Tim Lincecum continued his high-flying start on Friday night, upping his record to 4-0. He completely shut down the Cardinals despite not having his best arsenal of pitches. He was consistently behind in counts all night and as a result, he threw 120 pitches in 7 innings. But Friday's outing by Lincecum demonstrated another aspect of his development. He kept finding ways to hold off a very potent lineup featuring the likes of Albert Pujols, Matt Holliday, Ryan Ludwick, Colby Rasmus, and Yadier Molina by mixing up his pitches well and throwing his devastating, unhittable change-up in fastball counts. Outings like the one Lincecum had on Friday show that he's still getting better as a pitcher. For the rest of the league, that's absolutely frightening.
The biggest development of the weekend was Barry Zito's superb 8-inning performance Saturday evening. Zito allowed only 3 hits and struck out 10 in route to his 3rd win of the season. His ERA is now a sparkling 1.32 and his WHIP is 0.84. I guess we don't have to question anymore whether or not Zito is completely back; he's providing the answers to us with his brilliance so far this season. He's clearly pitching with a chip on his shoulder, and he looks like the pitcher he was in 2002 when he won 23 games and the AL Cy Young Award. In his last 15.1 innings, Zito has allowed only 1 earned run on 7 hits with 13 strikeouts against 4 walks. Opponents are hitting only .161 off Zito this season. I don't think that us Giants fans cringe anymore when Zito is on the mound. Keep it up Barry!
Matt Cain was the hard-luck loser again today. His record fell to 0-2 even though is ERA is 3.80. It must feel like 2007 or 2008 for Cain, when he received zero run support. However, he's still not pitching up to his capabilities. In his last three starts, he's had trouble at the beginning of games establishing good location with all of his pitches. As a result, he's been behind in the count a lot and his pitch count has piled up quickly, as evidenced by today's start where Cain threw 98 pitches in 5 innings. Matt Cain is not a 5-6 inning pitcher. He needs to go deeper into games and he knows that. But it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world if the offense SCORED HIM SOME RUNS!!!
Going back to last Saturday's game against the Dodgers to today's game against the Cardinals (8 games), here is what the Giants starters have done: 50.1 inning pitched, 37 hits, 9 earned runs, 18 walks, 49 strikeouts. That adds up to a 0.54 ERA and a 0.92 WHIP. The Giants are 3-5 in those games. Pathetic.
And now to the offense...
Mark DeRosa put it perfectly when asked after today's game about the Giants' offensive struggles: "We're very thankful we have the pitching staff we do." DeRosa, a fellow Ivy-leaguer, is absolutely right. Just imagine if the Giants' pitching approached league-average; their record would be 5-13 instead of 10-8. The Giants at the beginning of the season showed some signs of taking a more patient approach at the plate, but that trend has disappeared. The Giants now average an awful 3.62 pitches per plate appearance, last in the majors. They haven't been able to string any series of hits together and they've been awful in situational at-bats as of late, particularly in the at-bat with a runner at 3rd base with less than 2 outs. Over the last eight games, the Giants are a laughable 5-54 with runners in scoring position, with four of those hits being infield hits. 5-54! Little League teams do better than that! The only two guys hitting the ball with any authority are Nate Schierholtz and Pablo Sandoval, and it's about time that Bruce Bochy put Schierholtz in the leadoff spot so that Sandoval can have an at-bat here or there with a runner on base.
It's time for the Giants to bring up Buster Posey from AAA Fresno, where he's hitting .359 with a .438 OBP. Play him behind the plate or play him at 1B...it doesn't really matter. Just get his bat into the lineup. This anemic Giants offense needs him. If this team averages 4 runs a game, the Giants will win well over 90 games. Guaranteed. Forget about Posey's service time and arbitration clock. He'll help the team win now, and great organizations put winning ahead of when a player becomes arbitration-eligible. The Giants have a World-Series caliber pitching staff, and it's way beyond time to help them out a bit.
Things don't get easier for the Giants as they welcome in the Phillies for 3 games. Roy Halladay, whom many argue is the best pitcher in baseball, will take the ball for the Phils tomorrow. It makes me sick to think how the Giants will fare against the dominant Halladay. The Giants' hitters should watch the Phillies closely at how they take their at-bats. They should watch how Chase Utley and Ryan Howard work counts to their favor. Maybe by watching great players around the league, they'll learn how to help their own team win games.
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