Giants Take Two Of Three From Pirates; Win Third Consecutive Series

With a handy 6-0 win today over the Pirates, the Giants won their third series in a row and continued their fast start, upping their record to 7-2. Remember, last year's 88-win team started the season 2-7. Today, Jonathan Sanchez was absolutely dominant, striking out 11 batters in 8 innings while giving up only 3 hits and 3 walks. The Giants scored all 6 runs today via the homerun, which is something that they won't do often. Aubrey Huff hit an inside-the-parker (hilarious to watch him run the bases), Aaron Rowand smacked a two-run homer, and Eli Whiteside hit a three-run bomb (sorry Eli for writing that you're useless with a bat). In his two starts this season, we've already seen the two sides of Jonathan Sanchez: he went only 4.1 innings against the Braves while being erratic with his command, yet today against the Pirates he was unhittable. We know Sanchez has all the talent in the world; the issue is whether or not he can put together some consistency. He doesn't have to strike 10+ hitters as he did today, but consistent quality starts out of Sanchez will make this team even tougher to beat.

Poor Aubrey Huff. He crushed the ball this entire series and if he were playing in any other ballpark, he'd have at least 2 or 3 homeruns by now. Alas, he had to settle for an inside-the-park homerun. Welcome Aubrey to AT&T Park, which is death to all left-handed hitters not named Barry Bonds. He's not going to approach the 32 HR he hit in Baltimore in 2008, but as long as he keeps driving the ball to the gaps as he did this series, he's going to drive in a ton of runs.

News-flash: Barry Zito is 2-0 with a 2.25 ERA. He wasn't nearly as sharp on Monday as he was in his opening start against Houston, but he still held it together despite not having good command of his pitches. In his first three years as a Giant, he would have imploded. It's clear that the fan base is turning around and beginning to appreciate Zito. No one expects (they'd be foolish to do so) him to pitch up to his $126 million contract, but a winning record that drives this team to the playoffs would absolve him of most of the ire directed his way.

The Giants have continued their stellar pitching from last year. The offensive numbers across the board are also very encouraging. So far, they're hitting .295 as a team and have a robust .367 on-base percentage. They've also drawn 30 walks in the 9 games they've played (not great, but better than last year). Bengie Molina has drawn 2 walks in 6 games thus far; he drew 13 in 132 games last season. Maybe hitting coach Hensley "Bam Bam" Meulens is having some type of impact on the hitters. They've been much better at taking good at-bats and making opposing pitchers work.