Early Observations from Section 104

Courtesy of the Butch Husky Estate © 2012

Ten games in. Time for a bunch of irrational and reactionary tweeting about Lincecum sucking out the wrong side of the bong, the Melk Man going Iced Mocha over the last three contests, and the need to lock up Buster Posey into his retirement years.

Or, we could just throw a few bullet points at the white board of life and see what sticks in a month or two. Anything's better than obsessing over Matt Kemp's OPS two weeks into the season.

With that, here are my 10 observations from the first 10 games of the young season...

Game 1 (D-Bags 5, Gigantes 4): We could legitimately focus on Timmy in three of these points, but this game was instantly noteworthy because last year it would have been over after the first inning. This year, there's a little more pop, a little more bop, and a little more je ne sais quoi. This year, they're going to make every game interesting. At least we all can hope they do.

156 down. 6 to go.

It comes to this. One week of desperately trying to avoid a heart attack and knowing it's a losing proposition. After all, it's been six years. How exactly is one supposed to react under these circumstances? I find myself pondering what life in September must be like for fans of teams like the Pirates, who haven't won diddly squat (or even bothered to post a winning record) in 18 years. Football season. That's what it feels like. Not here. The Niners are garbage. The Raiders are... the Raiders. The A's are playing out the string. And the W's and Sharks have yet to begin their respective marches toward inevitable heartache, regret, and mediocrity. (Just sayin'.) Yes, your San Francisco Giants have a unique opportunity to usurp the collective sports consciousness of the Bay Area for the next five weeks. The last team from these environs to play in their league's postseason was the Warriors. I know. Scary, right? It's been one sad state of affairs for jock junkies in this neck of the woods, and it's a shame. After all, we have everything else going for us: culture, diversity, climate, politics — why not a successful sports franchise, or hell, just one bloody season in the sun. That's all we ask. For Giants fans, it's the ultimate existential question: If our team can finally find a way to overcome the Ides of October and end up hoisting the cool trophy with all the pennants on it, will we be satisfied? Will we walk away into the sunset, never again to set foot in a major league baseball park, our wildest dreams fulfilled, ready to experience what life has to offer beyond the chalk lines and $8 brats? Will our family get to see us again at birthdays and holidays and graduations? Will our friends be able to discuss subjects with us that don't revolve around the designated hitter or the infield fly rule? Will we stop wearing our beat-down ball caps to weddings and high-fiving fellow fans at political fundraisers? Will we ever, truly, be sane? The answer, of course, is "No." Because we can never get enough, you see? One championship feeds the hunger for another. Take Red Sox fans as an example. Two championships in three years, and they're still the bitterest, saddest, most depressingly paranoid body of people on this planet — and anyone who came to the interleague series at the Cove in June knows exactly what I'm talking about. That's us, people. Two or three years removed from that mythical Giants championship, we'll be just the same: mumbling to ourselves about what could have been, should have been, would have been. If only... if only... But for that one October, it truly would be magic inside. Of course, this year, the World Series is scheduled to stretch into November, unless somebody sweeps. But you get the point. Don't you?

BTW...

> Everybody seems to be talking about the starting rotation. Urbs says "Let's push Tim Lincecum back so he starts the Padres series and Zito goes against the D'backs." Baggs says, "Let's move Timmy up so he's available to pitch Game 163 on regular rest." Chalk me up with the guys on the bench, who don't seem inclined to change a thing. Like Baggs concludes here, why mess with a staff that's held opponents to 3 or fewer runs in 19 of the last 20 games? Of course, Baggs later reported that Brian Sabean was on KNBR yesterday talking about the possibility of migrating Big Time Timmy Jim to have him rested for a one-game playoff. So who the hell knows what's going to happen? I can tell you this much: Whether the Giants are playing baseball or golf next week has more to do with one player than any other: Jonathan "Dirty" Sanchez, who will likely start two of the final six games, regardless of how the rotation shakes out. Would it be any Giants fan's ideal to have Dirty on the mound with the season on the line this Sunday afternoon at the Cove? No, but we may have to endure it anyway. And given his recent success and lifetime numbers against the Padres, we shouldn't be that worried. But we are. After all, this is the Giants we're talking about here...

> How hard is Andres Torres? Dude plays for two weeks with appendicitis, then sits for a grand total of 12 days before returning Friday night — and starting Saturday! He even blasted one into the Rockies bullpen to prove that our own private Roy Hobbs was back in the saddle again. Of course, he tweaked himself pretty good, playing hard like he always does, but I wouldn't expect anything less. Would I have preferred that he check himself into the hospital at the first twinge of pain? Yes. Would I prefer that he not retake the field until he's absolutely 100% without a doubt healthy as the day he was born? Por supuesto. Is there anything me or Bruce Bochy or the entire 40-man roster can do to keep him from playing? Not likely. So let it be, Butch. Let it be...

> How sweet was it to watch Matt Cain drive the final nail into the Rockies' coffin, in their own park, no less? Granted, we took our lumps in Saturday's roller coaster loss. But what would a trip to Denver be without some good ol' fashioned Coors Field anguish? And by the time we left town, the Purple People were a deflated bunch — I even heard Dinger was sobbing his eyes out in the clubhouse. Why does it feel good to beat these guys? I posit that the Rockies are becoming one of the Giants' most heated rivals. They'll never overtake Los Doyers for sheer spite and instinctive hatred, but the more Neifi Perez/Ryan Spilborghs/Troy Tulowitzki backbreakers we endure at the hands of these upstarts, the more I want to pulverize their hopes and dreams with every chance we get...

See you at the Cove. Don't forget to follow me on Twitter for live updates from Section 104...

134 down. 28 to go.

Here's the thing about Monday's game...

It's irrelevant. Yeah, I know what I said on the Twitter thingie. I said a lot of things that night on the Twitter thingie. Another one of the things had something to do with not playing the Blame Game. So let's not play the blame game. Let's look objectively at what happened:

• Carlos Gonzales broke his bat after hitting a ball fairly square on a good part of the wood — he said himself after the game he was surprised the bat broke.

• Consequently, Cody Ross broke in — justifiably — before adjusting and in the end coming up short. Do I think Nasty Nate would have made the same gut read on the ball? Yes. Do I think he has better closing speed than Cody Ross? Maybe. Do I think he would have caught the ball? No.

• Of course, Freddy Sanchez compounded the weirdness by triple-hopping a throw that, had it not been right on line to Pablo Sandoval, would not have hit Gonzales in the arm and flown into the stands. But it was on line, just low. Game over.

These things happen. As my buddy Alex opined on his Twitter thingie: "It would be super if Freddy Sanchez could figure out how to hit and field at the same time." I'll take the hits any day, and especially on a day when we only give Dirty one run of support. What a workout.
—— 

On Tuesday's Giants-Rockies tilt:

You know, the local media seems to be picking up this narrative of the Giants as a team that lacks an identity. Personally, I think they're all on crack, and this game is a bright shining example as to why.

The 2010 Gigantes are the Teflon Team. They're as resilient as Silly Putty. If the 2010 Giants were an ice cream flavor, they would most certainly be Rocky Road, but the good kind, with just enough marshmallows to make you crave another bite.
—— 

Three cheers for Darren Ford! 

And cheers to Alex Pavlovic, one of the unsung heroes of the Giants beat, for his work in relief of Señor Extra Baggs. Check out his notes on Darren's debut. Am I trippin', or was that kid playing in San José last year? Wait... oh, right.

Critical win for the team. Existential victory for Big Time Timmy Jim. And a sleepless night's worth of "What if's" for one Ubaldo Jimenez. Seriously, if that kid don't win the Cy this year, there ain't no justice in baseball. Meaning he probably won't.

And me? I had to watch it all transpire on my iPhone. It's a cross I have to bear for being "engaged": MFTs* of events, networking, drinking, more networking, and occasionally getting things done that can, you know, help people. Oh snap, now I'm bitching. Back to the rawhide, shall we?
——

BTW...

> I freaking love Andres Torres, not in a man crush kinduva way, more like I want to buy him a case of whatever liquor he fancies. Dude is ripping it up out of the clear blue sky, both for my real team, and my fantasy team. I'd nominate him for Comeback Player of the Year, but he never really got a shot in the first place. Listen to me now: Take your kid to the park. Point out Andres Torres. Make sure they watch him the whole game. That's how you play this game — like there's a fire in your soul and ice in your veins.

> Speaking of #TeamHopeyChangey, we were well represented by los Gigantes in this series. Both Dirty and Timmy turned in fine performances above and beyond recently-lowered expectations, and A.T. went nuts at the plate and in the field. We're not exactly shaking up the standings, but we're steadily making a push for the money. Fingers crossed.

> Yeah, I know. We could "What if" ourselves to death. I think I said that, or maybe it was some other jackass blogger. Anyway... The Padres have lost seven straight games. Bolly for us. We've managed to claw back within 3 games of the West lead. Again, bolly for us. Could the G's have done a better job of dispatching the Reds last Wednesday and the D-backs over the weekend? Maybe so, maybe not. They're both lighting up all comers right now. All I'm sayin' is if our boys had TCOB, we'd be a lot closer to the promised land, and 3 games is a serious gap with 28 to play.

> Travel day, 3 @LAD, 3 @AZ,  4 @SD, Travel day, 3 vs. LAD, 3 vs. MIL, Travel Day, 3 @CHC, 3 @COL, Travel Day, 3 vs. AZ, 3 vs. SD, and that's your [regular] season, Giants fans. Enjoy! As for the irregular season, we shall see...


* Metric Fuck Tons

108 down. 54 to go.

Two days in Colorado, and I have to admit, I expected the reverse result. You tell me Jonathan Sanchez is pitching at Coors with career splits against the Rocks resembling Atlee Hammaker's career stats, and I chalk that up as an "L". To more acutely express my feelings about the matchup, I held "Dirty" Sanchez off my 25-man fantasy roster on Tuesday. While the Giants fan in me was pleasantly surprised by the W, the fantasy player in me was ready to leap from a very high balcony if Dirty had been able to complete the shutout. Luckily for Team Hopey Changey, he faded after six — once again — I only ended up missing out on 17 points and an ERA boost, and los Gigantes were victorious. Drinks all around... Jokes aside, you have to be pumped by Sanchez's performance considering how much he'd struggled before the trade deadline. His postgame quotes hinted at it, but I'd go so far as to pin the secret to his success in Denver on comfortability. Remember, this is a guy who has a general problem with focus. Throw in a healthy dose of job insecurity and the thought of picking up roots and heading to another franchise, and you've got a nervous breakdown waiting to happen out there on the bump. As it stands, Dirty and the rest of the team got a big boost from the Giants' (lack of) moves on July 31st, and that will only serve the clubhouse chemistry well down the stretch. BTW: What the hell am I s'posed to say about yesterday? I didn't listen to the postgame show or Sportsphone with F.P., but I'd guess the Negative Nancies were out in full force with their vapid arguments about the need for a big bat and more pitching depth. Friends, sometimes a loss was always gonna be a loss no matter what team you threw out on the field. Ubaldo was due, the Rocks' bats had been on fire prior to Tuesday's anomaly, and Bumgarner had been pitching well over his head for a 20-year-old rookie. (Now, he's winless as a 21-year-old.) Add all that up, and it's a series split. We do the same in Hot-lanta, we'll be sitting pretty when we get back to the Cove... Did I mention the Pads have lost two in a row to the Hated Ones? I'd never (openly) root for the boys from Chavez Ravine, but I'm not gonna sit here and tell you those results don't warm my heart — just a bit.

P.S. Headed up to Berkeley for three nights of Phish at the Greek Theatre, so the tweets and blogs might be slow going for the next few days. Hope you'll bear with me.

88 down. 74 to go.

As has been noted on the Twitter and Facebook thingies, I spent the past weekend at Stillwater Cove just north of Bodega Bay attending the long-awaited wedding of a couple good friends. Cell reception was non-existent up there, and even my iPhone data plan wasn't happening, so I didn't get to watch any of the series in D.C. — including the Strasburg game. However, I did have my trusty pocket radio tuned to the ol' 50,000-watt blowtorch nearly all weekend, and now that I've had a chance to watch the highlights, I'm ready to make a few observations about the series:

1. Stephen Strasburg is, indeed, legit. I'm not saying the guy deserves to go to the All Star Game after less than two months in the Show, but he's obviously got some nasty stuff. Not that it takes much to quiet the Giants bats from time to time (see Arrieta, Jake).
2. Buster Posey will be your National League Rookie of the Year. Yes, others got off to faster starts (see, Heyward, Jayson), but even giving him a liberal four games off the rest of the way and barring any catastrophe, the Kid is on pace to hit .350, mash 20 homers, drive in 70 runs, and post an OPS in the .900s.
3. Madison Bumgarner is the most intimidating 20-year old I've ever seen in orange and black. This guy once threw behind a hitter in the minors because "he swung too hard" at the previous pitch. Everyone — including yours truly — was buggin' earlier in the year because he looked like Clark Kent instead of Kal-El. Shows what a little taste of Fresno can do to you. Maybe Pablo could use a trip down US-99 for a few weeks of extended Camp Panda.

I'll have more for you later including my first half report card and a look ahead to the second half. For now, I'll just say that the G's may have salvaged their season on this road trip. You'll recall I was none too optimistic following the 15-inning heart crusher in Denver — which eerily mimics my sentiments following a particularly rough series at Coors last year. The boys pretty much needed to win out going into the break to have any shot of catching anybody in the West, which they pretty much did. Meanwhile, the Fathers ran into a streaking Rock Pile over the weekend, and suddenly, the deficit is only 4 games. Of course, we've got three teams to climb over, but things were looking a lot worse a week and a half ago.

Back in the Saddle

It's one of those things you don't like to talk about. You avoid the subject at all costs. The "What if..." sensation tickling the back of your mind. And when the circumstance you've been avoiding suddenly materializes, it's like a sucker punch to the gut. Kinda like the guy who goes his whole life without ever taking a physical because, as he states with supreme bravado, "I feel fine." One day, he walks into the doctor's office and finds out cancer's eating him alive and he'll be dead in a matter of weeks.

Okay, maybe it's not that bad, but finding out Tim Lincecum is gonna miss the first start of his career because of... gasp!... back spasms was certainly a sphincter-shrinking moment. Muddled together were the emotions of the moment, trepidation for all that this team had worked for all season long, anticipation of MadBum's big league debut on the bump, confusion as to the cause — was it because of his mechainics? — and sudden doubt in beliefs which I had previously held as sacrosanct, such as the genius of Chris Lincecum's coaching techniques.

The team had just returned from a moderately successful homestand. Moderately in that they survived to go .500 despite scoring a grand total of 12 runs in six games. The trip ended on a sour note thanks to Prince Fielder's theatrics, and less than 24 hours later, the G-Men had to strap it on and play the next Biggest Game of the Year, suddenly trailing the Rox by 2 games. But Brad Penny went out and closed the door, the offense grew a pair, and for one day, it looked like we were most definitely in this.

Then Lincecum's back started balking.

It's strange to say, but it probably meant the season. He only missed one start, but that was just enough of a bump in the road to skew the alignment of the wheels on the good wagon Gigantes. MadBum went out and pitched a wonderful game that by all rights he should have won, but the absence of the Ace, the Freak, the Franchise, the Kid, made everyone's heart sink just a little bit, and if it was like that for the 35K in attendance, then you gotta believe it was like that for the 25+ guys in the dugout.

The funk of the next four games was a purely mental one. There's no other way to explain the seeming disinterest in playing baseball displayed by the Giants over this most crucial stretch of games. We owe the Padres a huge thanks for knocking the Rockies off the high horse of their eight-game winning streak and taking the final two at Petco to keep us in the hunt. But serious praise must go to Brad Penny, who has quite simply become the Unbeatable Giant. If his 24-inch neck and his 97-mph fastbal hadnt been there to stop the bleeding against the Hated Ones on Sunday, there would have been no use playing the games Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday.

About those games... How beautifully cyclical baseball can be. It has something to do with the nature of the seams, how they run in a continuous circuit around the ball. It has something to do with the bases, how the goal is to end up where you began. It has something to do with the repetition of playing every day, which forces you to have a short memory and think only of the now, this moment, this pitch, this play. That Lincecum, Zito and Cain were lined up to make these starts was no more of a coincidence than it was when it happened in that memorable sweep at the end of August. They were aligned this way to instill fear, to give our guys a boost, and to do exactly what they (almost) ended up doing.

In each of six games with the Rockies in our yard over the past two weeks, our starters have kept us in the game, and the offense has stepped up at just the right moments, and it all would have worked out so wonderfully had anyone been able to get a hit with runners at second and third and no outs in game three. Six batters came up, spread across two such situations, and all of them made outs. All of them. Minus that brain fart of Alexandrian proportions, I think the Giants have made clear who owns this stretch of King Street.

With the whooping they've laid down on Colorado in recent days, los Gigantes have also laid down the gauntlet for what is still a possible Wild Card tiebreaking game on Monday, October 5th. Thanks to a win in the season series and a new rule form MLB, the G's would host the purple pitching eaters. I don't know about you, but I like our chances... unless, of course, the Rockies sign Neifi Perez in the next couple days.

Homestand recap

Mon-Wed, September 7-9

• Giants 9, Padres 4 WP: Penny (2-0); LP: Richard (8-5); HR: SD - Gonzalez (36), Hundley (6); SF - Uribe 2 (12), Renteria (5)
• Padres 4, Giants 3 WP: Gregerson (1-3); LP: Affeldt (1-2); HR: SD - Headley (11), Kouzmanoff (17), Venable (10); SF - Rowans (14)
• Padres 4, Giants 2 WP: LeBlanc (2-1); LP: Zito (9-12); S: Bell (37); HR: SD - Gonzalez (37), Salazar (5); SF - Torres (3)

Fri-Sun, September 11-13

• Hated Ones 10, Giants 3 WP: Kuroda (6-6); LP: Cain (13-5); HR: LA - Blake (17)
• Hated Ones 9, Giants 1 WP: Padilla (11-6); LP: Sanchez (6-12); HR: LA - Martin (5), Loney (12)
• Giants 7, Hated Ones 2 WP: Penny (3-0); LP: Billingsley (12-10); HR: LA - Martin (6); SF - Uribe (13)

Mon-Wed, September 14-16

• Giants 9, Rockies 1 WP: Lincecum (14-5); LP: Hammel (8-8); HR: SF - Molina (18)
• Giants 10, Rockies 2 WP: Zito (10-12); LP: Jimenez (13-11); HR: COL - Tulowitzki (26)
• Rockies 4, Giants 3 WP: De La Rosa (15-9); LP: Cain (13-6); S: Betancourt (2); HR: COL - Tulowitzki (27), Stewart (24)

The Big Payback

Series of the year, game of the year, hit of the year, not necessarily in that order.

Friday, August 28th
Giants 2, Rockies 0
WP: Lincecum (13-4); LP: Jimenez (12-10); S: Wilson (31)
HR: SF - Sandoval (20)

If there’s one player the Giants can’t afford to lose, it’s Tim Lincecum. If there’s one more, it’s Pablo Sandoval. They needed both of them to win this one. They’ll need Panda to win the next two. No doubt about it now. They have to sweep, and they’ve set out to do just that.

Yeah, of course they need to do better with situational hitting. Tell me something I don’t know. It’s as if by writing and talking about it incessantly, folks think they can actually change the status quo. Do they seriously think Carney Lansford, Shawon Dunston, Roberto Kelly, and every other hitting instructor in the dugout hasn’t reamed every man on the roster about this at one point or another? They probably bitch and moan about it all the time. Eventually, we have to accept that this team is chock full of free-swinging pine tar gamblers. They see the ball, they hit the ball. Sometimes they make 27 quiet outs, sometimes they don’t.

That said, it looks as though Gino Velez has righted the ship to some extent, though it makes me smile to think of a guy who’s been up in the Show less a month righting the ship. Truth is, he’d have to spontaneously combust to return to the level he was playing at in the weeks after he got the call.

My inner child smiled a bit when starting catcher pro tempore Eli Whiteside nailed Troy “Hometown Boy” Tulowitzki not once, but twice while trying to steal second base. I’ll admit, I have no idea why I hate the man known as “Tulo,” but he seems to have replaced Matt Holliday as my least favorite Rocky. Maybe it’s the cheer they do for him at Coors. Maybe it’s his cocky home run trot. Maybe it’s just his ass face. Whatever it is, guy bugs is the point, and Whiteside flashed some serious skills that made me forget that Bengie Molina’s still riding the pine.

While Matt Cain’s gone winless since July, Ubaldo Jimenez has been the ace of my fantasy staff. The decision to start him against the Giants was not a hard one to make, particularly after their abysmal performance against him in Colorado in his previous start. But if you don’t mind my saying, it worked out pretty well for all those concerned. The G-Men got the W, Jimenez didn’t get lit up too much, and nobody got hurt. The only better scenario would’ve been eight shutout innings from Jimenez and a ninth inning walk-off victory against the bullpen.

Once again, the Giants recover within 24 hours of a demoralizing defeat and add to the legend of 2009: The Team That Wouldn’t Stay Down.

Stat of the Night

This marked the sixth time Lincecum has pitched at least eight scoreless innings this season. No other pitcher has done that more than three times.

Quote of the Night

"You want to get that game one, then go for tomorrow, then the sweep. Obviously it's tough to sweep a team, but right now is the time to do it, and if we can do that, we can just get a little momentum going." - Brian Wilson, who picked up save #31

Saturday, August 29th
Giants 5, Rockies 3
WP: Zito (9-11); LP: Marquis (14-9); S: Wilson (32)
HR: COL - Hawpe (19); SF - Sandoval (21)

Barry Zito got a curtain call. By now you know that is not a typo. It’s been the talk of the town since he walked off the field in the top of the ninth after surrendering what could have been his first shutout since 2003.

Updating previously-reported stats, ZIto is 4-2 with a 1.77 ERA since the All-Star break. Is that line good enough for $5,000 a pitch? Of course not, but at least it doesn’t suck.

The patience of Giants fans has been tested over the past three years by Peter Magowan’s $126 million impulse buy. (Funny how he only splurged on guys named Barry.) Only now are we witnessing the potential of the stoner with a curveball who left UC-Santa Barbara after his sophomore year and finished up his collegiate career at another party school, USC. To say that I’m rooting for Mr. Zito would be a drastic understatement.

Two years ago, in the Summer of 2007, I attended a three-game series at Chavez Ravine, as I’ve done every year since returning to the place where thing make sense (every year but last year, when something more important got in the way). Zito won the rubber match with seven strong innings, and lost in the postgame haze, I stuck around outside the gates with the autograph hounds.

At the start of the season, I’d bought a new home jersey complete with the All-Star patch and the number of the Giants’ big free-agent acquisition, my fellow Trojan, Barry Zito. Just like the decision to hang around in hostile territory after dark, my choice of jersey was made in a haze. It just made sense at the time. It made even more sense when I found myself wearing it in the parking lot waiting for players to emerge from the clubhouse and struggling to recognize them in street clothes.

Zito came out last and was swarmed immediately. A crowd of twenty to thirty men in their late teens to early fifties, all carrying Sharpies and 8x10 glossies of Zito in action — many of them taken while he was with the A’s — followed him like a pack of rabid dogs to the car he’d driven to the game. He was gracious and signed for everybody, even chatting up the guys who engaged him.

Eventually, he had to stop in the middle of the lot as the crowd got too thick, and I squeaked to the front of the pack. I borrowed the silver pen of a guy with whom I’d struck up an earlier conversation over a cigarette, took the jersey off my back, and passed both to the 126 Million Dollar Man. He thanked me for some kind words about his performance and signed the vertical line of the 7 in his number. I got the jersey back, returned the pen to its owner, and watched him sign something for every single person in that crowd.

Maybe the scene would’ve played out differently if he’d been lit up by the Hated Ones that night, but I don’t think so. The raindrops just seem to roll right off this guy.

The postscript to that story is I’ve had the jersey hanging in my closet untouched ever since and still haven’t procured another home jersey to replace it. Even without Zito’s autograph, I would’ve retired it anyway. That same night, I was struck in the shoulder by a hot dog thrown by a disgruntled fan of the Hated Ones. The attack left mustard stains on my jersey, but I didn’t stress the mess. In fact, I wore it as a badge of honor.

Butch’s Btw

Yes, my sphincter was just as tight as yours while the Rockies rallied in the ninth, but if you think anything’s gonna come easy for this team, you’ve got another thing coming.

Stat of the Night

Zito struck out the side to start a game for the first time since July 29, 2001, against the Kansas City Royals.

Quote of the Night

"I don't think it's gonna be a good night. I'm tired." - Pablo Sandoval, just before he crushed the 50th Splash Hit by a Giant despite playing through a strained right calf and flu-like symptoms

Sunday, August 30th
Giants 9, Rockies 5
WP: Medders (3-1); LP: Betancourt (1-3)
HR: COL - Helton (13), Tulowitzki (24); SF - Rentería GS (4)

Revenge is a dish best served cold. I prefer it with a healthy portion of karma on the side. Edgar Renteria’s grand slam in the bottom of the seventh had plenty of both.

Forget the inability to score with runners at second and third with nobody out in the sixth. Forget working only 23 pitches out of Jason Hammel the first time through the lineup. Forget Ryan Spilborghs and 14 innings of frustration at Coors Field. Edgar made that all go away with one swing of the bat, and if your head didn’t hit the ceiling when it happened, either you’re not a Giants fan, or you were standing outside. I can tell you this much: If you were watching that game, there’s no way you weren’t on your feet.

Among all the heroes to emerge from this improbable season before Sunday, Renteria was almost an afterthought. Maligned by fans for his lofty contract before he’d even had a chance to step into the batter’s box, he’s quietly been a leader in the clubhouse. Recently marginalized by the revelation of bone spurs in his elbow, which will require off-season surgery, he’s responded with his best ABs of the season. Disrespected on a daily basis by the likes of Damon Bruce and Mychael Urban on the 50K-Watt blowtorch, the man finally stuck it up their collective ass.

What a way to end an August in which the Giants went 16-12 and experienced every fathomable emotion and faced an endless string of must-win situations. Much has already been written about the tremendous turnaround of the past week and the miraculous finish to this game in particular, and I won’t add to the redundancy except to say that of all my years as a baseball fan and a fan of the Orange and Black, I’ve never felt as funny as I do right now. There have been many good years, a couple prolonged runs of success, players with exceptional talents, a new ballpark, and several South Bay ballpark initiatives, but for the first time in my adult life I feel as though, with this team, anything is possible.

That said, there’s still one long month of stressful games to negotiate, but after surviving a week like this, Giants fans should be ready for anything.

Some game notes:

• Give it up to Jeremy Affeldt, the workhorse of the Giants’ bullpen, who got himself into a tight spot in the eighth but was man enough to get himself out of it. Hopefully an appearance like this can help him forget his one poor stretch of the season and propel him the rest of the way.

• How ‘bout that Ryan Rohlinger? I’m not discontinuing my membership in the Franny Fan Club, but that was one crucial hit for a almost-rook still searching for a batting average. And how classic was it to watch him relive the entire AB with Roberto Kelly once he got to first. I can hear Roberto now, “Nice hit, kid. Now shut up and pay attention.”

• The wait is never a long one for a visiting player to look awful goofy trying to defend right field at 24 Willie Mays Plaza. Even when an out is recorded, the play usually looks so bad it makes Giants fans appreciate guys like Randy Winn and Nate Schierholtz even more.

Stat of the Day: Former Giants Edition

Rockies backstop and past San Francisco fan favorite Yorvit Torrealba singled in the eighth to extend his career-best hitting streak to 10 games.

Quote of the Day: Full Circle Edition

"If you have ambitions of playing baseball in October, when you get knocked down you've got to stand back up.” - Rockies Manager Jim Tracy

Series debrief

There’s a lot to be said for chemistry. Can a team win without the players going out for coffee? Sure it can, and Giants fans need look back no further than 2002 to know that’s the truth. If you’ve got the talent top to bottom of a team like the Yankees, Red Sox, Cardinals or Phillies, you can live with a little bad blood in the clubhouse. When you’re scratching and clawing to stay in the playoff race on a team playing far beyond it’s career stat lines, chemistry is everything.

A team of haters would have imploded after a game like the Giants experienced a little less than one week ago in Colorado. A clubhouse full of prima donnas would have eaten itself alive. A chartered plane full of spoiled brats, no matter how talented, no matter how overpaid, would have folded the season and made reservations for Pebble on October the 5th.

This team rebounded with a resiliency only a tight-knit brotherhood of professionals can produce. They trumped everyone’s expectations once again and shot themselves back into the pennant hunt like a Saturn 5 rocket.

P.S. Brian Sabean just pulled a Brad Penny out of his ass to lock down that five hole in the rotation, so it looks like the MadBum faithful will have to wait ‘til next year. Meantime, Butch is ticked because he figured off days would allow the No. 5 spot to be skipped twice before his trip to L.A. for the final series with the Hated Ones. That would line up Lincecum, Zito and Cain to pitch those three contests, which still might go a long way toward determining the season’s endgame. With this addition the starters for the L.A. trip should be Sanchez, Penny and Lincecum. Not bad, but we just caught a glimpse of what the big three can do in a short series.

The End of the Beginning of the End

Took a long time to write this one up. I wanted to be sure I didn’t taint my words with hatred and frustration, so I gave it a day. My head’s still sore, but at least now my hands aren’t shaking too much to type...

Friday, August 21st
Giants 6, Rockies 3
WP: J. Sanchez (6-10); LP: Cook (10-6)
HR: SF - Rowand (11); COL - Smith (10)

This is the Facebook status I posted in the hours after this game:

Butch Husky is ceaselessly amazed at the ability of his baseball club to rebound from potentially morale-crushing defeats to win absolutely crucial games.

I stand by that emotion. Chalk it up to the ignorance of youth or the influence of a core of seasoned vets or the steady hand of “The Shaman,” but this team knows how to forget quickly the events of the past and focus on the present. This makes a lot of sense since it closely resembles approach of many Giants at the plate: thinking only of this pitch, the game within a game and nothing more.

How I wish we could have one without the other! The slow burn of the baseball season and the endless string of statistics it produces have the tendency to overwhelm the mind, to make it race when it should be still, to make mental mountains out of mole hills. A short memory is critical to a successful team.

But inside the batter’s box is not the time or place for short memories. Hitting a 95 mph baseball is hard enough when you’re not wearing blinders. To be successful at the fundamentals of hitting is to possess an healthy awareness of the situation: inning, number of outs, runners on which bases, your history with this pitcher, time of day, time of year, your team’s place in the standings, oh yeah, and the score.

You can see all of those factors running across the backs of the eyes of players like Freddy Sanchez, guys who can place a ball like they’re shooting trick shots on a billiards table. The Giants don’t have a lot of those guys, and they don’t even have Sanchez for the time being. But I can’t hate. The man apologized to the fans for being hurt. Ever heard of that before?

Regardless, someway, somehow, this group of guys manages to stay right there in the Hunt for October. (God, if you’re out there and you have any say in it at all, please don’t let Fox bring back those horrendously annoying Dane Cook commercials.)

Give a game ball to Aaron Rowand, who seems to be catching one of those waves he rides to the .300 mark just often enough to make it worthwhile to keep him in the lineup. If you’ve got one left, hand it to Jonathan Sanchez, who’s 2-1 with a 2.25 ERA in four August starts, with both wins coming on the road.

I’m gonna throw a curve tonight and flip the script in honor of Jeremy “Soul Patch” Affeldt...

Quote of the Night

"When he hit it back to me, I'm going to say I was probably more overwhelmed with joy than anything else. That guy, I have a lot of respect for him as a hitter, as a man, as a player of the game. I'm glad I won that one." - Affeldt, on getting former batting champ Todd Helton to ground into a 1-2-3 double play with the bases loaded in the bottom of the seventh

Stat of the Night

Affeldt’s 16 induced double plays are the most of any reliever in the game.

Saturday, August 22nd
Rockies 14, Giants 11
WP: De La Rosa (12-8); LP: Miller (2-2)
HR: SF - Schierholtz (5), Garko 2 (13), Rowand (12), Sandoval (19); COL - Stewart (19), Helton (12)

This year’s version of your San Francisco Giants haven’t had many five-run leads, and they certainly haven’t come out of the gates like this against a top-of-the-line starter who hadn’t lost in 11 straight decisions and always seemed to give them fits. But that was precisely the case right around the time everything fell apart in this game, and this series.

I understand that it’s Coors Field, but after a while, it becomes like Chinatown, more of an attitude of fear than a truly frightening place. After all, this is only baseball, and these are only the Rockies, and they’re not perfect at home (their 33-24 record ranks 5th in the National League). Remember that team that lost all 13 of its games against the Braves in its inaugural season of 1993 when one victory would have dropped Atlanta into a tie with the Giants atop the division, triggering a one-game playoff that might have helped us all forget the name Salomón Torres? No matter how many wins they rack up, how many unlikely Wild Card victories and N.L. pennants they collect, they’ll still be that po dung expansion team that’s never done us any favors.

If the current Giants had any concept of the history between these two clubs, they might fight a little harder to defeat them, might play these games as though this bunch of young cocky pricks were their true arch rival in the West, not that blue-wearing tribe from Echo Park. Instead, they roll over, and simply blaming poor pitching doesn’t hold water.

Joe Martinez is in over his head. He was never expected to make the team, let alone return this year from a gruesome line drive to the head, let alone start meaningful games down the stretch in the first playoff race by the Bay in three years (counting the A’s). Justin Miller has given his all this season and turned in a career effort, posting an ERA under 2.00 up until this shocking display of ineffectiveness. Merkin Valdez is still struggling to find himself and would never have found himself in this game had the pitchers before him maintained any semblance of a lead.

This is all beside the point that Bochy made it abundantly clear before game time that he would be forced to stick with his hurlers, even if they were getting lit up like the White House Christmas tree. This has already been a long, hard roadie, and even though one more victory would guarantee a winning trip, the pitching staff has been taxed by extra-inning nail biters and grinding at-bats from teams like the Mets and Reds trying to play out their seasons with a sense of dignity. One could easily look at Martinez and company as sacrificial lambs. This was the one game in the series the Giants could afford to lose.

But when you hit five homers and plate 11 runs, you expect to win, and even in the house of horrors that is Coors Field, there’s no one to blame but the pitching, right?

Stat of the Night

The Giants hadn’t hit five home runs in one game since August 7, 2006, when they hit six at the BOB (now Chase Field) in Arizona.

Quote(s) of the Night: A Tale of Two Managers

"This is a park where you can't just go get your pitcher any time. You have to be a little more patient. You'll go through your 'pen there real quick. Both sides have been using their 'pens. You've got to stay with them a little bit longer and hope they figure it out. I can't bail everybody out or I'm going to run out of pitchers." - Bruce “The Shaman” Bochy

"The team that I've been managing since the 29th of May showed up in about the fifth inning. I know the type of baseball team we've had since the end of May, and for the first game and a half of this series, it wasn't that team. But the last half of this game, it is the team that I've been managing." - Rockies manager Jim Tracy, quite the little prognosticator

Sunday, August 23rd
Rockies 4, Giants 2
WP: Jimenez (12-9); LP: Lincecum (12-4); S: Street (33)
HR: SF - Renteria (3); COL - Smith (11)

There’s a pattern developing here, and it’s one the Giants would be wise to avoid in Monday’s series finale: The starting staff shuts down a potent Rockies offense for one or two trips through the lineup, and just when the starter is losing some juice and the bullpen is primed to take the reins, suddenly the Colorado bats come to life and everything goes to hell in a Rocky Mountain minute — not quite as fast as the New York variety, but close. (See the above Jim Tracy quote from the previous night.)

Today’s victim was Tim Lincecum, who has given just about everything he’s got to the Giants’ improbable run. But as the dog days wear on and the heat picks up, you can see Timmy’s fastball losing some life, you can see his tank run dry just a little earlier than usual. He’s never done particularly well against the Rockies, and the mile-high air does absolutely nothing to help his breaking stuff or his endurance, but this is still the reigning N.L. Cy Young Award winner, and gosh darn it, we expect him to go out there every time and shut things down. We expect him to stop the bleeding started by the fifth starter. We expect him to be lights out, every time. And even though his peripherals are still well above average, he has not been the same lights-out Timmy that we’ve come to know and love.

This time out, he was likely done in by Bochy’s hesitation to tax his relievers. It was obvious Lincecum was on his last legs in the seventh, clinging to a one-run lead in a park that generates a fair amount of crooked numbers. But Bochy stuck with him to face the lefty Seth Smith, even though lefty Jeremy Affeldt was primed and ready in the Giants ‘pen. That’s not to say things would’ve turned out differently if Affeldt had entered the game to pitch to Smith. There’s a reason Bochy was hesitant to make the change, after all. Affeldt had also lost a bit of the dominance we’ve come to expect this season, and he’s been worked a lot. Best to squeeze as many outs out of every arm you’ve got and try to win games one batter at a time. It’s good managerial training for the playoffs, when one batter — one pitch — can change the entire landscape of a series.

That the best laid plans of mice and the Shaman fell awry this time out is no reason to condemn the philosophy. After all, I’d take Tim Lincecum at 75% over just about any pitcher in baseball at 100%, especially a specialist lefty out of the bullpen, no matter what kind of numbers they’re putting up. But there’s no way to deny that this loss hurts.

The Giants have held an early lead in every game in this series, but they’re still one up and two down with one more to go. At three games out, this is the largest deficit they’ve faced since the middle of May and certainly since it became trendy to talk about the Wild Card “Division.” With a victory on Monday, the G-Men would make the series a wash and end the most grueling road trip of this or any season with a winning record. They’re been turning the other cheek all season, and now more than ever they need to keep their memories short and their fly balls long.

Butch’s Btw

Major props are due to Juan Uribe, who made the play of the game while riding the pine.

Stat of the Day

Edgar Renteria accounted for both Giants runs with an opposite field shot into the right field bullpen in the top of the second. It was his first home run since April 24 at Arizona, a span of 342 at-bats.

Quote of the Day

"I know sometimes that's what things do here. Balls do weird things, and the changeup was left up and it cut right back to his bat." - Lincecum on the decisive home run he served up to Seth Smith in the bottom of the seventh

Monday, August 24th
Rockies 6, Giants 4 (14)
WP: Eaton (3-5); LP: Miller (2-3)
HR: COL - Spilborghs (7)

There’s this funny ass scene in a Mamet flick called “State and Main.” Alec Baldwin plays a spoiled Hollywood actor run amok on a small town location shoot. Late one night, he gets drunk, picks up an underage girl, and flips his car in the middle of Main Street, right in front of Phil Hoffman, who plays the screenwriter. Baldwin’s character climbs out of the car, bloodied but not broken, turns to Hoffman and smiles...

“Well, that happened,” is all he says before walking calmly away from the scene.

When Ryan Spilborghs’ hope-crushing grand slam landed in the Rockies bullpen around midnight in Denver, two things flashed across my mind:

The first was standing in the living room of an old bandmate who happened to be from L.A., watching the Giants blow a three-run lead at Chavez Ravine in the second-to-last game of the 2004 season. I didn’t speak a word to another living soul for days after Steve Finley’s season-ending grand slam put us in our coffin. Watching another team celebrate a victory they didn’t earn — a victory my team handed to them on a silver platter with a side of caviar — is always a moment of such pain that it cuts right to my very core and chills my soul. It’s easier to accept defeat when you’ve simply run into a better team.

The second image that came to mind was that Baldwin line after the car wreck. I felt like Julia Stiles, who played the underage girl riding shotgun with Baldwin at the time of the crash. Up to then, she was having the time of her life, cruising her boring hometown where nothing ever happens, diddling with a handsome celebrity who had been the god of her idolotry — to borrow a line from Shakespeare’s Juliet. The world was a blooming flower, and anything was possible. But in an instant, everything came to a screeching halt in a mess of metal and smoke.

“Well,” I said to myself as I switched off the postgame show during the fifth or sixth replay of the walk-off winner, “that happened.”

Butch’s Btw

With all the pain and frustration erupting in the heart of Giants fans all across the country in the wake of this tremendous defeat, it would be very easy to forget that Brandon Medders very nearly earned himself an immortal place in the lore of our club. Had his line shot in the top of the 13th found a way to curl around the glove of Ian Stewart, the 14th-inning heroics of Eugenio Velez and the subsequent disaster might never have occurred. As it stands, Medders didn’t have the energy to finish the game, and his woulda-been line drive will linger in my mind far longer than Spilborghs’ slam.

And I’d be remiss if I failed to mention that Barry Zito continued his streak of dominance in the second half, allowing just an unearned run through six strong innings. Of course, if he hadn’t walked in that run, this game might have ended in regulation, but the what if’s from this game could drive a man to drink. Speaking of which, it’s about that time...

Stat of the Night

Prior to Velez’s two-run triple in the top of the 13th, the Giants had been 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position and had left 11 men on base.

Quote(s) of the Night: ‘Cause you can’t say enough about this one

"I told Adam Eaton that if they walked Tulowitzki, don't swing. I don't care if he throws three right down the middle, don't swing because I want Spilborghs to have a shot with the bases loaded. If Justin Miller throws three pitches for strikes, [Eaton would have] struck out. But we're not going to let him take a swing and hit a ground ball and end the game." - Rockies manager Jim Tracy

"It almost hurts sometimes when you're in the 14th inning and you're up by three. That intense focus that you've had every inning with zero margin of error, now you could say that you have a huge margin of error and you let a team in the door and they blow it wide open." - Zito

Series debrief

Time will tell if this series marked the start of something miraculous or the beginning of the end. A cynic would lean toward the latter. Who am I to disagree?

All I know is:

• Once again this team came out the night after a horrendous loss and managed to scrape out a win by the skin of the popcorn kernel wedged between their front teeth. They just refuse to let the season die, and if they’re not giving up, neither am I.

• They still have six games with the Rockies, all of them at 24 Willie Mays Plaza, a place that has not lacked for miracles this season. They also play 22 of the final 37 at home.

• The Hated Ones are falling apart in an even bigger way than the Giants. They rallied last night to force extra innings at Coors, but the Rocks eventually pulled out another walk-off win that put them within two games of first place. The Giants trail the Dodgers by 6, and the way things are trending, they may soon be chasing the Blue Crew in the “Wild Card Division.”

Let's go Giants!

Where the Wild Things Are

I conceived of this post about a week and a half ago as an off-day story to lead into the crucial 11-game trip that got off to a smashing start yesterday...

The G-Men were coming off a clutch road series victory in Houston, returning home to face the thoroughly incompetent Reds in a weekender before the Hated Ones came to town for a series that could have put the squad from the City right back in the Western Division mix. They had regained their Wild Card advantage over the Rocks and were flying high with new addition Freddy Sanchez off to a thrilling start in the orange and black.

I was going to tell you how the N.L. Wild Card race would come down to the two teams from the West. How the Cubs and Brewers would beat each other senseless in their attempts to chase down eventual Central Division champ St. Louis. How the Marlins don't have enough pitching consistency. How the Braves lack depth on either side of the ball. Why that didn't matter because the strength of the East from top to bottom — including the lowly Nats who shocked the world by reeling off eight W's in a row — would do in both Florida and Atlanta down the stretch anyway. How the Giants and Rockies were uniquely positioned to duke it out over the season's final weeks thanks to the weakness of 'Zona and the Pads and the overall strength of their respective pitching staffs full of young studs. And how the Giants would eventually prevail thanks to six games against Colorado in the friendly confines of 24 Willie Mays Plaza (where they still enjoy a 39-20 record despite a pitiful 2-4 homestand).

I started writing on the travel day after the Houston series. I attached links to multimedia, stat graphs, articles and blogs. I wrote prose poems in honor of Freddy Sanchez's club foot. I sang the praises of the soon-to-return "Nasty" Nate Schierholtz. Satisfied, I set the piece to post yesterday morning. I figured the only reason I'd have to scrap it would be if the G's managed to sweep the struggling Hated Ones and jump right back in the division race...

Then, this happened.

Now, our team is reeling at the absolute worst time imaginable. I said before that if they managed to hold on through this trip, they would make the postseason. While that's still a very manageable goal to aim for given they trail the Colorado team by only 1 1/2 games in the WC standings and sit 6 1/2 behind the Hated Ones — despite dropping two out of three to them earlier this week in atrociously mediocre fashion — a reasonable appraisal of this team would tell you they need the offense back in its late-June, early-July mode if they're to have any shot at all. (They certainly need to figure things out in time for the four-gamer in Denver that closes this little jaunt.)

So I scrapped my story and banged this out instead. Now, the boys have gone and dropped the first game of the trip with little more than a whimper, leaving Barry Zito hanging on the bump without a run of support for the eighth time this season — that's a full third of his starts, people (eat your heart out, Matt Cain) — and I have a hard time getting up the will to posit my theory, which still holds water, though it's leaking from numerous tiny fissures that could very quickly become gushers if the ship is not righted in short order.

I still believe the Central teams —aside from the Cards, who are suddenly running away thanks to the addition of .493 hitter and resident jackass Matt Holliday — will beat each other into bloody pulps by the time the season winds down and finish at or around .500. I still believe the East is too tough a division to produce two playoff teams. (The Phils are running away there as well, with Clifford Lee dominating N.L. batters, even in the band box that is Citizens Bank Park.) I still believe the Giants have a chance to make this a two-team race with the Rockpile. But if they're going to turn my faith into reality, they need to wake up the bats. Now.

The Giants have failed to rack up any prolonged stretches of brilliance this season. The five- and six- and seven-game winning streaks that mark well-crafted and durable teams. The kind of runs that could have put them back in the division race long ago or put some distance between them and the rest of the Wild Card pack. That deficiency has nothing to do with a pitching staff that still boasts the best team ERA in the majors (3.51). It has more to do with an offense that has never clicked on all cylinders at once.

Every player in the lineup has flashed their bat for weeks at a time, but not once have all the bats come together to put on the displays that generate sustained success. Pablo Sandoval has been a revelation, but even he has been prone to slumping thanks to his free-swinging, Vlad Guerrero-esque style at the plate. Bengie Molina's bat has only now started to come alive, but was truly needed in the season's opening months, when young talents like Panda and Schierholtz had yet to make an impact and the team was floundering around .500. Eugenio Velez was a pleasant surprise, but the shine is starting to wear off his cleats. And then there's Randy Winn, Aaron Rowand, and Edgar Renteria, a triumvirate of overpaid veterans hitting a collective .262 — and a weak .262 at that. F. Sanchez has certainly provided a spark at the top of the lineup, but without professional hitting lower in the order, there's nobody to knock him in.

Callers to the 50K-Watt juggernaut and commenters on local blogs regularly deride the team for failing to make a competetive offer for the likes of Holliday, as if one power bat would solve all of our problems. Let's not forget, the Cards already had a superstar in their lineup when they added the ass-head former Denver-ite — some kid by the name of Pujols. If Marvin Benard hit next to that guy in a lineup, he'd be a superstar, with or without the cream and the clear.

At this juncture, there's no point to constructive criticism of the Giants deadline deals. That's the past. This is the team we have now. And it's not a bad team. We're still ahead of schedule, still loaded with talent down on the Farm, still stacked with the finest pitching staff in the majors, and still within reach of the final playoff spot, the spot that propelled them to an N.L. pennant in 2002, the spot we all wish were available to them in 1993.

But games like last night's have a tendency to leave a sour taste in the mouth of the faithful, those of us who race home from work to catch the final innings of an East Coast roadie, who make the 45-minute trek up the Peninsula to stand in the bitter cold under the Arcade for three and a half hours (two and a half when Timmy or Matty pitch), who defend their boys against all enemies, foreign and domestic, who wear their orange to family functions and business meetings alike, and always with a sense of pride.

Here's hoping today's nationally-televised contest is the worm-turner that gets the Giants' season back on track. If not, it's time to start salivating for Madison Bumgarner's first start of Spring Training 2010.

¡Vamos Gigantes!

There's No Place Like Home

Did you know there are three Major League stadiums named after beer companies?

Friday, July 24th Giants 3, Rockies 1
WP: Cain (12-2); LP: Hammel (5-5); S: Wilson (25 - N.L. Leader)
HR: SF - Schierholtz (4)

If karma does indeed surround us like a warm blanket, there is no greater evidence than the career arc of Main Cain. Should he sustain his level of play, should the defense continue to play Gold Glove defense at all positions behind him, should the Giants capture national attention and reach the playoffs, this team might be fielding another Cy Young triumvirate in the 2010 rotation... without Randy Johnson.

There, I said it. Remember: Jinxes are bullshit. Players make plays. Or they don’t. It’s as simple as that.

The good vibes from Thursday’s afternoon affair in Hot-lanta carried over here as the offense awoke for just long enough to do critical damage, and Matty laid down the law over seven nearly-spotless innings. But the real hero of the game didn’t do it (all) with his bat...

The Kung Fu Panda made a pair of unbelievable backhand plays down the line to rob speed demon Dexter Fowler. If you want an idea of how athletic a rolly-polly of a human being can be, have a look at this and also this.

Stat of the Night

“Nasty” Nate Schierholtz's fourth-inning home run was the Giants' first since July 12th, breaking a dinger-less string of 75 innings and 284 ABs.

Quote of the Night

"That's a pretty good feeling. Obviously, they're rooting against us, but it was fun to have that kind of excitement in the stadium. You make it work for you." - Matt Cain

Saturday, July 25th Rockies 8, Giants 3
WP: De La Rosa (8-7); LP: Sánchez (3-9)
HR: COL - Tulowitski (18)

Jonathan Sánchez has definitely learned a lot about himself since being demoted to the bullpen and rising like a phoenix to throw the first no-no for Los Gigantes in 33 long years. But he still hasn’t learned how to control his temper. Yes, Johnny, the rain came at just the right time to screw with your mojo. But the rain didn’t put two guys on base or groove one to Tulowitski. You did. And you can’t decide when it’s too wet to pitch. You’re on the umpires’ time, and they said play ball.

The Giants offense couldn’t even manage to make it interesting after that. Sánchez nearly took himself out of the game with a temper tantrum in the fourth and eventually went to the showers after surrendering a two-spot in the sixth. The bullpen had a decent showing... provided you discount a wasted outing from Merkin Valdez, who gave up three runs on four hits and a walk while navigating the eighth.

I gotta say, that dinger really lit up the Rockies dugout. The Giants staff had moseyed into town and promptly shut down the league’s second-most-potent offense. The home side had been perched on the doorstep but couldn’t seem to get home. Well, that all changed after Tulo returned to the first-base dugout. The fire was relit, and it carried his team to victory.

Quote of the Night

"I gave up two hits in the first five innings and there were three runs. I was like, 'How that happened?' Just one pitch, it went out of the park and you know the score." - Jonathan Sánchez

Sunday, July 26th Rockies 4, Giants 2
WP: Cook (10-3); LP: Sadowski (2-3); S: Street (25)

Call me on it if I’m full of shit, but the Giants never perform well against sinkerballers. Brandon Webb and Derek Lowe always spring to mind as card-carrying members of this band of tricksters who’ve played their pranks on all-too-gullable Giants squads over the years. Add Aaron Cook to the rolls.

The simple truth is that eager bats mixed with sinking pitches lead to ground balls, lots of them, sixteen of them for outs in this game alone, including a poorly-timed double-play ball from Edgar Renteria. To be fair, Edgar drove in one Giants run and set up the other one, but it’s always the failures that we remember. Such is baseball. Such is life.

Right now, this offense couldn’t hit a beach ball, and there’s only so much a pitching staff can do. I’m not abandoning my position that this team can win as constituted, but you’re going to hear a lot of whispers around the Cove when the team returns this week. As pointed out by Baggarly, trade topic Freddy Sanchez will be at AT&T with the Bucs to start the homestand.

Btw, the non-waiver trade deadline is Friday, July 31st at 1 p.m. PT.

Road trip post mortem

If the Wild Card race comes down to the Giants and Rockies, I think we’re all in for quite a treat. Both teams have obvious strengths and just enough of everything else to make them winning clubs. They both have a lot of youth mixed with just enough veteran leadership. Neither team was predicted to do much of anything. And both of their parks have been filled of late with loyal fans hungry for the postseason.

The folks at Coors Field are rising to their feet with two strikes and two outs. And I’m pretty sure I heard some die hard fans of the Gothams chanting “Lets go Giants” in the later innings — along with at least one rendition of “U-RIBE!” It’s plain to see the faithful on both sides understand the significance of these games. There was a playoff atmosphere enveloping that park all weekend, and it came through even on television.

I hope we all find that passion within ourselves and welcome our team home with relentless support.