in a fly-ball situation, it's impossible to drive that pitch to the outfield to score a run. He's also demonstrated a few times in his run the past few weeks that he's a major defensive liability. He takes horrible routes to catch fly-balls and popups and he can't play a clean 2nd base (remember that game against the Dodgers last week?). He's blessed with great speed, yet he never uses it in the batter's box or on the basepaths. When has he attempted to bunt for a hit? When has he stolen 2nd base with two outs to get in scoring position? Velez might have some value as a fourth outfielder, but his inability to grasp so many nuances of the game will keep him from nailing down a starting job.

Another walk-off homerun given up by Bob Howry. The Giants signed him this past offseason to be the 8th-inning guy in front of Brian Wilson, but instead, he's turned into Tyler Walker 2009. Sure, he can throw a mid-90s fastball, but it has no movement and as demonstrated this season, major-league hitters are feasting on it.

The Giants begin a crucial four-game set in Colorado tomorrow and real contenders don't squander victories like the Giants did today. They're going to consistently get good outings from their starters, but they have to buckle down and grind-out their at-bats if they're going to have any shot at October baseball.

Giants 1, Reds 0

A good 'ol pitcher's duel tonight in Cincinnati. After scoring 18 runs in their previous two games, the Giants tonight looked...well, like their usual selves, spraying bloop singles into the outfield. Bronson Arroyo pitched very well tonight, scattering nine hits over eight innings. He kept all of the Giants' hitters off balance except for Nate Schierholtz, who proved once again that he deserves and needs to be in the lineup every day. Schierholtz was the only Giant to drive the ball against Arroyo, and on a team comprised of singles-hitters, Schierholtz must be in the lineup every game because of his ability to find the gaps in the outfield.

You gotta feel bad for Barry Zito; he really is this year what Matt Cain was last year. Zito pitched brilliantly tonight, allowing only three baserunners in 6 innings while striking out four and walking only one. Although he ordinarily would have stayed in the game, Bruce Bochy made the right call taking Zito out in favor of Fred Lewis with two runners in scoring position. He deserved to get a win tonight, but as has been the case all season, he fell victim to the worst run support in the National League among starting pitchers (2.92 runs per 9 innings). He showed flashes of his 2002 Cy-Young winning form tonight as he was able to locate his curveball all over the strike zone and plant his fastball consistently on the inside corner against the Reds' right-handed-heavy lineup. Yes, Zito is never going to live up to his massive contract, but with the exception of a couple of clunkers (1 against the Angels, 1 against the Padres), he's pitched extremely well this year. Frankly, I'm getting tired of the anti-Zito banter on KNBR. His 2.36 ERA since the All-Star break is better than those of Lincecum and Cain, and he's part of the reason why the Giants' starting pitching staff boasts the best ERA in all of baseball (3.50).

Another stellar performance tonight from the bullpen, as they threw three perfect innings. The bullpen hit a bump in the road a couple of weeks ago, but it looks like they've overcome it. It's great to see Sergio Romo and Jeremy Affeldt back in their 1st-half form. With the way Romo, Affeldt, and Wilson are throwing the ball now, if the Giants have a lead after six or seven innings, game over.

The Giants haven't swept a series on the road all season. Let's hope they change that tomorrow.

Giants 8, Reds 5 (10 innings)

Any other game where the Giants fell behind early by four runs, I would have said "Game over; let's get them tomorrow." However, today, despite the quick 4-0 deficit, you had to feel that the Giants were going to get back into the game and at least make it interesting. Perhaps it was Homer Bailey's inflated ERA and inexperience, but also the fact that the Giants were making solid contact against Bailey all game, even in line-drive outs. Lo and behold, the Giants pulled off one of their most impressive victories of the 2009 season.

Players of the game: Randy Winn and Ryan Garko, hands down. It looks like Winn is starting to heat up, and we Giants fans know how much of a catalyst he can be when he's swinging a hot bat. Not only did he come through in the 6th inning with a clutch, two-out, two-run double, but he also drew a key walk in the 10th inning in front of Garko.

Ryan Garko's first few weeks as a Giant haven't gone as well as we had expected, but hopefully he'll begin to relax and demonstrate that he can be a valuable contributor to the Giants, just as he was in Cleveland. Although he hasn't hit much as a Giant (only a .208 average coming into today's game), as he showed tonight and also last Saturday against Johan Santana, Garko has a remarkable ability to grind out and come through in his at-bats with runners in scoring position. His knack for the clutch hit is exactly why Brian Sabean acquired him at the trading deadline, and I have a good feeling that he'll starting hitting for power soon.

Tim Lincecum, who is from just outside Seattle, and hot and humid weather just don't go together well. His line tonight: 6 IP, 6 H, 5 ER, 3 BB, 2 SO. He didn't have command of his pitches and it seemed like he was behind in the count against every hitter he faced. His last start in a hot and humid environment was on July 22 in Atlanta, and that game, he went 5 innings and allowed 4 runs on 7 hits (although he struck out 9 Braves that game). We're so accustomed to Lincecum dominating, but even the greatest pitchers have off nights, and let's hope that he returns to his usual self Sunday against the Rockies.

Some final tid-bits: Pablo Sandoval looked completely lost at the plate today. He struck out three times despite seeing many pitches up in the zone for him to drive. Today he was only able to foul them off. The Giants ride Sandoval so hard because he's their best hitter, but he deserves a day off and Bruce Bochy should rest him either tomorrow or Thursday...Bengie Molina, after drawing two walks today, has four walks for the month of August, which is 40% of the total number of walks he's drawn all year...Bruce Bochy has been ejected three out of the last eight games...

Giants 10, Mets 1

FINALLY!!! How long have we been waiting for the Giants to put up a crooked number on the scoreboard and blow a team out?!

Bruce Bochy held a brief team meeting before the game today, and whatever he said must have lit a fire under the Giants' belly because the team awoke from its seemingly never-ending slumber and exploded for 18 hits today. Of course, it helps that they faced a pitcher who doesn't have any business being in the Big Leagues anymore, but still, considering how pathetic this team's offense has been at times, the offensive production today was very significant.

Both Aaron Rowand and Randy Winn had a great days at the plate. Rowand went 4-5 with a HR (and a brilliant assist to throw out Corey Sullivan at home plate) and Winn went 3-5 with a double. I was ticked off to see that Nate Schierholtz wasn't starting today, but Winn followed his clutch RBI double yesterday afternoon with a very fine game. Rowand had been mired in a 1-19 slump before his 4-5 day. As maddening as Rowand and Winn are at times to us Giants fans, this team absolutely needs them if they have any shot at making the postseason. The Giants have relied on Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain, and Pablo Sandoval all season and they surely cannot carry the load by themselves the rest of the way. As Rowand and Winn go, so do the Giants go. From May 25 to the end of June, when Rowand was on fire at the plate, the Giants went 22-11. In the month of August, Rowand is batting .250 (his 4-5 day today really boosted that average) and the Giants are only 8-7. Scherholtz has shown himself to be a consistent performer this year, and the Giants cannot rely on Eugenio Velez to keep up his hitting. Thus, Rowand and Winn become especially important to the Giants' postseason chances. They demonstrated today that it's time for all of the veterans to step it up, and hopefully the others got the message (that means you, Ryan Garko).

Joe Martinez wasn't fantastic today, but he was solid, which is all you can ask for out of your 5th starter. He got some defensive help today from Rowand's nailing of Corey Sullivan at home plate and Gary Sheffield's baserunning mistake on a fly ball hit by Daniel Murphy. However, he showed the ability to get out of jams, as he pitched through two Pablo Sandoval errors. His next start will be Saturday against the Rockies, and let's hope he fares better than Ryan Sadowski did.

Time for the Giants to go into Cincinnati and do to the Reds what the Reds did to the Giants in San Francisco.

PREGAME: Giants vs. Mets

In an attempt to split the 4-game series with the Mets, the Giants will face an old friend, Livan Hernandez. Hernandez's numbers this year aren't pretty: he's 7-7 with a 5.28 ERA, with a .306 opp. batting average and a WHIP of 1.57. Yet, he's exactly the type of pitcher that the aggressive, free-swinging Giants have problems with. Hernandez will try to expose the Giants by feeding them nothing but breaking balls that tail low and away. For the Giants to have success, they'll have to try their hardest to deviate from their hack-at-the-first-pith tendencies. As Mike Krukow said on the KNBR morning show, they should, "TAKE A DAMN PITCH!!!"

Where is Nate Schierholtz in today's lineup?!