Clinchez

FRIDAY

I was really hoping for a Matt Cain victory on Friday.  Not only is he my current favorite starting pitcher, but it was his birthday, and it would have got the pressure off right away so that I could enjoy a stress-free weekend.  Unfortunately no such luck.  I wasn’t able to watch the game, as my step-daughter was only going to be with us on Friday this weekend, so I sacrificed baseball in favor of a pizza-kid movie evening, but I kept up with it on MLB’s Game Day, periodically checking in to watch as the Padres hit a home run in the second…third…fourth inning, ultimately taking the game 6-4.  Oh well, Giants baseball is not about making things easy for fans, and we’ve still got two more games to go so it’s cool…right?

SATURDAY

While I haven’t been especially confident in Zito lately (which is a shame, because he was real fun at the beginning of the season) I had this weird fantasy that he would destroy the Padres to ensure himself a spot in the post-season, maybe even throw a shut out or perfect game or something, just to make up for all his bad luck.  But a fantasy it was.  Again I couldn’t watch the game, because a family friend of my wife’s family planned a wedding during baseball season for some weird reason.  But at one point we took a break between wedding and reception at a sports bar and I got to see my Giants losing, but also witness another UUUU-RIBE home run.  Afterwards I followed the score on my cellphone as the Giants lost again 4-2.

So okay now we had one more chance before tying with the Padres and having to play a tiebreaker in their home town.  But what are the odds that a team could lose three games in a row?  Or four?  While proceeding to drink mass quantities of free alcohol, I desperately tried to recall if and when and how often the Giants have had a 4+ game losing string this season, or this season post-All-Star break, and I couldn’t think of any examples, but I was pretty sure they must have at some point.  I was starting to feel the panic.

But then the rum kicked in and I realized with perfect clarity what they were doing.  They were waiting for Mat Latos.  Of course!  Why not clinch it when Mat Latos is pitching?  It’s way more dramatic.  The guy trash talked this team, so of course the Giants want to make sure he’s the reason they clinch it.  Plus Jonathan Sanchez will be pitching, and he talked a bunch of bravado about beating the Padres in August and didn’t come through, so this would be HIS chance to back up his bold statements.  That MUST be why they’re playing it this way…right?  Right?  

SUNDAY

Right!

The Giants finally take the victory with a 3-0 shut out.  Sanchez and the bullpen give up four hits and zero runs while Latos only makes it six innings, giving up two of the three runs.  AND Sanchez got the runs rolling with a triple off Latos in the third inning!  

Again, I ended up following much of the game via the computer (seriously, I’m the worst baseball watcher ever) but I tuned in at the bottom of the eight, just in time to see Posey hit his last home run of the regular season.  From there it was just a matter of Mr. Wilson getting us three outs, which is his specialty, and it was over!  The pressure was off!  Bouncing ensued!  

There’s still a big hill or three to climb, but the Padres are gone!  Not even wild card, just GONE.  That alone is a victory for the Giants this year in my book.  

Tomorrow I’ll start examining the stats and theorizing on our chances of dominating the National League.  Today though, I’m just going to enjoy the feeling of triumph.  

Congratulations Giants!  

MONDAY

Hey look!  I made the first page!  (No I’m not the girl holding the sign…)

Not a huge deal I guess for the veteran bloggers out there, but it’s a first for me, and a nice bit of icing on a great NL West clinching weekend!  I guess I’d better start spelling things right now…

Well Shut Me Down!

What’s with me and the Star Wars references this week?  I’ll balance it out with some Star Trek in a minute.  Anywho.

Pablo? Buster? Aubrey? Anybody?  Talk about a pitching war.  No denying Chad Billingsley was pretty amazing, throwing his second career shutout and third complete game.  But y’know, even though we lost, Zito had a steller performance as well, making it to the eighth inning and allowing only six hits and two runs, the second run chalked up to Romo allowing one hit in the 0.2 innings he pitched. Yeesh. 

This is the second time in a row we’ve lost the last game of the series.  Both times I’ve felt bummed afterward, which is kind of a negative considering we still won the series.  In fact we’ve won the last FOUR series, and are still ranked #2 in the division, with only FOUR games behind the Padres.  Today’s blog post is sponsored by the number…

Off to face Arizona in a FOUR game series.  The D-Backs are trailing the division, 19 games behind the Padres and 15 games behind us.  Please please PLEASE let us slaughter them! 

What’s the S Stand for Again?

Bay Area Slaughter?

That’s two sweeps in a row.  I watched enough of Friday’s game to see Zito give up three (of six) runs.  Watched all of Saturday’s torturous struggle, on a big screen no less, just to really give it resonance.  Could have watched Sunday’s game, but opted out after three innings because it felt like a repeat of Saturday, and frankly I was just bored.  Three games and one run, how is that not boring?  Sorry Giants.  

In exchange for me crossing my fingers for the Yankees, Jane Heller was supposed to cross her fingers for the Giants on Friday.  Yankees won, Giants didn’t.  What’s up with that Jane? 

We started out so strong, and now it feels like we’ve lost any momentum we managed to generate.  Still have more than half a season to go, but I feel like fourth place is looming dangerously close!

Nationals up next.  At home!  Can we break this horrific streak?  They are last place in pitching, batting and fielding this year.  Good god, we’d better!

Down a Step

Well, it’s official!

The D-Back, of all teams, officially knocked us down a peg. Weird game. We lose by one run, which is ridiculously usual for us, but Golden God Tim only pitches five innings, walking five and surrendering five hits, including a home run. And even weirder, the score on both sides exceeded one run. In fact, at one point, both teams scored five runs back to back. Unheard of this season! Bochy ejected? Affeldt allowing a stolen run to home? Weird game.

I was really expecting to sweep the D-Backs, not get swept. But it occurred to me that I should have known better. Here’s my theory on what happened. Behold this man:

That is my father-in-law. He’s one of those guys that are good at winning. He’s the guy who’s ahead of you in your fantasy football league. He’s the guy who’s going to take all your chips if you sit down with him at the poker table. He’s the guy who’s going to draw the elusive domino needed to go out in Mexican Train.

And this year he’s decided to get into baseball again, and since he lives in Arizona, he’s decided to be a D-Backs fan. And sure, they’re in last place, so one could argue that his winning powers aren’t all that. But that’s now how it works, folks. How it works is, he wins when it’s important. He wins when brother-in-law and I are dying to rub it in that the Giants creamed his team. THAT’s when his powers kick and we get swept. So again Giants fan, this guy is why we lost:

Bay Bridge Series next! Would love a win or three, but fun either way. Zito’s up tonight, pitching against his old stomping grounds, hopefully doing better than he’s done previous:

Rk	Date	Tm	Opp	Rslt	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR
1	2008-06-13	SFG	OAK	L 1-5	5.2	6	4	4	4	3	0
2	2007-06-09	SFG	OAK	L 0-6	4.0	9	4	3	1	2	1
3	2007-05-18	SFG	OAK	L 3-15	4.0	6	7	7	7	2	1

Apparently he doesn’t like being booed. But he’s doing great this year, reinvented himself, so here’s hoping he’s got thicker skin tonight.

Gone Fishing

As if in honor of Willie’s birthday Giants finally swept again!

Are we sick of the Karate Kid references yet?  Yeah, me too.  Anyway, I can’t remember who said this, I think it was on the post game show, but it’s completely true.  Giants Baseball = TORTURE!

Two out of three games they won by the skin of their teeth.  That first one especially, they “went plaid” again with 13 innings.  Thank god Rowand tied it up in the 9th with that very timely home run. 

Second game, the Marlins load the bases, what?  Twice?  With zero outs.  I can’t remember if that’s what really happened, but if felt like it.  Thank god for Romo, who bailed us out and let us keep our one run lead.  Can’t believe I’m saying, because I’ve been kind of despising Romo this season.

Yesterday’s game was a little less pressure, as we had 3 runs on ‘em by the end, thanks to Cain’s 6 inning shutout, but the Marlins still managed to squeeze one more out before the Giants ended things, and I admit I got a little nervous, because this season has proved that it ain’t over until it’s over.

Our starting pitchers keep the other team at bay. Our weak hitting keeps the other team competitive, despite our starting pitchers.  Our bullpen seems to drop the ball and ruin our leads around the 8th or 9th inning every game, which makes being cocky and confident an impossibility. 

But I’m not here to complain.  We swept!  We took the last series. Whatever we’re doing is currently working, it just makes for some real nail biters. 

Off to New York, #1 again in our division, with a three game winning streak under our belt.

 

Rockin’ Weekend

Kinda.  Didn’t get the sweep.  I guess Jhoulys Chacin knows the crane kick because he shut us out for seven innings in the last game. 

Speaking of shut out, no game two on television?  The one day I actually could have sat down and watched a good chunk of it, and it was know where to be found on Direct TV.  What’s that about?

Trying to recap the last game on baseball-reference.com, but how do ya read all this stuff?  How can I tell who started for the Giants?  How can I tell who was pitching in the 5th when the Rockies scored 3?  That information has to be somewhere amongst all these numbers and abbreviations, but I’m sure not finding it. 

Anyway, congrats to Cain for finally kicking *** in game two!  Only gave up one hit and zero runs in eight innings.  Fantastic!  And congrats to Zito for his first ever 4-0 record, with the help of Romo and Affeldt.  Cliff Lee thinks you’re all very cool! 

One final thought on this series…what’s with the jerseys?

Now off to Florida to face the Marlins.  They don’t sound especially scary, so let’s not let them whup us!  Should I do the prediction stat thing again?  Meh, who cares?  What happens happens.  Our W-L% is .583 and the Marlins have a .520, so we should win, right?  Right?  Exactly.

Rockies @ Giants Preview

Though I wasn’t especially satisfied with my last preview, I think I’ll try this again anyway.  But I’m not going to do the stats again because that told me nothing.  Just scribbles all over the place.  I did the same charts for the Rockies and it was much to same.

So let’s look at it from a head-to-head history with the Rockies.  Here’s last year’s games:

Date	Tm		Opp		RS	RA	W	L	Inn
2009-05-01	San Francisco Giants		Colorado Rockies	W	3	2	1	0
2009-05-02	San Francisco Giants		Colorado Rockies	L	1	5	1	1
2009-05-03	San Francisco Giants		Colorado Rockies	W	1	0	2	1	10
2009-05-06	San Francisco Giants	@	Colorado Rockies	L	1	11	2	2
2009-05-07	San Francisco Giants	@	Colorado Rockies	W	8	3	3	2
2009-07-24	San Francisco Giants	@	Colorado Rockies	W	3	1	4	2
2009-07-25	San Francisco Giants	@	Colorado Rockies	L	2	8	4	3
2009-07-26	San Francisco Giants	@	Colorado Rockies	L	2	4	4	4
2009-08-21	San Francisco Giants	@	Colorado Rockies	W	6	3	5	4
2009-08-22	San Francisco Giants	@	Colorado Rockies	L	11	14	5	5
2009-08-23	San Francisco Giants	@	Colorado Rockies	L	2	4	5	6
2009-08-24	San Francisco Giants	@	Colorado Rockies	L	4	6	5	7	14
2009-08-28	San Francisco Giants		Colorado Rockies	W	2	0	6	7
2009-08-29	San Francisco Giants		Colorado Rockies	W	5	3	7	7
2009-08-30	San Francisco Giants		Colorado Rockies	W	9	5	8	7
2009-09-14	San Francisco Giants		Colorado Rockies	W	9	1	9	7
2009-09-15	San Francisco Giants		Colorado Rockies	W	10	2	10	7
2009-09-16	San Francisco Giants		Colorado Rockies	L	3	4	10	8

Out of 18 games, we won 10, so not bad but pretty close.  What else can we look at?  Well, it’s a home game series again, so how about that?

Date	Tm		Opp		RS	RA	W	L	Inn
2009-05-01	San Francisco Giants		Colorado Rockies	W	3	2	1	0
2009-05-02	San Francisco Giants		Colorado Rockies	L	1	5	1	1
2009-05-03	San Francisco Giants		Colorado Rockies	W	1	0	2	1	10
2009-08-28	San Francisco Giants		Colorado Rockies	W	2	0	6	7
2009-08-29	San Francisco Giants		Colorado Rockies	W	5	3	7	7
2009-08-30	San Francisco Giants		Colorado Rockies	W	9	5	8	7
2009-09-14	San Francisco Giants		Colorado Rockies	W	9	1	9	7
2009-09-15	San Francisco Giants		Colorado Rockies	W	10	2	10	7
2009-09-16	San Francisco Giants		Colorado Rockies	L	3	4	10	8

So out of nine home games, the Giants took seven.  That’s promising.  What about um…hmm…ooo how about starting pitchers?

Date	Tm		Opp		RS	RA	Win	Loss	Save
2009-08-29	San Francisco Giants		Colorado Rockies	W	5	3	B. Zito	J. Marquis	B. Wilson
2009-09-15	San Francisco Giants		Colorado Rockies	W	10	2	B. Zito	U. Jimenez

Tomorrow is Zito.  He was 2-0 against ‘em and 3-0 overall this year.  Cool.

Date	Tm		Opp		RS	RA	Win	Loss	Save
2009-05-02	San Francisco Giants		Colorado Rockies	L	1	5	J. Marquis	M. Cain
2009-05-07	San Francisco Giants	@	Colorado Rockies	W	8	3	M. Cain	J. Marquis
2009-07-24	San Francisco Giants	@	Colorado Rockies	W	3	1	M. Cain	J. Hammel	B. Wilson
2009-09-16	San Francisco Giants		Colorado Rockies	L	3	4	J. de la Rosa	M. Cain	R. Betancourt

Saturday is Cain.  He was 2-2 and 0-1 overall this year. Meh.

Date	Tm		Opp		RS	RA	Win	Loss	Save
2009-07-25	San Francisco Giants	@	Colorado Rockies	L	2	8	J. de la Rosa	J. Sanchez
2009-08-21	San Francisco Giants	@	Colorado Rockies	W	6	3	J. Sanchez	A. Cook

Sánchez on Sunday.  1-1 against the Rockies last year and currently is 2-1 overall.

Date	Tm		Opp		RS	RA	Win	Loss	Save
2009-07-26	San Francisco Giants	@	Colorado Rockies	L	2	4	A. Cook	R. Sadowski	H. Street
2009-08-21	San Francisco Giants	@	Colorado Rockies	W	6	3	J. Sanchez	A. Cook

The only reoccuring starter for the Rockies is Cook, who had a 1-1 against us and is currently 1-2, so once again our pitchers prevail, but only because I have no one on the Rockies side to compare with.

What else is there to look at?  Um…batting and pitching for this year?

GIANTS BATTING AVG

Rk	Pos		Age	G	PA	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BA ▾
1	RF	Nate Schierholtz*	26	20	51	45	8	17	6	1	0	3	.378
2	3B	Pablo Sandoval#	23	21	93	83	11	31	7	1	3	9	.373
3	C	Bengie Molina	35	17	68	60	8	21	2	0	1	8	.350
4	SS	Edgar Renteria	33	18	83	75	8	24	3	0	1	10	.320
5	2B	Juan Uribe	30	19	69	60	10	19	4	0	2	11	.317
6	CF	Aaron Rowand	32	10	48	46	6	14	2	1	1	6	.304
7	OF	Andres Torres#	32	15	47	40	4	11	4	0	0	4	.275
8	1B	Aubrey Huff*	33	21	86	75	14	17	3	1	2	8	.227
9	LF	Mark DeRosa	35	19	73	63	8	14	2	0	1	7	.222
10	UT	Eugenio Velez#	28	15	48	42	6	8	2	0	2	7	.190
11	OF	John Bowker*	26	17	45	43	3	8	2	0	1	4	.186
		Team Totals	30.1	21	809	716	96	202	42	4	18	87	.282
		Rank in 16 NL teams				12	8	4	7	8	11		1

ROCKIES BATTING AVG

Rk	Pos		Age	G	PA	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BA ▾
1	RF	Brad Hawpe*	31	15	50	42	8	15	6	0	3	7	.357
2	OF	Carlos Gonzalez*	24	18	79	76	14	27	4	1	3	16	.355
3	SS	Troy Tulowitzki	25	22	96	88	17	28	9	0	1	13	.318
4	C	Miguel Olivo	31	14	56	51	10	16	2	0	5	13	.314
5	3B	Ian Stewart*	25	22	88	75	15	22	3	1	4	12	.293
6	1B	Todd Helton*	36	19	80	70	9	19	4	0	0	4	.271
7	CF	Dexter Fowler#	24	22	91	79	12	20	4	3	1	3	.253
8	LF	Seth Smith*	27	18	52	48	6	11	2	0	4	12	.229
9	OF	Ryan Spilborghs	30	18	44	38	4	8	1	0	2	6	.211
10	2B	Clint Barmes	31	18	59	53	6	10	5	0	1	7	.189
		Team Totals	28.6	22	860	757	119	208	48	7	26	112	.275
		Rank in 16 NL teams				2	2	3	2	3	2		4

Giants win it again.  (And did I mention how much I’m liking Schierholtz?)

GIANTS ERA

Rk	Pos		Age	W	L	W-L%	ERA ▴	G	GS	GF	CG
1	RP	Guillermo Mota	36	0	0		0.00	9	0	3	0
2	SP	Tim Lincecum	26	4	0	1.000	1.27	5	5	0	0
3	SP	Barry Zito*	32	3	0	1.000	1.32	4	4	0	0
4	RP	Sergio Romo	27	0	2	.000	1.64	10	0	4	0
5	SP	Jonathan Sanchez*	27	2	1	.667	1.85	4	4	0	0
6	CL	Brian Wilson	28	0	0		2.25	8	0	6	0
7	RP	Dan Runzler*	25	0	0		2.70	9	0	0	0
8	RP	Jeremy Affeldt*	31	2	2	.500	3.12	8	0	3	0
9	SP	Matt Cain	25	0	1	.000	3.80	4	4	0	0
10		Brandon Medders	30	0	0		5.40	8	0	5	0
11	SP	Todd Wellemeyer	31	1	3	.250	6.33	4	4	0	0
		Team Totals	28.3	12	9	.571	2.78	21	21	21	0
		Rank in 16 NL teams		4	12		2				7

ROCKIES ERA

Rk	Pos		Age	W	L	W-L%	ERA ▴	G	GS	GF	CG
1	SP	Ubaldo Jimenez	26	5	0	1.000	0.79	5	5	0	1
2	RP	Matt Daley	28	0	0		0.82	12	0	1	0
3	RP	Manuel Corpas	27	0	1	.000	1.13	9	0	1	0
4		Joe Beimel*	33	0	0		1.35	7	0	2	0
5	CL	Franklin Morales*	24	0	2	.000	3.72	9	0	7	0
6	RP	Matt Belisle	30	0	0		3.77	9	0	3	0
7	SP	Jorge de la Rosa*	29	3	1	.750	3.91	4	4	0	0
8	SP	Aaron Cook	31	1	2	.333	5.01	4	4	0	1
9	RP	Rafael Betancourt	35	0	1	.000	5.40	9	0	1	0
10	SP	Greg Smith*	26	1	2	.333	7.33	5	5	0	0
11	SP	Jason Hammel	27	0	2	.000	9.16	4	4	0	0
		Team Totals	28.2	11	11	.500	3.83	22	22	20	2
		Rank in 16 NL teams		7	7		6				1

Giants win it again. 

Yeah, so I’m no expert, but I don’t see any reason why we can’t take the next series.  Let’s hearken back to the early days of April and get another sweep!

 

Well…

Going into this series, on the losing streak we were riding, against a division leader and last season World Series contender, I was praying to at least win won game.  So the fact that we won the series should be making me happy, and it is for the most part, but man that last game was a heart breaker! 

We beat them with Sánchez and Wellemeyer starting, but not Lincecum?  Oh the…well not irony, but… heart break!  Said it twice. 

Don’t know who to blame really.  Want to blame someone, but who? 

I was following the game on MLB.com’s cool “Game Day” digital thing while following posts on Twitter.  Man were they hating Bochy!  Everyone was blaming Bochy for taking Lincecum out in the 9th.  We were winning at that point.  Timmy had only given up three hits and two runs in 9 innings, we were ahead!  How dare Bochy take the freak out and replace him with Wilson!  They got two hits off him and that’s how they took over the game and we lost.

 Well yeah, I guess you could argue that, but I think Lincecum was tired.  He got lucky with Dobbs and he walked Victorino.  Utley and Howard were coming up.  I could see why Bochy would want a fresh arm to finish off the game. 

Of course, it kind of reminded me of the last Dodgers game where Bochy replaced Zito, who seemed to be doing just fine, with Romo because Ramirez was coming up, and then Ramirez ending up hitting the game winning home run.  So…maybe Bochy should put more faith in his starters? 

But hell, he gave Tim eight innings.  That’s a lot.  And Wilson had given up zero runs in his last seven games, so it’s not like Bochy picked a sucky replacement.  Just an unlucky one.  I hear Werth is good, so y’know…he’s bound to hit regardless of how good a pitcher he faces.

We had the game, we only need two outs, the Phillies just rallied or got lucky and fought us off.  It could have happened to Lincecum too, and then everyone would be bitching that Bochy should have replaced Lincecum in the last inning with someone fresh.

It’s just one of those things.  I can’t find myself blaming anyone in particular. 

Then the game went to what seemed like the longest set of extra innings every.  We tied in the 10th, and got eeked out by one in the eleventh.  Bummer. 

The other Twitter bitch fest was geared towards Euginio Velez.  I guess he should have caught that ball.  Didn’t seem that easy to me though.  I mean, he hit the wall for crying out loud.  Maybe Romo should have been able to strike out Valdez in the first place, seeing as the guy’s only had two hits in his last six games.

And here’s another thing, summed up quite nicely by my favorite Twitter quote of the evening:

“Only the Giants could get 17 hits and not win a game on extra innings.” – @artsyfartsyalex

Totally!  How come it takes us 2.83 hits to get a run and the other team 1.14?  What’s better?  Shooting 200 arrows at a target and getting three bullseyes or shooting four arrows at a target and getting three bulleyes?  The latter of course, duh! 

People say our team can’t hit.  Oh we can hit.  We just can’t score! 

But there’s more blaming again. Really we had the game in the 9th, and the Phillies just took it from us.  Good on ya Phillies.  We take your first place standing, you take ours. 

Let’s move on…to the Rockies!

SF @ CLE

Yikes.

10-5.  Lincecum starts again.  Is this 0-3 for him?  I don’t feel like looking it up, but I think it is.  Is he done or is he experimenting?  Is it Zito all over again, or is going to bring the real thing come April 1st?  I’m kind of leaning towards the Zito thing, but I’m a pessimist like that sometimes.  If he’s working out kinks or new pitches, now is the time to do it, of course.  But with all the hype, it’d be nice to see him blow away the opposition, even in a fake games.  Oh well!  Great catch by Velez, though!

 

http://player.theplatform.com/ps/player/pds/QNEC-FDNiX&pid=57Qx7ibOTOGLX3eyoQKoofQ2rkn9JFLc

MIL @ SF

Two fake games down, two wins.  2-0, nice! 

Looked hairy there for a second, but they pulled through in the end thanks to some heavy rallying on plate in the fifth.  Alex Hinshaw struck out his opponent two days in a row, though he’s only facing one guy a game, so I suppose it’s not much of an accomplishment. 

Speaking of pitching, every one is talking about this game because of Zito.  Not because he performed exceptionally (gave up one run in 1 2/3 innings), but because he beamed Prince Fielder in retaliation for last season’s game winning home running grand standing aka:

I guess there’s an unwritten “no theatrics” baseball rule, and I suppose that makes sense, as I’ve never heard of a “home run dance” before.  So last year, when Fielder hit the game winning home run and ran around the bases, untucking his shirt, and then fake knocking his cheering teammates over with the power of his feet hitting home plate, it ruffled some Giant feathers.  (Upset the Angels too apparently, for whatever reason.) 

So this year Zito beamed him.  He claims the ball just “got away from him” but that’s fairly coincidental, isn’t it?  Fielder just took it with an “oh well” and walked his way to first base, and that was the end of it, if you don’t count the endless news articles and tweets about the incident.

 

http://player.theplatform.com/ps/player/pds/QNEC-FDNiX&pid=9otGvBMM9dAzsUlGyLU0Cg23bpM_VYB5

Me? I think it was uncalled for.  Physical violence doesn’t seem like an appropriate response to a little obnoxious celebrating, in my mind.  Kinda makes Zito seem like a tool, or maybe the team in general, if they were all in on it. (And I have to assume some were, or at the very least were patting Zito on the back at the end of the day.)  

Aren’t these people millionaires or something?    I know Zito is.  An overpayed millionaire at that.  That all seemed so High School.