The Worst Thing In The World: Dodgers Sweep Giants

When the Giants' 2010 schedule was announced, I'm sure most fans circled this homestand against the Red Sox and Dodgers. These six games were a chance for the Giants to test how they stacked up against two playoff teams, and prove that they belong in the postseason discussion. Instead, the Giants, who generally play very well at home, went 1-5 and looked like a team of rookies just getting their feet wet instead of a veteran team with playoff aspirations. Worst of all, they were soundly swept by the Dodgers, who are now 8-4 over the two seasons at AT&T Park.

Teams generally rise to the occasion when they play tougher competition, especially when aided by sellout crowds dying to make their presence felt. They battle and grind it out for nine innings. The Giants, however, played disinterested baseball this series, and they shot themselves in the foot more than anything else with boneheaded mistakes. The 1-5 homestand dropped the Giants to a 40-37 record, 4th place in the NL West, and 5.5 games behind San Diego. Ever since the team started the season 7-2, they've gone 33-35, and 8-17 against other teams in the NL West.

Give the Dodgers credit, as painful as that is, because they played terrific baseball throughout the series. They got three superb outings from Chad Billingsley, John Ely, and head-hunter Vicente Padilla. Their bullpen pitched well too, as they didn't have to use closer Jonathan Broxton all series. They played strong defense, and they scored 16 runs in three games.

What was most impressive though about the Dodgers' play was how hard the Dodgers' hitters fought against the Giants' pitchers. The Dodgers didn't allow the Giants' starters to go deep into the games because of how many tough pitches they fouled off, waiting for the one pitch they wanted in the at-bat. Jonathan Sanchez threw 88 pitches in 5 innings today, Matt Cain threw 105 pitches in 5 innings yesterday, and Barry Zito threw 113 pitches in 6 innings on Monday. On the other hand, Vicente Padilla threw only 98 pitches in 7 innings today, an average of 14 pitches per inning. The Dodgers had 15 instances of a hitter seeing 20 pitches or more in a game this series, while the Giants only had 3. The Dodgers demonstrated how teams play winning baseball. Every team should know that it's best if you knock the starting pitcher out early, and get into the bullpen.

The Giants offense during this series resembled the performance during the series in Oakland: bad at-bats, poor situational hitting, and of course, double-plays. But it went beyond all of this, to immature baserunning and bad defense. No team can win this way.

The Giants will now embark on a crucial 11-game road trip that will lead them to the All-Star break. It's going to be a tall task for the Giants to right the ship, as they are only 15-20 on the road thus far. But because of the disastrous homestand, the Giants have to go 7-4 or better to be in good standing during the All-Star break. Hopefully the Giants observed the Dodgers closely, and saw first-hand a formula for winning baseball.

As I'm writing this post, multiple media outlets are reporting that the Giants have traded Bengie Molina to the Texas Rangers in exchange for Chris Ray and a player to be named later. This trade is good news for Giants fans. Bengie Molina was a terrific Giant: he was a two-time Willie Mac Award Winner, and he performed admirably in the cleanup spot in the lineup for two years even though everyone knew that he wasn't fit to hit in that spot. Molina, who was batting .257 with a .312 OBP and an awful .332 slugging percentage, had no place on the Giants any more, especially since his defense had significantly faded. This trade allows Buster Posey to play every day at the catcher position, which is a huge addition for the Giants. Despite his slump, Posey has to be in the lineup every day; he and Pat Burrell are the most disciplined hitters on this team. Chris Ray is a former closer, and he will provide an experienced arm to the Giants' bullpen, which is in dire need of some stability. Plus, with Posey behind the plate full time, and with Aubrey Huff able to play either first base or right field, the Bengie Molina trade will give Brian Sabean some more flexibility to acquire a proven hitter who can either play the infield or outfield.

If the Giants truly believe they are postseason contenders, they better turn up their play against Colorado, a team coming off a series win in San Diego. Almost halfway through the season, it's time for the Giants to get serious and play consistently well.

Giants Conclude Frustrating Week By Reverting To Their Bad Habits

After the sweep of the A's, and winning two of three against the Orioles, it seemed as if the Giants were coming together as a more complete team. The offense was scoring more runs with good situational at-bats and timely hitting, and the pitching staff was continuing its run as one of the best in the game.

It's amazing how quickly things can sour in two weeks, as the Giants just concluded a very disappointing 2-4 week, with series losses at Houston, who the Giants had dominated earlier this year, and at home against the Red Sox. Going back to the series in Toronto, the Giants are 3-6 in their last nine games, and are now 4.5 games behind the Padres, who just completed a 5-1 road trip against the Rays and Marlins.

In rare form, the Giants' starting pitching struggled mightily this week. Barry Zito and Matt Cain turned in their worst starts of the season on Wednesday and Thursday, Tim Lincecum went only 3 innings today, and Jonathan Sanchez, after pitching only 2.2 innings last Sunday, labored through 5.1 innings on Friday. Obviously, the Giants, a team almost too dependent on their starting pitching, are not going to win when they don't pitch. All starting pitchers fall victim to bad outings once in a while, and I'm sure that the starting staff will be back to normal soon.

However, the offense this week reverted back to the terrible play they showed during the games against the Padres and in Oakland against the A's. The Giants could have easily gone 4-2 instead of 2-4 this week, even with the shaky starting pitching, had they not wasted so many opportunities. The Giants did a fantastic job setting the table, but were atrocious in bringing runners in scoring position home. In the six games this week against Houston and Boston, the Giants stranded 42 runners, and went 9-51 with runners in scoring position, which is almost as bad as the 5-54 stretch with runners in scoring position they had in late May. Once again, it's hard to fathom that a team could be that comically incompetent with runners in scoring position.

Also hurting the Giants are the continued struggles of many of the key cogs of the offense, namely Pablo Sandoval, Bengie Molina, and Buster Posey. Posey, after his torrid start, is now mired in a 7-42 slump, the type of slump that all young players new to the big leagues go through. Pablo Sandoval hasn't shown any signs of breaking out of his prolonged funk. Sandoval is suffering from Randy-Winn-Syndrome, hitting only .219 against left-handed pitching this year. His at-bats with runners in scoring position have been awful, and in his last 13 games, he's gone 10-42 with only 4 extra-base hits. Molina in his last 10 games went 8-32 with only 1 extra-base hit. We can keep saying that it's only a matter of time before these guys heat up, but they're not showing any signs of working out their problems.

The Giants have a crucial 14-game stretch before the All-Star break: 3 at home against the Dodgers, 4 in Denver, 4 in Milwaukee, and 3 in Washington DC. The Giants must at the absolute minimum go 8-6 during these next couple of weeks to keep themselves in good position for the 2nd half of the season. It's time for this team to wake up and rise to the occasion against quality opponents.

Payback!! Giants Sweep A's

Revenge is so sweet! The Giants' previous set against the A's in Oakland was the most painful of the season for the Giants, as they were handily swept after scoring only one run in three games. In a long season, it's amazing what a difference just a couple of weeks makes. This Giants team that just completed a sweep, and has won seven of ten games, looks nothing like the squad that stumbled in and out of Oakland.

The biggest difference between the Giants now and the Giants two weeks ago: consistent offensive production. In their last 10 games, the Giants are averaging 5 runs per game. That's not great, but it's a ton better than the 2.7 runs/game that they were scoring around the time of their previous against the A's. Also, if the Giants average 5 runs per game, they're going to win plenty of games as their team ERA is only 3.33.

Why the increase in offense? You have to point to the arrival of two new guys: Buster Posey and Pat Burrell. Buster Posey has done everything right since being called up from AAA Fresno. He's hitting .368 and playing excellent defense at first base, to the point that Bruce Bochy is no longer bringing in Travis Ishikawa as a late-inning defensive replacement. Burrell, obviously more comfortable in the National League, is hitting .381 and four of his eight hits as a Giant have been for extra bases. Maybe Burrell, after many productive years in Philadelphia, fell victim to baseball's toughest division, the AL East. Plenty of players fall into that category: Carl Pavano, Julio Lugo, Danys Baez. Aside from tearing the cover off the ball, both Burrell and Posey have brought a disciplined approach at the plate to balance the free-swinging tendencies of Pablo Sandoval, Juan Uribe, and Bengie Molina.

The starting pitching was once again fantastic all weekend. Tim Lincecum looks like he's rebounded from the previous erratic three weeks, as he went 8 innings allowing only 2 runs and striking out 7. Barry Zito followed with a terrific outing (his curveball was unhittable) beating his former team for the first time in his career. Zito has now beaten all 30 MLB teams. Today, Matt Cain continued his dominance, allowing only 1 run in 7 innings. Cain's ERA is now 2.11, his WHIP is 1.02, and he has a 65/28 strikeout to walk ratio in 92.1 innings.

The bullpen, however, as been another story as of late. The Giants were very fortunate the last two games to hold onto their leads. Aside from Brian Wilson, Santiago Casilla, and maybe Sergio Romo, I doubt that Bruce Bochy feels comfortable handing the ball to anyone else in that bullpen. Good bullpens (such as the ones Kevin Towers assembled in San Diego) are built with pitchers who pound the strike zone and right now, Guillermo Mota, Jeremy Affeldt, and Dan Runzler are not doing that.

The great Andy Baggarly in a tweet during the game praised the low-cost signings (1 year, $3 million) of Aubrey Huff and Juan Uribe, the two steadiest hitters for the Giants all season. Huff after going deep twice today, has 10 HR and 33 RBIs to go with his .303 batting average, .395 oBP, and .926 OPS, which is 9th-best in the National League. Huff's defensive versatility has also been invaluable to the Giants. Uribe, after homering today, has 10 HR along with a .290 batting average and a .356 OBP. His 41 RBIs are best among all major league shortstops, and his .844 OPS ranks 3rd among all MLB shortstops.

Aubrey Huff and Juan Uribe have also put up significantly better numbers than Matt Holliday (7 years, $120 million) and Jason Bay (5 years, $80 million), the big free agent signings from the previous offseason. Holliday is hitting .289, but has only 6 HR, 25 RBIs, and a .444 slugging percentage. Even worse for Holliday and the Cardinals is that he's posting that type of pedestrian production in the most enviable position: hitting behind Albert Pujols. Jason Bay has been worse, hitting .284 with 4 HR with 25 RBIs and a .435 slugging percentage. Brian Sabean receives a huge amount of criticism, and some of it is legitimate. But he spent the funds available to him this past offseason very wisely and for that, he deserves a ton of credit.

As interleague play continues, the Giants will begin play tomorrow against teams from the AL East. First up, the worst team in baseball, the Baltimore Orioles. The Giants better take care of business against the inferior Orioles before they face the Blue Jays and Red Sox.

A 4-3 Road Trip, But It Could Have Been Better

The Giants lost a heartbreaker today in Cincinnati by a final of 7-6, a game they really should have won. The loss turned what could have been a very successful 5-2 road trip into a satisfactory 4-3 trip.

Today's game was the most maddening of them all. The Giants jumped out to a 4-0 lead against talented Reds rookie Mike Leake, who came into the game 5-0 with a 2.22 ERA. The Giants pummeled Leake for 5 runs and 11 hits in 4.1 innings, and it easily could have been a lot more if the Reds hadn't turned two magnificent double plays. Todd Wellemeyer was throwing the ball well for the first time on the road, but trouble started after he tweaked his quad in the 3rd inning.

Knucklehead of the week: Denny Bautista. Bautista was clearly unprepared to come into the game, and he was lackadaisical warming up to face the Reds' hitters. He inexcusably walked Mike Leake, the pitcher, to open the bottom of the 3rd inning and basically had no idea where the ball was going. Mike Krukow rightfully ripped Bautista in the postgame wrap on KNBR. Today's loss exposed a major flaw on this team: the absence of a long reliever. Todd Wellemeyer is best suited for this role, and not the 5th starter spot. I'd imagine that after his DL stint, he'll go to the bullpen and that Madison Bumgarner will assume his spot in the rotation the rest of the way.

Speaking of the bullpen, the Giants really need to get another quality arm in their middle relief just as badly as they need an extra bat in their lineup. The bullpen was a huge strength of the team last year, but it's been vulnerable this season. Brandon Medders was a disaster in the early part of the season and was designated for assignment after posting a solid season in 2009. Jeremy Affeldt, after being the best setup man in baseball last year, has a 4.58 ERA with a 1.73 WHIP, issuing 14 walks in 19.2 innings. Sergio Romo has been prone to giving up big homeruns. Dan Runzler has had command issues all year. I hope Brian Sabean is scouting the trade market for a valuable reliever, because as we've seen recently, this team is struggling to hold leads.

The Giants finally return home and hopefully will take out some revenge on the A's.

Some final tidbits:

*All hail Matt Cain! What a game he threw on Tuesday! To pitch a shutout against the Reds, the National League's best offense, in that bandbox joke of a ballpark was unbelievable. He's only the 5th pitcher to throw a shutout in Great American Ballpark ever since the stadium opened in 2003. Look at his numbers over his past four stars: 34 innings, 17 hits, 1 earned run, 6 walks, 23 strikeouts, with a 0.26 ERA.

*Pablo Sandoval made a HUGE mistake today missing a squeeze sign in the top of the 7th inning that denied the Giants a run. He can't make stupid errors like this, especially since he's the Giants' 3rd place hitter. The Giants desperately need him to get his act together.

*Buster Posey continues to rake, posting a .444 batting average. His upper-deck homerun off of Aaron Harang was also very impressive. He needs to play every day, simple as that. It's also time for Bruce Bochy to move him up in the batting order.

Giants Win Series Against Pirates

The Giants for the most part have played well at home thus far, posting a 19-11 record, tied for 4th-best in the National League. But their road play has been maddening at times, and entering this past weekend's series against the Pirates, the Giants had a 9-13 road record. But they began turning that road record around, taking 2 of 3 from the Pirates in Pittsburgh, a city that for some odd reason, hasn't been kind to the Giants the past few years.

While usually the focus of a successful series is on the pitching staff, the offense deserves a ton of credit for the comeback victory on Friday and today's extra-inning win. The offense also had an even more remarkable comeback Saturday night, had Lastings Milledge not made the catch of the year.

The Giants in most surprising fashion won on Friday with the long ball, as Eli Whiteside, Juan Uribe, and Aubrey Huff all went deep. But the two main offensive catalysts this weekend were the guys at the top of the lineup: Andres Torres and Freddy Sanchez. Torres and Sanchez have formed a very nice 1-2 combination at the top of the lineup. Torres has posted a .292 average with a .377 OBP, and he's used his speed very effectively, swiping 11 bases so far. He's also played excellent defense, and he made two spectacular catches in the outfield this weekend. Sanchez had quite a series back at his old stomping grounds, going 7-13. Since May 26th, Sanchez has raised his batting average from .192 to .371. Torres and Sanchez are getting on base with great frequency, and it's up to the heart of the lineup to bring them home.

Tim Lincecum had a better outing today, going 7 innings allowing 3 runs on 6 hits, striking out 6 against 2 walks. It looks like he took a small step forward in getting back to his normal self, but he still did not have full command of his pitches. There were many instances where Lincecum pitched to the Pirates hitters behind in the count. The great Andy Baggarly of the San Jose Mercury News wrote a breakdown of the 50 fastballs that Tim Lincecum threw today. 40% were balls and he had no swings and misses on the fastball. However, I don't think it's an issue of velocity, as the radar gun in Pittsburgh had Lincecum's fastball in the 92-94 mph range. Lincecum needs to regain his pinpoint command of the fastball in order to make his offspeed more effective, and thus, a tougher at bat for his opponent.

The Giants head to Cincinnati to face the surprising 1st-place Reds, who have offensive stars such as Joey Votto and Brandon Phillips, a tough bullpen with Arthur Rhodes and Francisco Cordero, and a hot-shot rookie starting pitcher named Mike Leake, who's 5-0 with a 2.22 ERA. The Giants should shoot for a split of the 4-games series, which would give them a 4-3 record on this 7-game road trip.

Some final tid-bits:

*Quite a provocative move by Bruce Bochy, batting Pablo Sandoval 8th on Saturday. I don't know if I would have dropped Sandoval 8th, and put Molina 4th, but I'm glad that Bochy is sending Sandoval a message. Sandoval does have to realize how pitchers are attacking him and he needs to make the necessary adjustments. He's way too talented to be slugging only .429 with a .763 OPS. The Giants need him to be better.

*The Giants cannot possibly hand the ball to Todd Wellemeyer in Cincinnati on Thursday after yet another disastrous outing on the road. Wellemeyer has been good at home, but his road numbers are frightening: 0-4 with a 10.62 ERA, 24 ER in 20.1 innings, 9 homeruns, 20 walks against 16 strikeouts, and a .305 opponent's batting average. Baggs has a hunch that it's going to be Madison Bumgarner who takes the hill on Thursday.

*Aubrey Huff has been a nice addition for the Giants so far, hitting .298 with 7 HR and 26 RBIs with an .868 OPS. His defensive flexibility has also been good. It was well-documented this offseason that the Giants pursued Adam LaRoche, who's now on the Diamondbacks. The Giants offered LaRoche a 2 year, $17 million contract which he turned down to sign a 1-year deal with the DBacks. The Giants then signed Huff to a 1-year $3 million pact. LaRoche has 33 RBIs thus far and is a much better defensive 1st-baseman, but in more categories, Huff has been the better player, hitting for a higher batting average and posting a better OBP, slugging percentage, and OPS. Looks like the Giants are getting tremendous value from Huff considering the contract he signed.

Despite Series Loss Against Rockies, Giants Complete 6-3 Homestand

After a dismal road trip that ended with a sweep at the hand of the surprising Oakland A's, the Giants came back to the friendly confines of AT&T Park to try to turn things around. Despite losing 2 of 3 to the Rockies, the Giants finished the homestand with a fine 6-3 record, including a revenge-sweep of the Diamondbacks.

Positives before negatives. I want to focus on three players: Matt Cain, Freddy Sanchez, and Buster Posey.

Matt Cain with Tim Lincecum's prolonged struggles has assumed the role as the top man of this staff, and no one should be surprised by this development. He's always possessed a winning combination of great stuff with tremendous poise, and it's hard to believe that he's only 25. He'd get a ton of more well-deserved national attention if abysmal run-support didn't plague him now and then. Cain now has a 2.36 ERA, a 1.00 WHIP, and an opponent's batting average of .192. In his last few starts, he's been able command all four of pitches, as evidenced by his 4 walks in the past 25 innings. With Lincecum's slump, the responsibility of carrying this talented pitching staff rests on Cain's broad shoulders, and I'm very confident that he'll handle the task well.

The clamoring for trading for an accomplished hitter is justified; the Giants need a hitter like Prince Fielder in the lineup. But Matt Cain should be absolutely untouchable, and part of no trade for a bat. Cain is truly a special pitcher, a player that can be the ace of a team for 10 years. Just look at his physical stature; he's built to pitch 200+ innings every year, as he's already done three times in his young career. If he played on a team that had a half-decent offense, he'd be a Cy Young contender every year, and even though his career record is only 48-55 now, I'm 100% sure that he's going to finish his career with many more wins than losses.

We Giants fans were getting fed up with Freddy Sanchez with his slow recovery from offseason surgery, but his play thus far has been worth the wait. He's hitting .327 thus far with a fantastic .414 OBP. Perhaps the biggest surprise has been his stellar play defensively at 2nd base. I think we all knew that he'd be a solid 2nd baseman, but with his play so far, he's become the best Giants' defensive 2nd baseman since Robby Thompson. He and Andres Torres, with his .375 OBP, have formed a nice 1-2 at the top of the order and if only other players on this team were hitting, the Giants would actually score some runs. That hit-and-run single off the bat of Sanchez in the 9th-inning comeback in Sunday's game was beautiful example of his excellent bat control.

Buster Posey is finally here, and all he's done is hit .474. Let's hope he's here to stay for good, because the Giants absolutely need his bat in the lineup. Even though he's played only six games, he probably has the best approach at the plate out of all of the Giants' players. To help this team win now, the Giants should find a way to play Posey every day, whether it's at 1st base or behind the plate. He's advanced and mature beyond his years.

On the negative side, Tim Lincecum has now struggled mightily in his last three starts, and it's a legitimate source of concern. The numbers over his last three outings are not pretty: 15.1 innings, 14 earned runs, 15 walks, and 14 strikeouts. Those are the exact opposite of the Lincecum numbers that we've grown accustomed to. It's true that every great pitcher goes through slumps, but this stretch doesn't look like a normal stretch. Smart money is that Lincecum will work his way out of this funk; you don't win back-to-back Cy Young awards without having tremendous skill. But whether it's a mechanical issue, or whether he's being bothered by blisters, Lincecum needs to get out of this rut now because the Giants depend on him so much. Every time Lincecum starts has to be win day for the Giants.

The Giants will now embark on a 7-game road trip to face Pittsburgh and Cincinnati, one of the major surprises of the National League with a 31-23 record. The Giants' current road record of 9-13 is not consistent with playoff contention, and the Giants need to drastically improve their play on the road. As always, it has to start with the hitters taking smart at-bats.