Countdown to Scottsdale #37: Joe Martinez, P

I sing the song of Joe Martinez, who took a line drive off his face and lived to tell the tale. Between Todd Wellemeyer and Madison Bumgarner, there was Joe Martinez. He was brought up from the Grizzlies to spot for Wellemeyer after the latter pitcher came up with a gimpy quad somewhere between home and first and halfway through the month of June. He got pretty well lit up in his one and only start and was relegated to the bullpen before being shipped off to the Pirates in the deal for "The Other" Javy Lopez. In July, he bailed out Jonathan Sanchez after Dirty gave up a 5-spot over 3.2 in D.C. Little Joe somehow kept a clean sheet over 1.2 innings despite 3 hits and a pair of walks, but didn't factor in the decision when the Giants rallied late to win 10-5.

Thanks, Joe.

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!

Hangovers & Hated Ones

It’s okay, Chicken Little! You can put away the noose! The sky isn’t really falling... yet.

Monday, August 10th
Hated Ones 4, Giants 2
WP: Kuroda (5-5); LP: J. Sanchez (5-10); S: Broxton (25)
HR: SF - Ishikawa (8); Molina (14)

One pitch. That’s all it takes to ruin a pitcher’s day.

Jonathan Sanchez threw that pitch to Matt Kemp in the top of the fourth, and Kemp cleared the sacks. That J. Sanchez survived to pitch a stellar fifth is testament to his newfound confidence. But for one inning, it was the Sanchy we all know and try to love: teetering on the brink of a full-on physical and mental breakdown.

One inning. That’s all it takes.

To all the squakboxes who like to quack about the Giants’ lack of pop: They’ve been putting on a power display of late, and how much do they have to show for it? I love watching Ishi and Bengie go deep as much as the next guy — a bit more seeing as how they’re on my fantasy team. But if Fred Lewis — or anybody, for that matter — is on base at the time, a home run is a lot more effective.

In a bit of news that’s hard to categorize, the Hated Ones announced No. 1 starter Chad “Barbara” Billingsley will miss at least one start with a sore leggy-poo and be replaced this turn by journeyman a-hole Jeff Weaver. Here’s hoping Chad’s got some good painkillers and that he’s out for a wee bit longer than anticipated, and also that someone talks a little s**t to Weaver during Wednesday’s game.

Oh yeah, stay hot Eugenio Velez.

Stat of the Night (Road team edition)

The Dodgers’ 31-12 record against the N.L. West this season is the best intra-division mark in the Show.

Quote of the Night

"This is not the way you want to start a series but it's not desperation time. We need to relax and play our game." - Bruce Bochy, Zen Master

Tuesday, August 11th
Hated Ones 9, Giants 1
WP: Wolf (6-6); LP: Martinez (2-1)
HR: LA - Ramirez (13); Kemp (16)

One play. That’s all it takes to turn the momentum of a game.

I’m sitting here, still thinking about it. If he’d let it go through, Velez would’ve grabbed the ball right on the bag and had an easy turn of two. Instead, he made a circus play that would’ve made it to the top of the Web Gems... had he not knuckled one to Gino, who conveniently dropped the dime. And the Boys of Summer were off and rolling again.

You have to feel for Joe Martinez. He was acting on instinct, and he made a tremendous play. But as he knows all too well, the game can be cruel. And so can Manny Ramirez. Seriously, when Casey Blake is “defending” him in the five hole, why would anyone pitch to this guy?

Speaking of ManRam... Don’t know if anyone else noticed, but there was a pretty thick cloud hanging over the Cove on Tuesday night, and it wasn’t the “marine layer”. For years, we learned to live with our own embarrassment of a left fielder because he was our embarrassment and when you strip away all the hype and the dope, he was still the greatest hitter many of us have ever seen live. We heard the Think Blue Mafia chant “Bar-roid” and “Barry Sucks” — even when Bonds wasn’t playing! They booed him, they taunted him, and through it all, we defended him because he was electric.

Pot, meet kettle.

Btw, I have to admit, I couldn’t deal in the 7th. The mediocrity was simply too much to take. The fact that it was coming from Brandon Medders made less sense than the endless string of hits he allowed. This guy has dealt all year, but for one inning, he looked like garbage. But one inning is all it takes, sometimes.

Stat of the Night

Eugenio “Babe” Velez’s 16-game hitting streak ended with an 0-for-3, but he made the most productive of the Giants 27 outs, driving in Fred Lewis with a 3rd-inning groundout. He had one last chance to collect a knock in the 8th, but he was hit by a pitch that first bounced in the dirt. During the streak, Velez hit .420 (29-for-69) with three homers and 11 RBIs. It was the Giants' second-longest streak of the season, trailing only a 17-game run by Aaron Rowand.

Wednesday, August 12th
Giants 4, Hated Ones 2 (10)
WP: Wilson (4-5); LP: Mota (3-4)
HR: SF - Uribe (5)

You always hear the cliché when someone’s talking about another sport: “You don’t want the refs deciding the game.” Kobe says it about basketball. Mike Nolan used to bitch about it in (American) football. And just this week, Tiger mouthed off about the officials at a golf tournament. Read that last sentence again, and bear in mind Mr. Woods won the match.

My point is, you don’t often hear that excuse in baseball. Because 99.9% of the time, umpires effectively render themselves invisible. Think about the sheer number of calls made by a four-man crew over the course of a single game. Now think about how often you actually see a call worth questioning, even after rewinding and replaying your DVR recording of the play at least fifty times at six different speeds.

That said, the umpires almost gave this one to the Hated Ones, and luckily I’m not an employee of MLB or any of its franchises, so I can say that without getting fined. On no less than three separate occasions, this crew absolutely and unequivocally blew the call.

The first time, it cost the Giants a rally. The final time, it cost Tim Lincecum a complete game victory and on any given Wednesday could have cost the Giants the game. The time in between, it added insult to injury after one of the scrappier tiffs this rivalry has produced of late. It got so bad out there, the Giants had their manager ejected... twice. (That has to be a first for Ron Wotus. I’ll have the research team check it out.)

A quick note on the bench-clearing petting zoo: Russell Martin doesn’t have to prove how hard he is. He’s a Major League catcher. That should be enough. Instead, he had to wave his d**k around in Panda’s face, and Panda didn’t do nothin’ to nobody. So back off, Junior, or you’re goin’ on the list right under Casey Blake.

And now a note or two about the baseball:

Redemption, like revenge, is a dish that is best served cold, and it tasted awfully sweet when Juan Uribe lit up Guillermo Mota on an 10th inning 0-2 mistake to send everybody home googly eyed and grinning. In a lot of ways, it had to be Juan Uribe.

This is the same Juan Uribe who left seven men on base earlier in the game. The same Juan Uribe who fouled off a hanging Mota breaking ball earlier in the same AB. The same Juan Uribe who made what could have been a costly an error on an easy bloop in the top of the inning.

Looking back at this semi-disastrous homestand and taking into account the Giants’ position in the playoff race, this was a huge moment. Biggest of the season. The lead was blown, but the Giants were still alive. Still alive in the Wild Card. Still alive in the West. Brian Wilson just laid down the law with four strikeouts. If something was going to happen, it had to happen soon. As in now.

This was a must-win game before the first pitch, but it became an absolutely positively have to win or you can kiss your season goodbye kinduva game right around the time Uribe rounded third and everybody took a moment to think about what we would’ve been facing if the Hated Ones prevailed... Swept by the rivals at home, headed on a brutal 11-game trip, to the East Coast, in the dog days.

I felt these same emotions surging through my bloodstream once before this season. It was a warm May night in Seattle. Call this movie Unlikely Hero Redux.

P.S. Anybody get goose bumps when Wilson struck out Casey Blake to start the 10th? Much better revenge than plunking him. And just think, if they’d won this in nine, we would’ve missed a classic AB.

Stat of the Day

Before Freddy Sanchez’s RBI single in the fifth, the Giants had been 0-for-14 with RISP in the series. They were a whopping 1-for-18 by the end of it.

Quote of the Day

"I was worried about running out of managers today." - Bruce Bochy, who was ejected in the second inning (Interim manager and Bench Coach Ron Wotus was ejected in the ninth.)

Series debrief

Giants pitching shut down their rivals’ offense for 22 innings over the three-game series. In the other five innings, the San Francisco staff allowed 15 runs — 13 in three innings through the first two games.

The big inning has been a Giant killer all year, and the Hated Ones are built for crooked numbers. Their lineup is solid from top to bottom, and they jump on every mistake you make and every gift you hand out.

The Giants were far too generous with their charity in the opening two games, but no one can fault their valiant performance against a 13-man squad on Wednesday. Sure, you need to score with the bases loaded and nobody out, but it’s hard to complain about some good ol’ fashioned drama as evidenced at 24 Willie Mays Plaza this week.

I could tell you guys were into it. Wanna know how? Because I still heard you cheering in the bottom of the ninth on Tuesday night:

“Beat L-A! Beat L-A!”

Hot to Trot

Used to be the G-Men owned Enron Field. Good to see we're getting back to basics now that the place is named after orange juice.

Monday, August 3rd
Astros 4, Giants 3
WP: Hampton (7-8); LP: Cain (12-3); S: Valverde (13)
HR: HOU - Blum (6), Matsui (5)

Matt Cain’s had a tough time trying to collect his unlucky 13th victory, but nobody can fault him for lack of effort. In his last two outings, he’s turned in a nine-inning shutout of the Bucs and an eight-inning gem against the ‘Stros. The first was spoiled by a non-existent offense; the second by a chip shot and a fluke. In a gimmicky park like this, the team with the most homers will generally prevail, and the home club had more of those on this particular night.

BREAKING NEWS: Eugenio Velez human after all! Of course, he also picked up a pair of hits and scored a run.

We’ve still got at least a week before Nasty Nate returns from his gruesome injury suffered while being a baddass, so the jury’s still out on what the starting outfield will look like when he does. But as much as I love the kid from San Ramon Valley High, the new-and-improved Velez is opening a lot of eyes — mine included. No clue he had this kind of talent, and there’s only so much longer we can go on expecting it not to last.

Here’s a play that got me thinking of a possible solution, and I’m pretty sure the bone spurs in Edgar Renteria’s elbow had nothing to do with it. The guy’s just lost a step... or two, and I’m pretty sure EV could play a little short if his manager asked.

Quote of the Night

“Why not? I gave up 35,000 Big Macs already.” - Matt Cain, who gave up a dinger to Kaz Matsui that clanked off the Chick-Fil-A ad that runs along the screen on the right field foul pole, awarding free chicken sandwiches for anyone with a ticket stub from the game. Last year in St. Louis, The Great Pujols took Cain deep into the Big Mac seats. You can guess what fans got for that.

Stat of the Night

Velez’s BA stands at a blistering .439 during a 10-game hitting streak.

Tuesday, August 4th
Giants 8, Astros 1
WP: Sanchez (5-9); LP: Paulino (2-6)
HR: SF - Sanchez (7), Sandoval (17)

There’s a lot to be said about the awakening of the Giants road offense, and a lot of it has to do with the newest additions to the club, but Jonathan Sanchez deserves some major kudos tonight for picking up his first road victory of the season. Better late than never, right? Don’t look now, but this team’s most dangerous and unpredictable lefty starter is beginning to figure things out.

Getting back to that awakening offense...

How sweet was it for Freddy “Boom-Boom” Sanchez and the Kung Fu Panda to go back-to-back to put the game officially out of reach? I was on the phone with a friend who ended up getting an unexpected earful of nonsensical shouting. By the time I remembered I was s’posed to be contributing to a conversation, I’d nearly blown out her eardrums.

BREAKING NEWS: Eugenio Velez still a robot!

Quote of the Night

“Baseball works in funny ways. You hit the ball hard, that’s what you’re supposed to do, and you don’t get hits. It can happen to anybody. It happened to me. Hopefully the hits will all be at the end of the year.” - Bengie Molina, who collected three hits in a breakout game. As his fantasy owner, I’m hoping for the same thing.

Stat of the Night

Jonathan Sanchez collected an infield hit in the fifth inning to snap out of a horrendous 0-for-40 slump that stretched to June 12 — of last season.

Wednesday, August 5th Giants 10, Astros 6
WP: J. Martinez (2-0); LP: Moehler (7-7)
HR: SF - Whiteside (1) GS; HOU - Pence (14)

Three cheers for Joe Martinez! Not only did he come back from an injury that would’ve sent many a man to permanent obsolescence, but he’s been born again hard, and this team has rallied to his side. Joltin’ Joe’s teammates willed him to victory by overcoming a deficit of more than two runs for the first time since Sept. 20 of last year.

These are the games you need to win if you’re going to make a splash come October, and the Giants finally have the offense to do it. I can’t express how deflating a 3-0 second-inning deficit would’ve looked prior to this week. But with contributions from the new kids on the block and a landmark shot from Babe Whiteside, worry has been replaced with a calm I haven’t felt in a long, long time...

This victory puts the Giants twelve games over for the first time all year — indeed, for the first time in five years! It also marks the first time since Randy Johnson went on the DL that the team won back to back games started by the fourth (J-Sanchez) and fifth (Sadowski/Martinez) starters. Put that in your pipe and smoke it.

One final note about this piece of s**t ballpark and I’ll leave it alone: Something has to be done about the grassy knoll in centerfield that should’ve stayed in Dallas. One of these days, somebody’s gonna get seriously hurt, and when that day comes, all the Cassandras like me will be there to say, “I told you so.”

Stat of the Day

Since joining los Gigantes via last week’s trades, F-Sanchez and Donnie Garko have a combined line of 14-for-44 (.318), HR, 3B, 2B, 7 R, 6 RBI.

Series debrief

Regular McCovey Chronicles contributor Grant has a great piece on the trials and tribulations of being a die-hard fan of the Orange and Black. Reading it took me back to a time when all I did was wait for the other shoe to drop, walking around with a scowl on my face after a three-game sweep because the offense only went 2-for-15 with RISP. But let’s face it, after five disappointing seasons that ended without an October and 51 years of frustration piled upon aggravation, it’s high time someone brought a little bit of optimism to this idiom.

I’m typically more than comfortable in a cynical mode and would not hesitate to point out that this team has let us down many times before and could very easily do so again, but I can admit that I’m looking ahead with a smile on my face. After all, we weren’t even supposed to be in this position at this point in this season. Remember when our new Managing General Partner made .500 the benchmark for success in 2009? How easily winning can turn us into spoiled little children.

This is baseball, everybody. It’s not energy independence, comprehensive immigration reform or universal health care. In other words: There are more important things in life for us to fret about. Let’s do ourselves a favor and treat this game for what it is: entertainment. Our happiness should not ebb and flow with Pablo Sandoval’s OPS.

I will now descend from the soap box.

Fear This

Time for blogging is hard to come by, but I make time for my fans — all three of them...

Thrusday, July 30th
Giants 7, Phillies 2
WP: Sanchez (4-9); LP: Lopez (3-1)
HR: SF - Sandoval (16); PHI - Utley (23)

This had all the makings of an important series on so many levels:

The Giants needed to prove they could compete with the defending World Series Champs, a likely Division Series opponent come October.

Barry Zito and Jonathan Sanchez needed to prove they could contribute in a major way down the stretch.

And Pablo Sandoval needed to prove to Charlie Manuel that he should have thought a little harder when selecting his All-Star team. (Okay, so this was probably more important to fans than to Pablo, but I’m sure it crossed his mind.)

Check, check, and... check.

On the 50th anniversary of Willie McCovey’s major league debut, Sandoval took his place in Giants lore with the 49th Splash Hit into the cove named after the wildly popular first bagger — whose retirement was announced to the crowd at my first live game in 1981. They didn’t show a replay of Manuel’s reaction on TV, but I’d love to imagine him accidentally swallowing his gum when Panda made contact.

Meanwhile, Sanchez allowed a first inning run and later shared a little drama with Chase Utley before the All-Star second baseman took him deep. But on the whole, he turned in a strikingly solid performance over 5 2/3 innings.

In the process, Sanchy improved to 4-1 with a 3.26 ERA at 24 Willie Mays Plaza, compared to 0-8 and 6.33 on the road. If he can find a way to get it done in the bottom halves of innings, we might finally see the full package from the most intriguing — and frustrating — arm in the organization.

A quick aside is due to one Eugenio Velez, who stayed hot as a Saharan summer with three more hits and three more RBIs to pad his constantly improving stat line. He and Panda combined to drive in all seven of the Giants’ runs.

If this keeps up, my man crush Nate Schierholtz might find playing time hard to come by when he returns from the DL. But let’s temper our enthusiasm with a dose of reality and remember that many a Giants farm hand has made a splash for a week or two. Sustained brilliance, however, has been harder to come by.

Quote of the Night

"I lost my release point. It was supposed to be [outside]. I didn't try to hit him. I have nothing against him." - Jonathan Sanchez, on his 6th-inning confrontation with Utley

Friday, July 31st
Phillies 5, Giants 1
WP: Lee (8-9); LP: Sadowski (2-4)
HR: PHI - Werth (22)

When Jeremy Affeldt allows a run without getting anybody out, Kung Fu Panda goes 0-for-4 at home, and Merkin Valdez has the best night of any Giants reliever, you’re not going to win that game. Period.

It didn’t help that the G-Men were opposing reigning AL Cy Young winner Cliff Lee in his debut with a new team. He was out to make an impression. I imagine a complete game victory should win him some fans in the City of Brotherly Love. I’m sure his prowess with the bat didn’t hurt either.

But the Giants have had trouble with southpaws all year, and I give Lee one bad start at home before Philly turns on him. (Remember, that park is a band box, nothing like the Jake. In other words, he’s gonna have to keep the ball down to be successful.)

While it wasn’t his worst start by a long shot, this may have marked the end of Ryan “The Big” Sadowski’s run in the Show. Perhaps it was just a coincidence that his shoulder acted up in the middle of his fourth loss in as many starts since his whirlwind debut, but it’s just as well. He’s pitched four or less innings in his last three starts, and sure enough, he was banished to Fresno on Saturday morning.

As of now, it’s anybody’s guess who gets the start Wednesday in Houston. My money’s on Joe Martinez, but I’ll admit, it’s a sentimental bet. I’d love to see that kid get a chance to be a part of this playoff hunt after all he’s been through and knowing how much love the other guys in the clubhouse have for him.

As of all reports, rushing MadBum from AA Connecticut is not an option.

Quote of the Night

"It's a little uncomfortable, but you play through uncomfortable things. I played with blood in my brain. I'm not worried at this point." - Ryan Sadowski on his achy shoulder. Sadowski suffered a subdural hematoma in the minor leagues.

Saturday, August 1st
Giants 2, Phillies 0
WP: Lincecum (12-3); LP: Blanton (7-5); S: Wilson (27)

What else can you say? Even when he doesn’t have his A-game, Tim Lincecum still manages to appear dominant. This time, it was against one of the most potent offenses in the Majors.

Timmy lowered his ERA to 2.18, second in the National League to rotation-mate Matt Cain's 2.12. (Update: St. Louis’ Chris Carpenter, who began the season on the DL, just pitched enough innings to qualify for the league lead at 2.10.)

The Freak also struck out eight to increase his Major League-leading total to 191. He’s fanned eight or more in his past 10 starts. That, my friends, is consistency. The changeup he developed last year has turned into his strongest out pitch and could be credited with turning a great pitcher into a legend.

Three cheers for Tim Flannery and his balls of brass for sending Aaron Rowand on Juan Uribe’s shallow fly ball in the fifth. A smart third base coach can win you a game or two over the course of a season, and with Timmy on deck and two outs, this move put Flannery’s game knowledge on full display.

Between his two sacrifice flies tonight and one the previous night, Juan Uribe has been the Giants offense over the past two games. (Just a guess, but I’d say we’ll need more than that to beat a good lefty in Cole Hamels on Sunday.)

The first day of August brought with it an update to the daily packet of statistics issued to the press at each Major League game: a Wild Card rundown. But the fans I encountered at the yard didn’t need a press packet to tell them it’s time to get down to business...

On the way down the ramp as Tony Bennett serenaded the seagulls, fans spontaneously erupted in chants of “Let’s go Giants!” I haven’t felt this kind of energy at the park since the 2002 playoffs. This is exactly what I was talking about when the team returned from Colorado. Keep it up, everybody.

Btw, the Giants registered their 10th home sellout of the season with a paid crowd of 42,694. I have to imagine the Dog Days promotion didn’t have as much to do with that as the Lincecum strikeout deal. But I doubt management is happier with more butts in the seats since many of them got $15 bucks off their duckets thanks to Timmy’s career high 15 Ks Monday night against the Bucs.

Quote(s) of the Night

"You find yourself being a spectator, watching him do what he does. It's fairly difficult to concentrate on every pitch, because he's out there hitting his spots with every pitch that he throws... Then the guy hits one at you and you're like, 'Oh.' " - Aaron Rowand

"It's something San Francisco probably wanted for the last couple of years. We're glad we can show them what we're made of and get baseball back on the map over here." - Brian Wilson

Stat of the Night

Lincecum improved his career record to a 37-13. Tim Hudson (38-12 with the A’s) is the only active Major League pitcher with a better record through his first 50 decisions. Can you imagine where this kid would be if he had a decent offense to support him?

Sunday, August 2nd
Giants 7, Phillies 3
WP: Zito (7-10); LP: Hamels (7-6)
HR: PHI - Rollins (11)

On a day when Barry Zito had to fight to make it through six quality innings, the offense finally stepped up to give him the support he’s desperately lacked:

Rowand played through pain after taking another pitch to another elbow on a high hard one from Joe Blanton on Saturday night. With results like this, I kinda wish the guy was hurting all the time. Of course, that didn’t work out so well last year.

Meanwhile, Freddy Sanchez was almost the goat in his Giants debut after an ill-advised throw allowed the go-ahead run to score in the fourth. But he made his blunder into an afterthought with this blast that made the yard shake and propelled us to a crucial victory. Only in baseball can one witness such a fascinating turn of events.

Stay hot Eugenio Velez.

Haters should take note that Zito now has as many victories this season as his Sunday opponent and 2008 World Series MVP Cole Hamels.

Quote of the Day

"They just keep pushing at you and pushing at you and manufacture a hit here and there. All of a sudden three or four runs score and you're going, 'What just happened here?' " - Cole Hamels' absolutely dead on balls take on the Giants’ offense

Stat(s) of the Day

The Giants finished the homestand with a 6-1 record and a 1.55 ERA overall, which includes a 1.14 mark for the starting staff (with Cain making only one appearance).

The Orange and Black improved to 37-16 at the Cove, the best home mark in the majors. With 28 games remaining in the City, they’ve already matched their 2008 home victory total.

Series Debrief

As expected, this was definitely the series of the year. With the Hated Ones and Rockies continuing their torrid paces, the Giants needed to win, not split. If they end up reaching the postseason for the first time in six long years, I think we’ll look back at Sunday as one of the crucial victories that put them there.

Allow me to take a moment to invoke an old baseball adage: Good pitching trumps good hitting. That was never more evident than over this weekend, when the Giants’ best-in-the-bigs staff collectively shut down the hottest offense in the league, holding them to 10 runs over four games.

Particularly feeling the burn was Philly’s quartet of power-hitting lefties, who were relatively neutralized all weekend, with the exception of a couple decent games from former Hated One Jayson Werth:

Utley: 3-for-14, HR, RBI, 3 Ks
Howard: 2-for-15, 2B, RBI, 8 Ks
Ibañez: 1-for-10, RBI, K
Werth: 6-for-16, HR, 3 RBI, 2 Ks
Totals: 12-for-55 (.218), 2 HR, 6 RBI, 14 Ks

This should be all the evidence any October-bound team needs to deduce that they do not want to draw the Giants in a short series.

After six years of hopelessness, our team inspires fear. Humm baby!