Game Recap: SF 5, PHI 2

What was THAT?

That seems to happen a lot. First a terrible looking Giants lineup is announced. Giants fans everywhere plunge into a deep depression. Probably the worst Giants starter (even though he's still good) is pitching at a time when none of our starters are pitching well. Great Depression. Then, that terrible lineup plays well. That Giants starter pitches better than any Giants starter has in awhile. The Giants win. WHAT?

As I said, the offense did play pretty well. They got it started in the 1st inning, when a Buster Posey double scored Freddy Sanchez, and a pair of singles from Jose Guillen and Juan Uribe scored 2 more. At that point, I was worried Jonathan Sanchez would give up the lead because he has a tendency to be inconsistent and as I said the starting pitching has not been good lately, but not tonight. Another RBI double from Posey in the 3rd and a solo home run from Pablo Sandoval gave the Giants a 5-0 that they'd hold onto for most of the night.

Sanchez pitched 8+ innings and allowed just 2 hits. Pretty impressive. Sanchez allowed a line drive single to the first batter in the 9th, and then proceeded to throw 2 pitches that weren't close to strikes to the next batter he faced and Bochy pulled him out. I know Sanchez has a tendency to all of a sudden lose his control, but he was at just 97 pitches and I'm not sure why he wasn't given more of a chance to get the complete game shutout. Nevertheless, it's always good to see a great Sanchez start. He gets so much hate from Giants fans, but starts like tonight show that he is extremely valuable as a No. 4 starter and he doesn't get enough respect.

Aubrey Huff had the night off, which I have no problem with, as he's been struggling lately. So did Andres Torres. I also have no problem with keeping Torres fresh and giving him a break, but the only problem is that any time Torres doesn't play, Aaron Rowand leads off. That is by far the most terrible part of the terrible lineup. The fact that Bruce Bochy thinks Rowand's the next best option to leadoff after Torres shows that Bochy still doesn't understand baseball. And even though the terrible lineup played well, Aaron Rowand had nothing to do with it. Well, that catch he made was pretty nice, but I'm confident Torres would've made it too. I'm going to give him no credit for the win tonight.

Tomorrow the Giants face the Cardinals who are now led by the powerful Pedro Feliz. Should be a tough series. Hopefully tonight is the start of the starting pitching getting back on track.