Facts and Statisticinos About Tomorrow's Starting Pitcher

Check this out, loyal readers. Madison Bumgarner turned 22 this August, meaning his official age for the 2011 season is 21 (he was 21 on June 30, the halfway point of the season). He is having an historically great season for a pitcher his age, especially in the DIPS department. He's in his first full season, and he already has better command of the strike zone than his teammates Matt Cain and Tim Lincecum right now. Lincecum and Cain already had the "stuff" when they arrived in the majors; they had to add some quality pitches and "learn how to pitch" to become the aces they've been for several years. Bumgarner has a certain amount of "stuff"; he also seems to already have a great idea of "how to pitch". His K/BB ratio is 3rd best all time for a pitcher his age in a single season, and his placement barely changes if you use age 22 as the qualifier instead. Notice that the closest pitcher in recent memory is Brett Anderson, and he's not even that close. The only recent pitchers with K/BB over 3.00 on that list are Anderson and King Felix. Madison Bumgarner right now is doing something pretty unique. Imagine what kind of pitcher he could be in 2 or 3 years. Should we expect a development in either his stuff or his overall pitching ability?

Perhaps not. Every pitcher develops differently, and Bumgarner now could be close to the finished product. Maybe he never has another 2.60 FIP season. He could still be an excellent pitcher. Perhaps the improvement occurs in his ability to prevent weak contact. His .330 BABIP is very high and a product of bad luck and poor defense, but maybe part of it is attributable to his skill or approach. There could be a regression in his home run prevention, or even his strikeouts and walks.

But is that what we should expect? No. It's only fair and normal to think that he will get better in some respect. Which is exciting. And scary.

LAD 6, SF 1: Kershaw Dominates Again

This and this. And then tonight. All Clayton Kershaw does is dominate the Giants. In fact, he has now gone 23.2 innings without giving up a run to the Giants. But you know what? Kershaw does that to a lot of teams because he's one of the best young pitchers in all of baseball. He may not have the same track record, but he is the Dodgers' Tim Lincecum. And while the Giants may not have the best offense and some may want to blame the stupid rookie Brandon Belt for not getting a hit against one of the best lefties in the game, they just had trouble against a very, very good pitcher and probably will continue to have trouble with him for the next 10 years. My god he is impressive.

Madison Bumgarner has had a weird start to the season. Last week in San Diego, Bumgarner was actually looking pretty great through the first two innings before throwing over 40 pitches in the 3rd inning. And that 3rd inning was a bit unlucky. The Padres did what the Padres always do, annoy the hell out of you with long at-bats and bloop hits, and all of a sudden Bumgarner had allowed 3 runs in 3 innings and was out of the game. Today, he was again throwing pretty well. The first run scored when after Matt Kemp walked and stole second base, James Loney hit a liner that ricocheted off Freddy Sanchez's glove, scoring Kemp. Then came the 5th inning, when Rod Barajas led off with a homer. 2-0 Dodgers. After Rafael Furcal walked and advanced to 2nd on a single from Jamey Carroll, he stole 3rd base. However, the replays showed that Furcal was clearly out, so no runner should have been on 3rd. Furcal then scored on a single, and with runners on 1st and 2nd, Matt Kemp singled to left field and the ball went right under Pat Burrell's glove all the way to the wall, scoring both runners. After looking pretty sharp through 4 innings, Bumgarner's final line was: 5 IP, 8 H, 5 ER, 4 BB, 3 Ks. Kind of a bizarre start to the season for Bumgarner so far.

A loss to the Dodgers is always frustrating, especially when the offense looks completely helpless. But let's all remember that this was the 10th game of the year. There are 162 games in a season, and if you are extremely stressed and concerned after 10 games, I feel bad for you and I don't know how you ever survive a baseball season. The Giants will go on winning streaks and plenty of losing streaks as well. It's what happens. Just because they are having a rough start doesn't mean they are a bad team in need of major changes. Brandon Belt needs to be sent back to the minors after 35 major league ABs? No. Bumgarner needs to work on his stuff in the minors after 2 bad starts? Please, stop. Just stop it.

2010 World Series Game 4: SF 4, TEX 0

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF

When your team is up 2-1 in the World Series, Game 4 isn't normally a MUST WIN. But tonight's game was pretty much a must win. After last night's game, the Giants really don't want to go to a Game 7, and tonight's win makes that less likely. Cliff Lee is pitching tomorrow, and despite getting knocked around by the Giants' offense in Game 1, he is a dominant pitcher. The odds aren't great that the Giants can beat him a second time in a row, this time in Texas. Tonight they were also facing the most mediocre starting pitcher they will see in the World Series, Tommy Hunter, and needed to capitalize. And capitalize is what the offense did, although the hero of the night was very obviously Madison Bumgarner.

Holy hell, Bumgarner is the most popular guy in San Francisco right now and he deserves it. 8 IP, 3 H, 0 ER, 2 BBs, 6 Ks. For a 21 year old rookie. Did you see that stat line? Zero runs. Three hits allowed. All this against a fairly potent Texas Rangers lineup. Although, that fairly potent lineup has been shutout twice in this World Series and scored more than 4 runs just once. It just goes to show that a team with great pitching like the Giants should never be counted out. Great pitching usually tops great hitting. It's the reason all Giants fans knew the Giants had a very good shot at winning this thing. It's the reason Giants fans were baffled that the vast majority of experts picked the Rangers to win and a couple even said the Rangers were a much better team. It's the reason the Giants are 1 win away from winning the World Series. Wow, yes I did just type that sentence. Alright, now back to Bumgarner. I don't really even know what to say. The Rangers got one runner past 1st base tonight and it was only because of an error. The three hits given up were 2 groundball singles and a soft flyball to RF. The sexy stat going around tonight is that Bumgarner is the 2nd youngest pitcher to ever throw 8 shutout innings in a World Series game. He was just on. There was a certain point, maybe the 6th inning, when I just felt like he wasn't going to give anything up. He was great. Beautiful. Fascinating. Dominant. Delicious. Use any adjective you want. I'll use one last one. Tonight, Madison Bumgarner was amazing.

The offense got started with Aubrey Huff's 2-run homer in the third inning, which was a great sight to see. Huff hasn't exactly been slumping, but that was his first home run since September 25th. Andres Torres added an unnecessary insurance run with his RBI double in the 7th and Buster Posey scored the 4th run by hitting a home run straight away to center field. It was a pretty bizarre homer too. When he hit it, I looked down at my computer because I thought it was a simple flyout, but it kept carrying all the way out. Seemed like his first homer in a while too. I'm probably very wrong, though.

As you might expect, the Giants are in a great position, up 3-1. My gut tells me the Rangers won't lose for a second time with Cliff Lee on the mound tomorrow, especially in Texas, but the Giants are countering with Tim Lincecum. That game is very winnable. And if they can't win tomorrow, Matt Cain starts in Game 6. Cain hasn't allowed an earned run this postseason, so I'd be pretty freakin' confident with him on the mound. The Giants are 1 win away. One win away from winning the World Series. I don't even know how I'd celebrate if it were to happen. This all so surreal. Sometimes it doesn't even feel like the Giants are in the World Series. Sometimes it just seems like the Giants are playing normal baseball and playing really, really well. It hasn't quite hit me, but I hope it does soon because this is awesome. One. More. Game.

2010 NLCS Game 4: SF 6, PHI 5

Meowwwwwww!

Coming into this series, there was talk that Buster Posey was slumping and the Giants needed him to step up. I scoffed at that notion. I guess maybe it was technically true, but he was 1-for-11 in this series. Pretty much the definition of a small sample size. But if you were one of those people worried about Buster's "slump", he officially busted out of it, going 4-for-5, and getting the biggest hit in a game full of big hits. Sure, Juan Uribe hit the game winning sac fly, but Posey put Uribe in a great spot to give the Giants a 6-5 win. With Aubrey Huff on first base and 1 out, Posey had fallen behind Roy Oswalt (I'll explain why Oswalt was pitching a little later) 1-2. What came next was vintage Posey: he took a pitch on the outside of the plate and went the opposite way with it. He's only been around for less than a year, so it seems weird to call it vintage Posey, but I don't care, it was vintage Posey. Huff was now on 3rd with 1 out, and Uribe took care of it from there.

There's so much to talk about from this game. So many lead changes, so many big hits, quite a few torturous moments as well. I can start with the starting pitching. Madison Bumgarner's stat line doesn't look very good: 4 2/3 IP, 6 H, 3 ER, 1 BB, 6 Ks but he wasn't that bad. It's just, all of a sudden in the 5th inning, Bumgarner couldn't get anyone out. To leadoff the inning, he gave up two line drive singles. Then the pitcher was out on a sacrifice fly. Shane Victorino then hit another line drive single, scoring 1 run, but Carlos Ruiz was also tagged out at the plate. Two outs with a runner on 1st. Bumgarner then allowed what would be his final line drive single to Chase Utley. It was bizarre, and Bochy brought in Santiago Casilla. Unfortunately, it was more of the same as Casilla allowed a Polanco double to score both runners, giving the Phillies a 4-2 lead.

There were so many heroes from this game. We've already talked about Posey, who got the scoring started with an RBI single in the 1st, doubled home the Giants' second run in the 3rd, tagged out a runner at the plate, and had that crucial hit in the 9th. And Aubrey Huff went 3-for-5, constantly setting Posey up for those RBI hits, and bringing the Giants back within 1 run with an RBI single after Philly's big 4-run inning. Pablo Sandoval had what was the biggest hit of the game at the time, driving an opposite field double, giving the Giants a 5-4 lead. Sergio Romo gave up the game tying hit to Jayson Werth in the 8th, but he kept his composure and didn't give the Phillies the lead. Javier Lopez and Brian Wilson were mostly great, no surprise there. And in addition to winning the game, Juan Uribe made a great play to erase a hit at the start of the top of the 9th. It was truly a team effort.

This turned out to be one of the greatest Giants games I've ever seen. The lead changed so many times, and the Giants missed so many opportunities, but the 9th inning was extremely intense. If the Giants had lost this game, all of a sudden they'd have to win 2 out of 3 vs Halladay, Oswalt, and Hamels. Not an easy thing to do. And the Phillies knew the importance of the game too. Hell, they even brought in Oswalt, the scheduled game 6 starter, out of the bullpen. Everything was on the line. So when Aubrey Huff singled, Buster Posey did what he does, and Juan Uribe hit one deep enough to score Huff, the energy was unreal. It doesn't get much better than a walk-off win in Game 4 of the NLCS to bring your team within 1 game of the World Series. Hopefully, it does get even better tomorrow night. The Giants now need to win just 1 of the next 3, and while they're facing the best team in baseball tomorrow, it's a pitching matchup they've already won. Beating Roy Halladay twice in one week is almost unheard of, but Lincecum's no slouch and the Giants are playing at home this time. It's tough not to get excited. Win it tomorrow at home. One more time.

2010 NLDS Game 4: SF 3, ATL 2

The San Francisco Giants have beaten the Atlanta Braves in the 2010 NLDS, and will move on to face the Philadelphia Phillies for the NL pennant. It will be a tough task for the Giants: Philly has won the the last 2 pennants, and they are probably better than they have ever been in the past 3 years. We will have previews for the NLCS throughout the week, leading up to Game 1 on Saturday at Citizen's Bank Park. Right now, though, we need to look back at this game, another game where the Giants somehow got past the Braves.

Bruce Bochy went with Madison Bumgarner instead of Tim Lincecum today, and Bumgarner did what he was supposed to do. He wasn't perfect, but he kept the Giants close in a game where the hitters looked completely puzzled by Derek Lowe. Bumgarner had a normal game for him, giving up some hits, but only walking 1 (An up and coming Cliff Lee perhaps? Probably not, but I can dream). Brian McCann hit a sacrifice fly for the Braves first run in the 3rd inning. The game stayed 1-0 until Cody Ross homered in the 6th inning. A big moment for Ross, the last "mercenary" added to the Giants this season. Bochy decided to keep Bumgarner in the game, and in the bottom of the 6th inning, Brian McCann once again did the damage, hitting the first pitch he saw into the bleachers. Yet Bochy still stuck with Bumgarner, and he was able to finish the inning. He pitched 6 good innings for the Giants on the road in the playoffs. That's a lot for a 21 year old rookie.

In the top of the 7th inning, the Giants finally got to Derek Lowe, or as the TBS broadcasters affectionately called him, "Derrek Lee". Lowe simply lost his command, walking Aubrey Huff, giving up an infield single to Buster Posey, and then walking Pat Burrell. Juan Uribe then hit a ball into the hole at shortstop. It was a tough play, and a double play was going to be impossible, so the Giants definitely had tied the game. But Alex Gonzalez's throw to 2nd base pulled Omar Infante off the bag, and everyone was safe. Aaron Rowand pinch hit for Mike Fontenot, and struck out. But then Cody Ross came up again, and was the hero as he singled into right field. Posey scored, and it took a great throw to cut down Pat Burrell at the plate. The Giants had taken the lead. Santiago Casilla worked a good 7th inning, then came out for the 8th. With 1 out, Bochy somewhat strangely kept Casilla in to face the best hitter on Atlanta, the left handed hitting McCann. McCann singled. It would have been better to go to Javier Lopez at that time. But Casilla got Alex Gonzalez to ground out (Gonzalez has been a huge disappointment for Atlanta), and then Bochy went to Lopez to get Heyward. And Lopez struck him out. The Giants hit into 2 double plays in the 8th and 9th innings, so 1 run was going to have to be enough for Brian Wilson. Wilson didn't have a clean 9th inning, thanks to a once again inconsistent strike zone. He walked 2 batters with 1 out, but then struck out Infante, and got Melky Cabrera to ground into the series winning force out.

2010 NLDS Game 3: SF 3, ATL 2

The San Francisco Giants showed tonight that they can rally back just as well as the Atlanta Braves, with a little help and a few errahs. Through 7, the star of the game was Jonathan Sanchez, who exceeded all possible expectations for his playoff debut. I was worried last night that Sanchez just might not be able to handle the pressure of a playoff game on the road. As good as he has been, he isn't Cain or Lincecum. But Sanchez was more than able to handle it. He was superb, striking out 11 Braves in 7.1 innings of work, allowing only 2 hits (and none till Tim Hudson's 6th inning single) and most importantly, only 1 walk. With Barry Zito being dropped from the rotation and NLDS roster, the Giants asked for Sanchez to be something of a third ace, and he delivered. The Giants held a 1-0 lead after 7 1/2 innings. They had made Tim Hudson work, but only had the one run to show for it, hitting dismally with runners in scoring position.

It looked like maybe 1 was gonna have to be enough, as happened in Game 1. But as we said before, Sanchez, at his best, still isn't Lincecum, so Bruce Bochy couldn't keep him on the mound forever. With 1 out and a runner on in the 8th inning, it appeared Bobby Cox was going to have Troy Glaus pinch hit. Bochy brought in Sergio Romo, and Cox promptly pulled back Glaus in favor of left handed hitting Eric Hinske. Hinske, after falling behind in the count, got a hanging changeup and homered just left of the foul pole in right field, to give the Braves a 2-1 lead. This was a crushing blow. The question is, did Bruce Bochy make a mistake?

Well, maybe. Although I think it would have been ridiculous for Bochy to not let Romo pitch simply because of a bad outing on Friday, facing Hinske wasn't a great matchup at all. But would Jonathan Sanchez against Troy Glaus have been safer? I don't know. And when Romo was brought in, and Hinske was announced, there was no way to fix it. Romo had to face him. It was hard to watch Bochy get out managed there by Bobby Cox, but I can't honestly say how I'd have done it differently. And you'll see soon, that Cox using Glaus AND Hinske in that 8th inning did not help him later.

Because the Giants would not be put away. Travis Ishikawa worked a walk with 1 out in the 9th. Andres Torres struck out on a very questionable pitch. Then Freddy Sanchez singled up the middle. The Giants had hope. And Aubrey Huff, the best hitter all year, but slumping badly so far in the series, reached out and pulled a ball into right field that Jason Heyward just couldn't quite get to. Ishikawa scored and the game was tied. Then Buster Posey came up, and he too reached for a pitch, hitting it somewhat hard towards 2nd baseman Brooks Conrad. And Conrad, the poor guy, did what he had been doing all game. He fucked it up. He let the ball go under his glove. The Giants took the lead with 2 outs in the top of the 9th, a completely improbable happening.

Bochy went to his closer, Brian Wilson, to get the final 3 outs against the heart of the Braves order. Wilson struck out Jason Heyward on a very low outside fastball. Heyward had reason to complain, but then again so did Andres Torres in the top of the inning. Derrek Lee, who just is not a scary hitter anymore, popped up. Brian McCann, the one big threat in the Braves lineup, singled on a groundball that Freddy Sanchez ranged to get to, but couldn't handle. The Braves would have had Matt Diaz coming up, but he was replaced for defense in the top of the inning by Nate McClouth. Perhaps if Bobby Cox hadn't used two of his powerful pinch hitters in the 8th inning, the weak hitting McClouth could have been replaced. But he had to bat, and grounded out to end the game. It looked like the Giants couldn't lose Friday's game, but they managed to. After Hinske's Turner shaking HR in the 8th, there seemed to be no way for the Giants, who had been quiet with the bats all day, to win this game. But they managed to.

This means Madison Bumgarner will pitch tomorrow instead of Tim Lincecum. It's the right move. Considering it is not an elimination game, there is no reason to pitch Lincecum on short rest. In the case that he is tired and the Giants lose, they have to win Game 5 without him. Instead, they go with a very competent pitcher, Bumgarner, and try to win. And if they don't, they have Lincecum fully rested on Tuesday at AT&T for Game 5.

SF 4, ARI 1: Giants One Win Away From Playoffs

Madison Bumgarner was able to get through 5 innings allowing just 1 run, but every inning was stressful, which meant an early exit for him. Yet he won his first home game of the year, thanks to a strong showing by the bullpen. Santiago Casilla pitched 2 perfect innings, followed by perfect innings by Romo and Bodie Broadus. Brian Wilson got the day off, although if the game was closer he'd likely have come in for the 9th.

But it wasn't closer, because the Giants kept hitting home runs today. Pablo Sandoval started it off with a splash hit. I won't say that he's "back". We've said that enough. Then Andres Torres made the score 2-1 in the 5th inning. He is back. And Buster Posey, who has been hitting the ball hard, but seen his average drop about 15 points in the last week, hit a typical deep left center Posey HR with Aubrey Huff on base. The man has a beautiful swing.

The Giants magic number is 2 now, meaning they can clinch a playoff spot with just one victory this weekend. 2 victories, or a Padres loss tonight along with 1 victory against them on the weekend, and the Giants would win the division.

SF 13, CHI 0: URIBED

The big story from today's game is the offensive explosion that began in the 2nd inning, but before we get to that, let's say a little something about 21 year old Madison Bumgarner. On a night when every ball hit in the air seemed to carry, Bumgarner allowed 0 runs in 7 innings, with 7 hits. Most importantly, he only walked 1 while striking out the Cubs 9 times. For such a young rookie, his control is impressive, with a K/BB ratio over 3.00 after tonight. The Giants' pitching staff extended its streak of games with 3 or fewer runs allowed to 17. The record is 20. To tie that, they'll have to hold Colorado to 3 or fewer every game this weekend in Denver. If that happened, it would probably mean winning at least 2/3. Get it done.

These huge blowout wins really are the hardest to write recaps for. It's hard not to just list all the great things everyone in the lineup did. Well, Juan Uribe was the big hero, homering twice in the same inning. Buster Posey pulled a home run, which never happens. He could also be pulling ahead in the NL Rookie of the Year race. Singles Hitter Freddy Sanchez went 4-5, and one of them was a double!!! Mike Fontenot, the VROOM VROOM at the top of the lineup, got 2 hits, and Cody Ross had his 1st good offensive day with the Giants, homering and collecting 2 other hits.

It was a good day. The Giants had a team meeting before the game to discuss hitting, and came out and scored 13 runs on 19 hits. And now they go to Colorado. Only 9 games left, 6 against teams neck and neck with the Giants for division lead and Wild Card. This, you could say, is truly the beginning of the end. Or just the very beginning...

SD 1, SF 0: 2nd Place? Yup.

Madison Bumgarner looked great today. As Keith Law pointed out on Twitter, pitching in Petco Park against the Padres will have that effect. Bumgarner went 7 innings, gave up only 3 hits, 1 of which was a HR, struck out 4 and walked none. He only had 79 pitches when he was lifted for a pinch hitter in the 8th, and could have conceivable gone the full 9 innings.

Unfortunately the Giants themselves only managed 3 hits against the Padres the entire game. Yeah, it was one of THOSE games. Not much else to say.

I agreed with Bochy's decision to lift Bumgarner in the 8th. At that point, your offensive outs are extra precious, and you can't waste any on a pitcher batting. On the other hand, I didn't understand the decision to pinch hit Pablo Sandoval for Freddy Sanchez. Sanchez is a hot hitter, hotter than Sandoval. It seemed like Bochy was going for the more powerful bat in hopes the Giants could tie the game with a HR. I don't agree with that. Especially in Petco Park, you don't play for the HR. You try to string together hits. And Freddy Sanchez would have been a better option for that. Whatever. We'll get them tomorrow. The Old Lincecum is going up against a terrible lineup. He has to shut them out. Mat Latos will finally have a non quality start. It's gotta happen that way.

It's A Slow Day

It's cold and overcast here and I'm basically using that as an excuse for me not being able to come up with something to write about today. So, I thought I'd throw out a question for you guys.

Barry Zito is starting tonight, and as the rotation has started to heat up in September, Zito is the lone starter who has not found his groove. As a result, there seems to be a lot of negativity and hate surrounding Zito. I'm not saying it's unwarranted hate, he hasn't looked good for over a month now, but a thought came into my mind.

When the Giants make the playoffs, and if they go with a 3-man playoff rotation, who are your 3 guys?

This is NOT if the season ended today. By the end of the season, when the playoffs come around, which 3 guys do you want starting for the Giants? I think it's an interesting question because despite Zito's struggles, both heads of 8thInningWeirdness would go with Lincecum, Cain, and Zito. But I have a feeling that many of you would choose Bumgarner, maybe Sanchez over Zito.

I think Lincecum and Cain are locks for everybody. If you don't have both of them in your lineup, I would really like you to explain yourself. So, the focus is on the 3rd starter. Personally, I go with Zito because of his postseason experience and because I still think he'll be our 3rd best option. Sanchez is the most erratic of all the Giants starters and by the time the playoffs roll around, Bumgarner might be worn out.

Anyway, leave your 3-man rotation in the comments section and explain why you chose those guys.

SF 2, ARI 0: My Pitching Rocks. Your Pitching Sucks.

I love it. For the past few years, our offense has not been very good. It's been better this year, but still not the strength of the team. And rightfully so, people have wanted more offense for a long time. But damn, I'll take good pitching and bad offense over a good offense and bad pitching any day. There's just nothing more beautiful in baseball than a well-pitched game and the Giants have been having a lot of those recently.

In case you couldn't tell from my introduction, Madison Bumgarner and the bullpen pitched really, really well. Bumgarner was able to hold the D'Backs to just 5 H and 0 ER in 7 1/3 innings, while striking out 7. In the 8th, Bumgarner did give up a leadoff double to the pitcher, Ian Kennedy, and he was promptly taken out of the game. After a flyout that moved Kennedy to 3rd and a walk issued by Sergio Romo, there were runners on 1st and 3rd with 1 out. It was probably the most difficult situation in the game for the Giants and Javier Lopez and Ramon Ramirez came in to shut down the next two batters. It doesn't really matter if John Bowker even becomes a future All-Star as long as Lopez and Ramirez keep contributing like this to help the Giants into the playoffs.

Unfortunately, Bumgarner didn't get any run support. He couldn't even get measly Felix Hernandez-type support. He got nothing. The Giants got shut down by Ian Kennedy and a couple Diamondbacks relievers and couldn't score until the 11th inning. In that 11th inning with 2 outs, Aubrey Huff singled. Then Buster Posey. And then Nate Schierholtz hit a 2-run triple. Wait, sorry that was a typo. Ha, hahaha, silly me. Not Nate Schierho....OH WAIT IT WAS NATE SCHIERHOLTZ! Holy crap, the guy who's been pretty much forgotten on offense among the 57 outfielders on the roster hit a triple to put the Giants on the board. Brian Wilson finished it off, as usual. Game Over.

The Giants can be tied for the division lead after tonight, with a little help from our enemies down south. Break out those red rally thongs, people.

SF 5, COL 2: Weirdness of the 8th Inning Variety

I am responsible for this win. This is your proof.

Yes, things were looking all too similar to last night until Andres Torres saved the day. I'll start from the beginning of the story. The Giants immediately showed how powerful their offense is by scoring early on a balk from Esmil Rogers in the 1st inning. Unfortunately, the Rockies came back to score on a sac fly in the 2nd inning, making the score 1-1. The score stayed like that for a while, as the former Cy Young winner, Rogers, was dominating the Giants lineup. Rogers never won the Cy Young because he's not very good but at least me imagining him as a former Cy Young winner makes our effort against him today feel less pathetic. Anyway....in the 5th inning, the Giants were able to score again on Madison Bumgarner's double and Bruce Bochy pondered permanently moving him to 3rd in the order. Now the score was 2-1, Giants. Here comes the "here we go again" part. In the 8th inning, with a 1 run lead, Melvin "I'm Not Good But I Hit Cleanup" Mora hit a homer off of Jeremy Affeldt. Tie. Game. Once again it seemed like the offense's inability to score was going to cost us. But wait, there is more weirdness.

The first batter in the bottom of the inning, Andres "I Carry A Big Stick If You Know What I Mean" Torres, glorious man that he is, belted a home run to right field giving the Giants a 3-2 lead. If that wasn't enough, Buster Posey followed it up by hitting a 2-run double with the bases loaded. There was a collective sigh of relief among the fanbase. Nice of you to finally join us, offense. Brian Wilson closed out the 9th with an 8-pitch save and everyone lived happily ever after.

Madison Bumgarner pitched the 3rd consecutive quality start from a Giants starting pitcher tonight. It wasn't always pretty, as he walked 3 batters and struck out just 2 while going 6 IP, but hey, it was a nice bounce back after his disaster start last week, and he only allowed 1 run. Like you can read about in this post, this pitching staff may be coming back to dominance, which is the best news a Giants fan could hear. Let's see if Lincecum joins the party tomorrow night. I'm sure there's no one happier than him that tomorrow is the first day of September.

The Padres lost tonight, so the Giants are 4 games back in the NL West. Maybe they're finally slowing down, as they've lost 6 games in a row. It's about time! I'm completely tired of them. It doesn't add up. They should not be the best team in the National League. No.

Please feel free to leave your thoughts in the Comments section.

The Good From Last Night

Okay, last night's game was terrible. The Giants blew a lead against a team that is slowly creeping up behind them in the standings and they failed to capitalize on a night when both the Wild Card and division leaders lost. Maybe that flyball was a freak play and every outfielder would have charged in to get it. Fine, I think I can buy that. But Freddy Sanchez's terrible bounce pass to 3rd base gave up the lead, and none of it would've mattered if the Giants scored more than one pathetic run. The game was lost yesterday because of bad defense and bad offense. However, last night's game was a good sign for one reason, though. The pitching. For once, I'm going to be optimistic.

The pitching struggles in August have been well-documented. During this month, they've had a 4.65 ERA, good for 3rd worst in the NL. Pretty surprising that our pitching, and not the offense, is costing us down the stretch. Obviously this team is carried by the pitching staff, so they won't be going anywhere near the playoffs if the staff doesn't get back on track. But yesterday, Jonathan Sanchez, the most erratic of all the Giants' starting pitchers, pitched a gem. And the day before, Matt Cain had a quality start. Two back-to-back quality starts from the staff is an extremely welcome sight. Cain has been pretty great all season, but if guys like Sanchez, Zito and Lincecum can get back to their early season dominance, this team's going to be hard to beat. You can tell all of the starters feed off of each other. If everyone's pitching well, no one wants to be the one to break the streak. Like I said a couple of days ago, it just takes a couple of good starts in a row for the staff to get back on track.

I'm willing to bet that last night's game was an anomaly. Our defense is in a pretty bad spell right now, committing 11 errors in the last 5 games. That is terrible and they are not a terrible defensive team. (Jose Guillen is pretty bad though. Despite last night's misplay, Cody Ross is definitely the best option out there.) They aren't great, having below average guys at 3B, SS, and LF, but they don't make too many errors and they're not 11 errors in 5 games bad. Also, the offense should be able to score more often than not. With Sandoval and Sanchez getting hot the lineup now has Torres, Sanchez, Huff, Burrell, Posey, and Sandoval all hitting well. That's not a bad lineup at all. But the key to winning is still the pitching and if last night was any indication, the pitching could be close to regaining form. Maybe the Giants can finally combine good pitching, good hitting, and better defense at the same time. This team needs a run, a July type streak, to get to the playoffs and if that's going to happen, the starters need to get hot.

CIN 12, SF 11: The (Almost) Best Game of the Year

Wow. I was at the ballpark today, and that was a crazy game. The game had three stages: Extreme Boredom, Overwhelming Jubilation, and Mild Disappointment. I'm going to break down all 3 stages and it means a lot coming from me, because I was there. Live. This is first-hand experience, people. So, listen up!

Stage 1: Extreme Boredom

Madison Bumgarner was terrible today. Absolutely terrible. As a result, the Reds went all Giants on the Giants. I hope that makes sense. Right off the bat, the Reds scored 4 runs in the 1st inning. Then they scored 4 more in the 3rd. At that point it was 8-1 and Bumgarner was out of the game. Then it was 10-1. The Reds were just piling it on. It must've been the same way Reds fans had felt for the past 2 games. Awful. It was complete boredom. The combination of terrible pitching, a lackluster offense, and the hot sun made me want to take a nap. Luckily, I don't do that at baseball games. The Giants would cut it down to 10-5, but still I had pretty much conceded this game to Cincinnati. Stage 1 lasted until the 7th inning.

Stage 2: Overwhelming Jubilation

Stage 2 had maybe the most 8th Inning Weirdness we've seen all year. But it was good Weirdness. At this point the score was still 10-5. Jose Guillen singled to start the inning. Pablo Sandoval followed by also hitting a single. The next batter, Juan Uribe, hit a 3-run homer right over the wall. Unbelievable. Uribe has fallen pretty far over the course of the season (his OBP is below .320), but he has had a few very important home runs. If nothing else, his power is very valuable in the 7th spot of the order. The Giants were now down just 10-8 and there were still 0 outs. Then a pair of new Giants, Cody Ross and Mike Fontenot, each singled. Up came Andres Torres, who roped a double down the left field line. Seeing Fontenot rounding third to score the tying run was amazing. Four innings ago, no one would've thought the Giants would be in a position to take a lead in this game. And you know what else? Still. 0. Outs. So, Andres Torres was on 2nd and Buster Posey came up. Buster was the only Giant without a hit today, but in his most important at-bat of the game, he came through with a sacrifice fly to move Torres over to 3rd. One out. Next up was Aubrey Huff. Huff hit a fly ball not too deep to right field, but it was good enough for Torres. 11-10 Giants. Un. Freakin. Believable. Onto the next stage.

Stage 3: Mild Disappointment

In the top 9th, the Reds tied the game at 11-11, and it was pretty much all Pablo Sandoval's fault. On a sharp ground ball to 3rd base, Sandoval rushed the throw to 1st and it went over Huff's head. Drew Stubbs advanced to 2nd on the throw, and there was just 1 out. A single from Paul Janish would bring Stubbs home to tie the game. It would've been great if the Giants could shut down the Reds after such a great comeback, but it didn't happen. Sandoval's error was 1 of 5 Giants errors in the game.

The 10th and 11th innings were quiet, but because the Giants have been carrying just 11 pitchers, Barry Zito had to come out and pitch the 12th. Zito wasn't too sharp, giving up a double and then an RBI single to give the Reds the lead. The Giants weren't able to score in the bottom of the inning and the game was over.

The disappointment was just mild because the Giants showed resiliency. They came back from a 9 run deficit, not giving up after falling behind so early in the game. It was certainly good to see and at least I didn't have to sit through a completely boring game.

Brandon Belt was promoted to AAA today. This is his first year in the minors and he's jumped from A to AAA. I love him. Keep an eye out for a post on him tomorrow.

Game Recap: SF 6, STL 3

Madison Bumgarner pitched a great game, even though he ended up allowing 9 hits in 7 innings. Only one of them, Albert Pujols' solo HR, did any real damage. We haven't seen the Cardinals in a while, and my 1st impression after this game: "wow is their lineup is weak". As long as Tony LaRussa refuses to play Colby Rasmus, there are only 2 batters to worry about: Pujols and Holliday. John Jay is on fire, but he's barely been up, so he doesn't really count, and he'll definitely cool down. The only other player in the lineup tonight with a slugging percentage over .350 was Felipe Lopez at .358. Allen Craig, with a .473 OPS, was hitting 2nd tonight in front of Pujols. And you thought Bruce Bochy had trouble with batting orders. I think Tony LaRussa is overrated.

Time to welcome Aubrey Huff back to the land of the living. Not only did he hit an impressive HR today, but he also got another hit and walked twice. Buster Posey doubled twice. No biggie. He does that every night. And Pablo Sandoval hits a HR every night now. It really does feel like he has turned a corner, because he is hitting the ball with force and authority. Very encouraging.

While the Cardinals lineup might be surprisingly inadequate, their starting pitching is not. It might be the best overall rotation behind Philly in the NL, with the 2 aces in Carpenter and Wainwright and a great rookie named Jamie Garcia. The Giants will have to face Carpenter and his cleat-marked back tomorrow. Apparently Tim Lincecum noticed something wrong with his delivery and fixed it this week. I hope so.

Game Recap: SF 4, CHI 3

Ignore the ugly team name in the upper left corner.

It should be automatic now. Buster Posey needs to move to the 2 hole, and let Pat Burrell hit cleanup, until he proves that he actually isn't getting back to the form he had in Philadelphia for 4 years. Patrick the Batrick had 2 doubles and 2 walks tonight, but his biggest at bat came in the 11th inning with bases loaded, when he swung at the first pitch from Marcos Mateo and hit a long flyball to drive in Edgar Renteria and give the Giants a 4-3 win.

It was a welcome bit of timely hitting in a game in which the Giants left 15 runners on base. Carlos Zambrano, making his first start since returning from the restricted list, was very erratic, walking 7 men, but the Giants didn't manage to score against him till the 5th inning. Madison Bumgarner was good if not great, working through a strange 1st inning in which he somehow gave up 2 runs. This game was very frustrating for the Giants in the beginning, when it seemed like every line drive they hit was being caught and every popup by the Cubs was falling. But, they managed to tie the game in the 6th inning, and you felt that at home, no matter how many times they failed, the Giants would eventually get that 4th run across and win the game.

Andres Torres had another multi-hit game, as did Travis Ishikawa. Aubrey Huff got on base 3 times, and his double in the 11th helped set up the Burrell sac fly. And the bullpen was good again for 5 1/3 innings.

There's been a lot of discussion about Aubrey Huff's possible return to the Giants next season, and now Pat Burrell is being mentioned as well. I'd have to see more from him to truly believe he can still hit consistently. His time in Tampa Bay was TERRIBLE. But then you remember he was an integral part of the lineup on Philadelphia's World Series team just a couple years ago. Suddenly his "Water Buffalo" range in left field doesn't look so bad. One thing is for sure: he's carrying the team offensively right now. Jose Guillen: no thank you.

Game Recap: COL 6, SF 1

You can't win 'em all, and the Giants were never close to winning this one.

The offense never got going. Against Ubaldo Jimenez, it seemed like they were just going through the motions. Maybe they resigned themselves to the fact that they couldn't beat Jimenez. That doesn't make too much sense, though, because so far in the 2nd half he has a 6.41 ERA and 1.744 WHIP. Anyway, they managed to get just 5 hits, most of them with no runners on and 2 outs or something like that. Any hit they got just didn't come in an important spot. This says it all: Andres Torres was 0-for-4 with 4 K's. That's just not normal. The offense did one thing right, when Buster Posey doubled to score Aubrey Huff, but...that was all. Nothing more. I guess they were too tired from scoring 10 runs a night ago. Sure would've been nice to save some of those runs for today.

Madison Bumgarner also wasn't very sharp. He threw lots of strikes and maybe too many. He never fooled anyone while allowing 9 H and 4 ER with just 3 K's. It was bad. Everything was bad. I don't want to talk about it anymore.

I can't help myself though. I like feeling depressed. So here's something else. Denny Bautista came in and was...you guessed it, terrible. He hit 2 batters and gave up 2 HRs in his 1 2/3 IP. He's gone pretty soon right? I really don't know. We've said it before, but Bochy seems to like him, which should tell you a lot about Bruce Bochy.

Buster Posey won the NL Player of the Month, by the way. That's something to be happy about. Congratulations to him, he deserves it. He is a manchild.

Like I said, the offense just looked tired and unenergized today, just the 2nd game after a day off. We are on an unbelievable hot streak right now, but it doesn't mean we'll never lose. I'm not worried about that. I just hope we don't look this sluggish in Atlanta against a very good Braves team.

Game Recap: FLA 5, SF 0

Jeez. The Marlins really love splitting a series.

Well that wasn't good.

So can we now stop talking about hitting streaks? They are silly until you get to 30 games anyway.

The Padres got Miguel Tejada. I hear the Giants are looking into Morgan Ensberg. Maybe even Carl Everett.

Jorge Cantu is going to Texas. Good.

Bumgarner wasn't great. But he was okay. Nice.

That's all for now. Maybe tomorrow a response to Ray Ratto's horseshit blog post from yesterday. Cue some NWA for the angry, merciless writing session.

Game Recap: SF 10, ARI 4

Madison Bumgarner is really, really good. Tonight he led the Giants to a 10-4 over Arizona giving the Giants their 3rd win a row and their 8th win in 10 games. The win was Bumgarner's 4th in a row as he went 7 innings and gave up 5 H, 2 ER, and 3 BB with 7 K's. It's been said before, but he's been incredible for a 20 year old. The Giants would like to limit his innings down the stretch to preserve his arm, but that might be difficult to do if Bumgarner keeps pitching this well.

Through 6 innings the Giants were up 3-1, but the big hit came in the 7th inning. With the bases loaded, Juan Uribe hit a grand slam barely over the wall that gave the team a 7-1 lead. Uribe needs to get going, as he's gone cold over the last couple of months, so a few more homers from him would be greatly appreciated.

This game also included a very scary moment when Eugenio Velez was hit in the face in the dugout on a bullet off the bat of Pat Burrell. Velez was on the ground for several minutes before being carried out on a stretcher to the hospital. During the game we learned that he never lost consciousness and was alert. Now it's been reported that he has an apparent concussion. Considering how hard he was hit, that is very good news.

Again, the bullpen was shaky. Tonight it was Guillermo Mota who came in and gave up 2 runs. Before the game we learned that Jeremy Affeldt is going on the DL with an oblique strain, so fixing the bullpen has to be an even greater priority now.

Game Recap: SF 5, LA 2

The Giants tried their hardest to lose tonight, but despite giving it 110% they weren't able to come up with the loss. It's really a shame because I know they wanted it so bad! They should have lost, they really, really deserved it. Wait....what's that you're saying? Teams don't like to lose, they want to win? Well, the Giants certainly could've fooled me.

This game was pretty much the polar opposite of yesterday's. On Sunday, they should've won, but lost. Tonight they made way too many errors and deserved to lose, but they won. A win is a win, so maybe I should be more positive, but I can't help but feel troubled after so many mental errors. Let's see, how many were there? There was Pablo Sandoval choosing to tag the runner heading to third instead of going for the force out at 1st to end the inning, allowing Jamey Carroll to score before he applied the tag (Carroll didn't score before Pablo tagged the runner headed to 3rd, it was a terrible call, but still a big mental error by Pablo). How about walking Garrett Anderson, who is hitting .187 this year, with 2 outs? If that wasn't enough, Sergio Romo walked Jamey Carroll, who doesn't have a home run this year, to load the bases for Andre Ethier. Ethier grounded out, but walking guys like Anderson and Carroll with 2 outs in the inning is just not smart. Ahhh, and finally, Andres Torres forgot how many outs there were and ran on a shallow flyout with just 1 out. That can only be described as a Pablo Sandoval/Eugenio Velez type of baserunning mistake.

Oh yeah, Eugenio Velez is back. Be happy.

A pairing that Giants fans hope to see producing for a long, long time, Buster Posey and Pablo Sandoval, got the scoring started in the 3rd inning. Posey singled up the middle to bring in a run, and Sandoval proceeded to smoke a double into the left field gap, scoring Posey. It was rather beautiful. Sandoval had another good game with the bat, going 2-for-5 with a double and an RBI. Later in the 4th inning, Nate Schierholtz added a 2-run homer, giving the Giants a 4-0 lead.

Bumgarner had a good start despite only lasting 5 2/3 innings. He was pulled early, mostly because of his high pitch count but gave up just 6 H, 1 ER, and 2 BB with 3 K's. He continues to impress for a guy who is just 20.

A win against the Dodgers always feels good, but the Giants got lucky. They'll have to play better if they want to beat Clayton Kershaw tomorrow night.

Also, the bottom of the 9th turned out to be pretty awesome. Brian Wilson managed to load the bases with 2 outs, and up came Casey Blake. Remember when Blake mocked Wilson's tribute to his father that he does after every save? Well tonight, Wilson struck him out. It was a pleasure to watch.