Countdown to Scottsdale #6: Travis Ishikawa, 1B

I sing the song of Travis Ishikawa, who's tried his very best to crack the everyday lineup at first base, but whose very best has never been quite good enough. To me, "Hapa" is that quintessential Quadruple-A talent, the kind the Giants have specialized in producing over the past 20-odd years of building teams around Barry Bonds (and recently around a top-flight pitching staff): not quite ready for prime time, but too talented to send back down to Fresno. When you watch him take BP, you wonder when he's going to have a breakout 30-homer year, then you watch him in game situations and stop wondering. Despite his failings in the batter's box, he's always been stout with a glove, and he's never lacked for passion, though at times his passion for Jesus seems to outweigh his passion for baseball.

Fans will recall the occasional postgame interview in which young Travis thanked the Good Lord for helping that ball he hit in the seventh inning carry over the wall. Now, I have no beef with Jesus, but my problems with organized religion stem from the notion that Jesus or Allah or Buddha help us to accomplish great things in our everyday lives. We hear athletes say this shit all the time: "First and foremost, I just want to thank God for giving me the strength to win this game." I've never heard something so patently ridiculous. The truth is: WE are in charge. We make our own decisions. We are responsible for our own accomplishments. When you hit a home run or score a touchdown or redirect a corner into the back of the old onion bag — that's YOU doing it. YOU worked hard your whole life to put yourself in position to make that play at that moment in that game.

So, Travis et al., please take ownership, have a little pride, be a little cocky. It's okay. This is professional sports. The fans will forgive you. And when it comes down to it, ego makes you a better player. Waiting for Jesus to make you great is like waiting for Godot: He ain't coming, so you best get on with it.

Okay, off my soap box...

Travis entered 2010 well aware that he would be filling a niche role. With Aubrey Huff on board to man first base, Hapa's options were pretty much limited to pinch hitting and late-inning defensive upgrades. And to his credit, he embraced these options like a true professional. He never complained, never waffled, never tanked a play. He was an invaluable member of this squad, as evidenced by his position in this countdown — which is determined by games played. When Aubrey Huff did a stint in left field in July, Travis had a chance to pick up a few starts, and he excelled, hitting nearly .300 for the month. When it came time to set the postseason roster, Travis was on the bubble, but his spot was never really in doubt. He even got to start at first base in a World Series game.

Perhaps that will end up being the high point of Hapa's career — or maybe just his career with the Giants. But even if it does, he'll always be able to show off his ring and tell you how Jesus helped him win a championship.

Thanks, Travis.

92 down. 70 to go.

Picture a game like any other game. The score is close, but the home team trails by two late. A five-game winning streak and a four-game sweep are on the line. One of the best pitchers in the game just shut down their bats for eight innings, and now they're faced with one of the most storied closers of the past decade. But something stirs in their souls, incites them to action, and sparks a winning three-run rally. The crowd bursts into spontaneous glee. The players leap over the dugout rail. The celebration is underway, and the kids are about to run the bases... That's when Phil Cuzzi makes the worst call of his professional umpiring career. He calls Travis Ishikawa out, instantly becoming the hated enemy of 38,000 people in the park and thousands of Giants fans at home. To blame the loss entirely on the blown call is not difficult. Very seldom do you see a "game-changing" call occur on what could be the final play of the game. Usually, this call comes earlier in the game, affecting every play thereafter to the point that an accurate prediction of the outcome had the call gone another way is virtually impossible. But this call is unequivocal in its meaning: Cuzzi gets it right, the Giants win, and a day when we went 1-for-15 with RISP is forgotten in a maelstrom of orange and black insanity. Instead, me and the other 38,000 suckers went home shaking our heads and dreaming up elaborate plans for revenge.

I was consumed by political activity over the weekend and did not have time to post about Saturday's game, which was fun on a lot of levels. Shotgun Cain got some offense and used it to his advantage by throwing strikes. He stretched the starters' scoreless streak to 23 innings before Ike Davis deposited one into the Arcade, in an eerie premonition of Sunday's endgame. Pablo Sandoval continued to impress in the second half with a great night against left-handed pitching. And Buster Posey... well...

On the Rebound

Looking at the Arizona lineups from this series, I felt like that construction worker in Major League: “I don’t know half these f**kin’ guys.”

Tuesday, August 25th
Giants 5, Diamondbacks 4
WP: Affeldt (1-1); LP: Rauch (2-2); S: Romo (2)
HR: SF - Uribe (7), Ishikawa (9)

When the Giants traded for Ryan Garko, I immediately dropped Travis Ishikawa from my fantasy team. He’d been riding the pine for the Willow Glen Nimbys for the better part of the season thanks to stronger (and more consistent) performances from other first baggers on my roster. With the addition of Garko, “Hapa” would be limited to guest appearances and defensive replacements the rest of the way as Bochy looked to field the best offense he could on any given night. So I DFA’d him and didn’t think twice.

One night won’t make me regret that move, but my first thought after his eighth-inning blast ended up in the first row of the Arcade was: “Dammit. There goes seven points!” My second thought: “Thank freaking God.” I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, but if there ever was a “must-win” game, this was it. Coming off the heartbreak of a lost weekend in Denver, this team needed to right the ship in a hurry or risk slipping into irrelevance over the final month of the season.

At the All-Star break, when I began this blog, I posted an analysis of how the Orange and Black could win the West. In that post, I posited that if they were still standing after the brutal 11-game road trip from which they just returned, the Giants would make the postseason. I’ll have to ask the peanut gallery to weigh in on what constitutes “still standing.” If four games out of a playoff spot with 37 games to go counts, then the boys have a long way to go to prove me right. I think, at the time, I considered it to mean within one or two games of the Wild Card, if not the division lead. Either way, things have not progressed as I predicted, but what else is new in baseball?

A few more notes from this one:

• Matt Cain had another stellar turn to keep the Giants in the game until the offense found its wings, but what do you expect from a pig but a grunt? In his short time in the Show, this kid’s proven that he’s tough as nails and has ice water for blood. I bet he could freeze rain with his game face.

• Scoreboard watching takes on a mighty perverse tone when the team you love to hate is playing the team you have to catch. To be honest, I’m almost hoping the Hated Ones go completely in the tank and we end up chasing them down for the Wild Card while the Rox take the division. It would be super sweet for Frank McCourt to have to return all that bunting he rented back in May when everybody was handing them the N.L. crown.

• With Brian Wilson stretched further than even he could bear, it’s no surprise that he ran out of juice and almost gave up the ghost in the ninth. Sergio Romo came on to get the final out and gave us another glimpse at the depth of this pitching staff.

Butch’s Btw

As expected, Freddy Sanchez landed on the DL today with Ryan Rohlinger replacing him on the 25-man. Can’t say it’s a good thing to have your most professional hitter unavailable during the most crucial stretch of the season, but you can’t blame the guy for getting hurt, and he genuinely wants to be in there, as evidenced by his multiple public apologies to the team and all of us.

It’s also worth noting that Kevin Frandsen was not the call-up in this situation, which is surprising given that he can play every infield position but first and — at least until his comments after the Sanchez trade — was higher on the organizational ladder. What this means is anybody’s guess, but Franny has obviously burned a few bridges in the front office and may be wearing different colors come next season. As his biggest fan and most ardent supporter, I can regretfully say that this is a good thing. A change of scenery will probably do him a lot more good than the harm it does to the egos of Bellarmine-educated Giants fans everywhere.

Stat of the Night

Before his double to set up the tying run and his subsequent eighth-inning dong, Ishikawa had only one extra-base hit in his previous 68 at-bats over 31 games. Hapa must enjoy the weather at the Cove, as he’s hit a smoldering .353 over 46 games in the friendly confines.

Quote of the Night

"I didn't get all of it. I knew I hit it well; I was just kind of praying that it would either hit off the wall or get over the head of the outfielder to get the run in." - a very modest Hapa, giving all thanks and praise to Jah

Wednesday, August 26th
Giants 4, Diamondbacks 3
WP: Miller (3-3); LP: Qualls (2-2; BS 5); S: Medders (1)
HR: AZ - Roberts (6); SF - Uribe (8), Molina (16)

There’s no way we can keep this up.

No Freddy Sanchez, no Panda, no Big Money... well, almost. You can say all you want about the D-Backs’ Triple-A lineup, but without the three most productive hitters on the roster, the Giants’ starting nine looks about as intimidating as a stuffed animal from the Build-A-Bear Workshop out in center field.

So it was not all that surprising to watch Doug Davis thoroughly confuse and kerfuddle the offense over the first seven innings, minus one pitch to Juan “All My Hits Leave the Park” Uribe. It was even less surprising when taken into account that Davis has always kerfuddled the Giants, as has many a crafty lefty over the years. They say sometimes a pitcher or player performs better against a certain uniform. When a guy tossing 85 mph fastballs puts up 0 after 0, even against an offense as weak as this, you have to think there’s some merit to that theorem.

Thank heavens for Bengie Molina. I’m not going to go as far as others and put his eighth inning three-run jack up there with the likes of Kirk Gibson, but when you put your blinders on and look at the Giants’ 2009 campaign, I doubt you could pinpoint a bigger hit, other than Uribe’s bases-clearing double in Seattle or Pandoval’s walk-off against the Nats. (Whoever had today as the next time I’d mention the now-infamous Seattle trip just won the pool.)

I was at this one and spent the first five and a half innings pacing the Arcade in a ball of frustration. The crowd was very light, even on Italian Heritage Night — free scarf, very cool — and made me think the Spilborghs granny did more to shake the confidence of Giants fans than the team itself. But you could feel the relief erupting from the hearts of the 27K-plus in attendance when Big Money back spun a ball high and deep into the night sky.

By that time, I’d found an usher I knew and settled into a seat about fifteen rows up from the Giants bullpen. The guys sitting behind me kept passing around large game cups filled with a rum-and-Coke concoction they were whipping up in a makeshift bar under their seats. Earlier, when Monday’s goat, Justin Miller was warming up in the bullpen, they were ragging him over the gigantic L.A. tattoo he wears across his back. Miller grew up a fan of the Hated Ones, you see. But don’t blame that for his piss-poor performance in Colorado over the weekend. From an L.A. perspective, the Rockies can’t lose enough right now.

When Molina came out to pinch hit, half the crowd rose to its feet, anticipating a game-changing moment. When he went down 0-2, I remember thinking there’s no one I trust more with a two-strike count. When he made contact, we instantly started measuring things up. Did it have a chance to go? Would the left fielder have a play at the wall? Was this really happening? There was plenty of time for all of those questions to flash across our collective minds before Molina’s moon shot settled into the first row of the left field bleachers.

Of course, after the game, my thoughts kept wandering to the intentional walk Bochy made Jonathan Sanchez issue to Rusty Ryal with one on and two out in the sixth. Sanchez had pitched a strong game to that point, and was not in any serious trouble, facing one of a slew of rookies up and down the Arizona lineup. With little experience against many of the opposing hitters, I imagine the Shaman was just going for the lefty-lefty matchup, playing every card he could to win the hand. That it backfired speaks to J. Sanchez’s fragile temperament. You just can’t take a guy out of his zone that deep into a ballgame. You’re only asking for trouble.

But whatever... A win is a win is a win. Right?

Stat of the Night

From Extra Baggs: Building off their newly-rediscovered home field advantage, the G-Men are 12-1 in one-run games at the Cove in 2009.

Quote of the Night

"The fans, believe it or not, are a big part of this. They cheer you on and pump you up big time. I hope they understand that." - “Big Money” Molina

Thursday, August 27th
Diamondbacks 11, Giants 0
WP: Petit (3-8); LP: Martinez (3-2)
HR: AZ - Reynolds (39); Allen (1)... no relation

Ugh. I mean, really, what the hell else am I s’posed to say? We missed a shot to claw back within two games of the Rockies, who visit the Cove for three must-see, must-win, must-crush games over the weekend. Joe Martinez purchased his bus fare to Fresno. Still hamstrung by the health — or lack thereof — of our 2, 3, or 4 hitters. Did I mention our bats were silenced over six innings by a guy with a record of 2-8 and an ERA north of 6?

All in all, not a good night, which is why I’m glad to have spent it watching the San Jose Giants roll to a 4-0 victory over Lancaster JetHawks at Muni Stadium. Unheralded starter Paul Oseguera continued his recent run of home dominance (3-1 with a 0.58 ERA in his last four starts), collecting a career-high 15 strikeouts while tossing a three-hitter. Oseguera also endeared himself to fans by striking out the infamous Beer Batter three times, triggering long lines at the concession stands for virtually the entire contest. Meanwhile, Darren Ford led off the game for the Giants with a home run and C.J. Ziegler (a name that bears all sorts of irony for West Wing fans) added a solo shot in the fourth.

The midseason promotions of Alderson, Bumgarner, Crawford, and now Posey seem not to have slowed the Baby G-Men down in the least. With this win, they improved to 84-46 overall and tied their team record of 48 home wins, set in 1993 and matched in 2008. They pitched their Cal League-leading 11th shutout and set a single-season attendance record of 201,461. Who knew baseball was so popular in San Jose?

Dear Commissioner Selig...

Butch’s Btw

In the interest of full disclosure, I bit all of those Baby Giants stats — and the one below, I might add — from the gamer on sjgiants.com.

Stat of the Night: Baby G’s Edition

Oseguera’s 15 Ks were just one shy of matching the San Jose Giants single-game record held by Dan Rambo (1990) and Keith Foulke (1995).

Quote(s) of the Night

"A loss is a loss, whether you lose by one or 11.” - Aaron Rowand, though I’d be tempted to add that the one-run defeats hurt a lot more for all the what if-ing

"The club was not looking at tomorrow. We certainly had our focus out there." - Bruce Bochy, to which I’d say: “F**k off with that bulls**t!”

Series debrief

I’m proud of my team for the way they’ve bounced back from potential oblivion, but I’m not really surprised. They’ve been doing this all season. It’s been one heart attack after another, but more often than not (69 times, actually), our side’s come out on top. It would’ve been awful nice to get No. 70 on Thursday and pretty much erase the memory of the Denver doldrums by putting us back within two games — which is where we were when we touched down in the Mile High City.

C’est le baseball. We’ll just have to sweep the Rocks out of the Cove, and we’ve got the horses lined up to do it.

Feast or Famine

And they say this place is a hitter's park...

Tuesday, August 18th
Giants 8, Redlegs 5 (10)
WP: Howry (1-5); LP: Cordero (1-3); S: Wilson (29)
HR: SF - Uribe (6); CIN - Votto (18)

Whatever pipe our Shaman manager is smoking from, I want a hit. How else could he have had the prescience to go with Ryan “Cardinal Caveman” Garko over Travis “Hapa” Ishikawa against a righty when the former Stanford star had yet to flash any brilliance with the bat outside of a bevy of loud outs?

I have to admit, I scanned the lineup in Baggs’ pregame post with much consternation, especially over the absence of “Nasty” Nate Schierholtz, who has risen from the ranks to become the man crush of everyone who follows this team*. But when your team busts out for a season-high in hits and scores in double digits, I can understand the desire to maintain the status quo and roll the same lineup out there the next night.

Bochy even went so far as to have Fred Lewis deliver the lineup card for the second game in a row. If this streak continues, Freddy should be named honorary bench coach and get the duty every day. Maybe he’s finally found his niche on this team.

Whatever the reason, whatever the season, the G-Men have seen their bats come to life over the past two days. But right around the time Homer Bailey squeaked one down the line in the bottom of the second, I was conceding this one to the baseball gods. I’m not always happy to be proven wrong, but I’ll gladly take my lumps on this one.

It’s growing more and more obvious that Timmy likes it cold. He grew up and went to college in dreary Washington and plays his pro ball in a city with colder summers than winters. Anytime he pitches in the humid mugginess of the Midwest or East Coast, he loses his touch, sometimes a little, sometimes a lot.

This occasion falls into the latter category. Even “The Kid” himself admitted he had nothing. That he got through six innings is a testament to his natural abilities and perseverance, and it was a boon for a bullpen that went five innings the day before and won’t see a day off for another two weeks. The Giants’ relief success stems from the dominance of the starting staff, and every time Timmy or Matty don’t go at least seven-plus, it eats up innings that we’ll need from the ‘pen down the stretch.

Lincecum made it as far as he could on Tuesday in what looked like garbage time. So it was that much more thrilling to see him picked up by the biggest comeback of the season, and on the road no less. After what happened when these two teams hooked up at the Cove, we needed this win.

Of course, they G’s came back from three runs down for the first time all season in the game that preceded that Reds series, so God knows what to expect in Wednesday’s contest.

* Thanks for jumping on the bandwagon, folks. I knew this kid would be a force the first time I saw him take BP two years ago, and I’ve said so every step of the way along his frustrating career path. I only wish I’d had this blog two years ago so I could conveniently link you to my comments. Instead, the only person who could corroborate my claims is the friend who sat with me in the bleachers that day. You out there Rypka?

Stat(s) of the Night

There was no shortage of statistical oddities in this one:

• For only the second time in his career, Tim Lincecum walked in a run.

• Bruce “The Shaman” Bochy was ejected for the fifth time this season — and the third time in eight games.

• From Extra Baggs: “Amazingly, [Bengie] Molina hadn’t drawn two unintentional walks in the same game since June 22, 2006, for the Toronto Blue Jays at Atlanta.”

Quote of the Night

“[A]ny time you put a new uniform on, you want to try to be Superman, I think. We're all human. We all want to do it. Sometimes you have to take a couple of steps back and relax. I'm working on it." - Ryan Garko

Wednesday, August 19th
Giants 1, Redlegs 0
WP: Romo (4-2); LP: Arroyo (11-12); S: Wilson (30)
HR: None

Can Barry Zito get a run? Please? I mean, for reals, this is getting ridiculous.

Over on the 50K-Watt blowtorch, someone’s saying Barry should’ve looked at strike three with the bases juiced and one out in the second. Barry didn’t go down looking. He swung, and ended up hitting into an inning-ending double play. But who can fault him for swinging? It’s not like anybody else is doing much to get him even a shred of run support.

His ERA may still be north of 4, but Zito has pitched a helluva lot better than 8-11 in 2009. Tonight, he threw two-hit ball over two-thirds of the Giants’ 16th shutout of the season and improved his post-All-Star-break ERA to 2.36 with a line of 7 GS, 42.0 IP, 34 H, 11 ER, 12 BB, 34 K, 1.05 WHIP. Oh yeah, and the team is 5-2 in his starts.

Meanwhile, Nate Schierholtz returned from oblivion to drive in the game’s only run with his second double of the night. A cynic could say he could’ve done the same job as a pinch hitter, but the pitcher’s spot wasn’t up in that situation. The two hole was. And “Nasty” Nate was there to greet the moment with the hit of the game. Forgive my gushing, but attention must be paid. This kid is the future. And the future is now.

That said, wasn’t that knock eerily similar to the ball that Fred Lewis flat out dropped in New York on Sunday? I think Freddy had an easier play.

Props are due to Sergio Romo, who’s been born again hard.

Butch’s Btw

Bochy sat Panda tonight, and it was the right move. The kid’s dragging ass at the plate lately, and it was starting to carry over into the field. When that happens, you know the slumps getting into a guy’s head. Best to give him a day on the pine to gather himself for the sphincter-tightening days ahead.

Stat of the Night

Five Giants had two-hit games to account for all 10 of the team’s hits.

Quote of the Night

"I don't think there's any rhyme or reason. I think it's coincidence." - Barry Zito on enjoying the lowest run support in the Major Leagues

Thursday, August 20th
Redlegs 2, Giants 1 (10)
WP: Cordero (2-3); LP: Howry (1-6)
HR: CIN - Stubbs (1; first career)

And the pendulum swings just... like... that.

Not much to say after losses, I know, but who has the energy to break down a game in which a team scraped together 11 hits and could only plate one run... on a wild pitch?

Who has the time or the inclination to analyze the Giants’ lack of patience in the batter’s box? Their blatantly obvious ignorance of fundamentals? Their inability to deliver the clutch sacrifice fly or even so much as a butcher boy chopper to the right side with a runner at second and nobody out?

If the Giants succeed in their postseason quest, it will be on the backs of the finest pitching staff in all of baseball. (You can look it up.) We like to talk about how no one wants to face this staff — especially the front end of the rotation — in a short series.

But if the Giants are going to make any noise in October, it will be on the backs of these hitters. And two-game stretches like this will really make you cringe when you think about the pitching they’d face in a short series.

Stat of the Day

Tough-luck workout victim Matt Cain has made five starts in a row sans victory. His ERA over that stretch is 2.97. I should know. He’s the ace of my fantasy rotation.

Quote of the Day

“No question, this was one of our tougher games all year. But we have to get ready for Colorado now and put this one behind us.” - Bruce “The Shaman” Bochy

Series debrief

From Wikipedia, with my usual snarkiness...

Bob “Whatever happened to Bobby?” Howry was drafted by the Giants in the fifth round of the 1994 Major League Baseball Draft.

On July 31, 1997, the Chicago White Sox traded three major players to the Giants for six minor leaguers, including Howry.

The Giants went on to win the National League Western Division title with a 90-72 record, two games better than the Hated Ones (yay!). The White Sox finished 80-81, six games behind the American League Central Division champion Cleveland Indians. The Giants were swept by the Florida Marlins in the National League Division Series. (And that’s all we need to say about that.)

Years passed, as they say, and sure enough, like a boomerang, Bob Howry returned to the Giants, signing a $2.75 million one-year contract. Until Tuesday night, he had never won a Major League game for the team that drafted him. And what a way to get your first W for the original club.

Thursday afternoon, Howry was a victim of a fate that’s haunted him all season. As soon as he worked himself out of a late-inning role with early inconsistency, he became the go-to guy in tie situations, late in the ballgame. He’s the Giants’ resident inning-eating specialist.

So it should come as no surprise that he’s clocking a 1-6 record this season. He tends to come into the game when everybody who comes to the plate is thinking, “Yabba dabba doo!,” and he throws a lot of fastballs.

But cut through all that playa hata nonsense in your head and think for a second about how cool it would be to go to the playoffs with a guy we gave up to win a division.

Tonight’s the night the real race begins. It’s a sprint to the finish, and we’re starting out two steps behind. Time for the cream to rise. Are the Giants in. Or are they out?

Heidi?