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Double Hammy Whammy – Giants Win, Lose Cain, Casilla to DL

22 Thursday May 2014

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Even when the Giants win lately there’s some weird issue – an HBP directly on the thumb sidelines Brandon Belt, plays that should be routine for a first baseman in little league bungled by Michael Morse, nutty throwing errors by Pablo or, an injury by someone trying too hard, like Angel Pagan’s shoulder strain diving for a pop fly against the Marlins on Sunday.

The latter category still reminds me of how we lost Freddy Sanchez, in May, on a routine play when we had the lead in a game that “didn’t really matter.” He flew high and hard to snag that ball, landed on his shoulder and never played in a Giants uniform again.  Or how about Pagan last year, legs out the only ever walkoff inside-the-park homer in history and we lose him, and the season,the next day. Again … in May.

Of course, we love effort and those plays are exciting … how about just a little caution in the early months, guys? Not telling you to take it easy, but … what happened last night was completely unnecessary.

Yet they continue to win. The team experiences these careening moments even as they slug and claw their way into come-from behind victories; doing it with all home runs one game, and sudden inspired situational hitting, and no home runs in the next.

The only consistency has been that the Giants are inconsistent, yet somehow pull it together in the later innings behind a great bullpen to get wins. It isn’t confidence inspiring with regard to a long season, and the anhedonia has resulted in at least one blogger, Grant Brisbee of McCovey Cove Chronicles, losing his mind to the duality.

Yesterday, in Colorado, things were going along just fine – the game plan was in place and the Giants and Matt Cain were holding the Rockies offense down, when all of a sudden Cain came up gimpy. He had to be pulled from the game in the third inning with a strained hamstring, forcing Yusmeiro Petit into yet another emergency start. Worrisome.

Still, the plan was working. The Giants bullpen, with Petit working long, held the Rockies scoreless through seven innings. On the offensive side meanwhile, they used the altitude to their advantage and Hunter Pence, Pablo Sandoval and Brandon Crawford all homered, while Hector Sanchez had a deep double for another RBI. They had an early lead and held on.

Petit threw three scoreless and Bochy once again was masterful with the ‘pen; using four more guys to seal the win. Juan Gutierrez, Javier Lopez (LOOGY), and Santiago Casilla took it to the ninth.

In the top of the ninth, with a four-run lead and Sergio Romo resting after having been rocked the night before, Bochy decided to leave Casilla in the game at the plate, with the intention of letting him close the game.

Casilla was given specific instruction when he went to the plate, alternatingly described as, ‘to just stand like a statue,’ and ‘not to get hurt.’ Bochy says he told him just to jog up the line if he made contact.

But the veteran Casilla did none of these. Apparently inspired by the play of Juan Machi a few weeks ago, who legged out a bunt to drive in the winning run in a 13-inning game, Santiago Casilla tried to get on base. He was perhaps goaded by the dugout, as the guys teased him about doing what Machi did. For whatever reason, Casilla hit a ball hard to the infield and in, a totally loony moment, tried to leg out the single!

Casilla hit the bag and fell to the grass immediately, thrown out and flailing in the grass, pounding his fist on the ground in obvious pain. First base coach Hensley Meulens had no idea what to make of it.

It turns out that like Matt Cain earlier in the game, Casilla had strained his right hamstring. It was the same pointless injury that sent reliever David Huff to the DL two weeks ago – a pitcher trying to leg out a single.

Jeremy Affeldt came in and pitched a scoreless ninth with a strikeout to end the game, a non-save situation. But the mood was severely depressed in the wake of losing not one, but two pitchers to hamstring strains in the same game.

The win kept the Giants in first place in the NL West by three games going into tonight’s rubber match, which will feature the two teams’ best pitchers. The Giants’ aging ace, Tim Hudson (4-2, 2.09) returns from resting his back on the DL, to face Jorge De La Rosa (5-3, 4.14), a longtime nemesis of the G-men.

Both Casilla and Cain will undergo MRI’s today to determine the severity of their injuries, but it seems likely that Cain will miss at least one start and that Casilla may not be available for a few weeks; frustrating to say the least. [UPDATE: looks like Casilla’s was a strain and not a tear, so that’s good]

Hopefully the Giants can come away with one more win in Colorado before the upcoming home stand which could be an easier ride. The Twins are up first and the Giants seem to play Interleague well at home, having swept the Indians in April. The Twins will be followed at AT&T by a visit from the last place Cubs.

Bochy Ejected, Sanchez GS, as Giants Outlast Rockies, 12-10 in 11 Innings

23 Wednesday Apr 2014

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Giants 12, Colorado 10 at Coors Field

The wind and altitude collaborated to help the ball out of the yard at Coors Field, but most of the nine homers in this one were towers of power that traveled 420+ feet. Troy Tulowitzki started it with a two-run blast in the first. Michael Morse answered with a 455′ solo shot in the top of the second.

The day turned into a Home Run Derby between the Rockies and Giants. In total nine balls left the yard. In a burst of offense that’s been missing for days, the G-men hit six of them.

Giants LF Michael Morse smashed two, for his 7th multi-home-run game. Later, Hector Sanchez would join that club for the first time in his career in dramatic fashion. Sanchez went yard twice late in the game, both times to give the Giants the lead, the second time, a grand slam in the 11th to put the Giants ahead for good. It was a clutch performance by Hector who has been ridden by fans, broadcasters and some press recently; made the whipping boy and scapegoat for losses. Redemption.

This was a wild one.

The Giants fell behind early to the long ball, 5-1, and then fought back with homers of their own. Brandon Hicks’ solo big fly in the top of the 3rd made it 5-2 Rockies. Then Pence and Cain both singled and Morse’s second homer in as many at-bats, a deep shot 450′ to center, brought them home to tie it 5-5. ESPN and Alex Pavlovic have it that Morse is “just the third player since 2006 to hit multiple 450-foot homers in one game.”

The Giants were looking for more when Manager Bruce Bochy was ejected from the game in the top of the 4th for arguing a called third strike that resulted in a strike ’em out, throw ’em out inning-ending double play. With one out and Brandon Crawford on, Brandon Hicks had a full count and Rockies SP Tyler Chatwood looked shaky.

The call was very questionable. From Crawford’s view, running, having taken off from first, Chatwood’s 3-2 pitch to Hicks was so clearly a ball  that he slowed up on the base path thinking Hicks had drawn the walk. By the time he realized it was a called strike, catcher Wilin Rosario was up making the throw. Crawford was easily out at second. Hicks confronted the ump angrily. Bochy raced out to argue to prevent the enraged Brandon Hicks from being ejected, and was ejected himself.

Blackmon homered in the bottom of the 4th and the Giants fell behind 6-5, but Matt Cain found a groove. Throwing 93mph darts, Cain held serve in the 5th and 6th. He looked in control.

With Hunter Pence on in the top of the seventh by virtue of a walk, Brandon Belt launched his league-leading 7th home run into the Colorado evening and gave Cain and the San Francisco Giants the lead 7-6.

Acting Manager Ron Wotus then did his best Bruce Bochy imitation and loyally left Cain in for the bottom of the 7th. The bullpen was fully rested having not worked at all the night before (Bumgarner CG), yet Wotus left Cain in. While it was true, Cain had looked strong in the  previous two innings, they had been long innings and his pitch count was high. Leaving Cain in destroyed poor Matt’s chance to leave the game leading, in line to get his first win of the season.

In the bottom of the 7th with the one run lead, Cain gave up a walk, a steal, a liner that tied the game 7-7, and another walk, before being pulled for Jeremy Affeldt; another no decision for Matt Cain, but this time with seven runs on the board. It just slipped away.

It must be said, Affeldt was very good again. Affeldt’s first start Sunday against the Padres was excellent – three up, three down – and today in Colorado his command was evident. Jeremy looks better than he has in a long time. Stable, secure, strong.

The Giants once again grabbed the lead with the long ball, going up 8-7 on Hector Sanchez’s first homer, a solo shot in the 8th, only to see the Rockies tie it up 8-8 because of a balk.

Balkin’ Bob Davidson was the ump at 3rd in the 8th. He called Santiago Casilla for a balk when, twice in a row, Casilla made the same small move with LeMahieu on 2nd. The balk sent DJ LeMahieu to third with one out from where he scored on a Charlie Blackmon ground out against Casilla. It was an acceptable balk call. Casilla was doing some kind of shoulder shimmy thing. But it cost us the lead.

The contest was slow, long and nerve-wracking as neither team could put the other away. But the Giants ‘pen handled the extra frames well. Jeremy Affeldt, Javier Lopez and Jean Machi kept the Rockies off the board in the 7th, 9th and 10th.

Even after Sanchez’s grand slam, which made it 12 – 8, victory was unsure. Sergio Romo gave up a single to Tulowitzki and a two-run homer to Justin Morneau in the bottom half of the 11th frame and subsequently let Drew Stubbs single making it 12 – 10 with the tying run at the plate. Romo managed to force a ground out and a game-ending double play to get the Giants out of Colorado with at least one win.

Hunter Pence was 3 for 4 and crossed the plate three times. Matt Cain singled twice and scored a run, helping his own cause, but he wouldn’t get the win. That would land in the hands of the Giants’ fourth reliever, Jean Machi, who is now 4-0 and leads the majors in victories.

 

Madison Bumgarner Rolls On, Giants Win 3-2

19 Friday Apr 2013

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An excellent game in which everything came together to end in a walkoff double by Angel Pagan and the Giants win 3-2. Buster Posey had a deep double, which hopefully will help him up out of his slump.

Bochy pulled Bumgarner in the 6th, middle and late relief did their job, and Santiago Casilla got the win.

Pablo Sandoval and Brandon Crawford, sadly, had their 11-game hit streaks ended, but this one was Giants Baseball all the way.

Way to go Giants!

Swept By the Brewers (0-3) Giants SPs Fall Apart

18 Thursday Apr 2013

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The Brewers swept the Giants out of Milwaukee with home runs. The discrepency on the road trip was 15-2. That’s fifteen home runs by the Brewers and Cubs to two (Pence, Crawford) by the Giants on this road trip to Chicago and Milwaukee – and both Giants homers were in garbage time or playing long catch-up.

Matt Cain and Barry Zito got blasted and the team ERA of the starting pitchers for the Giants exploded. It’s so early in the season that it isn’t that worrying, but that said, starting pitching – which was our centerpiece, our greatest strength – is suffering profound lapses of quality in recent days. Andrew Baggarly, Kruk and Kuip ask what’s up.

It’s crazy to me that our greatest weakness right now is starting pitching! I am reminded of the Phillies vaunted staff Halladay, Lee, Oswalt, and Hamels (that we beat in 2010) who struggled as they got older, too. But they were in their 30’s. Our eldest guys, Matt and Tim, aren’t 30 yet.

It is good news that other aspects of the team – bullpen, hitting, defense – are really pretty tight for April. Not a lot of errors. Giants showing fight and effort every night.

The Brewers hit well in their park and basically broke open two of the three games early, making it exceedingly difficult to catch up, which emphasizes what we have been saying – we have to pull these pitchers earlier; it changes up the game.

Starting Pitching

Ugh. Not a good series. Even Vogelsong who pitched well, got beat.

Relief Pitching

The relievers getting innings is one upside to a series like this and Kontos, Casilla, Lopez and Mijares got minutes in the absence of Jeremy Affeldt. Mijares could grow into a middle reliever in his absence. Kontos and Casilla looked good, except poor Santiago got set up for the loss last night and allowed the single that ended the game. Rough situation to walk into: down 7 or down 8 or 9 … let’s see what happens with the bullpen at home.

Hitting

Brandon Crawford, Brandon Crawford, Brandon Crawford – another homer, lots of hits and moving all around the order now – Brandon is looking great. Everybody, even The Big Kahuna, is talking about his WAR. Unfortunately he did have another error which was quite costly, but his work at the plate and in the field continues to impress and that was an anomaly.

Crawford and Sandoval have 10 game hitting streaks coming into the home stand against the Padres this weekend. Hunter Pence and Pagan are hitting well. Blanco is hot and cold after a day of horribly bad luck on Tuesday in Milwaukee. Torres, after impressing initially has cooled some.

Nick Noonan is a gamer. Though he struggled against Milwaukee, he continues to show big-league ability at the plate.

Not much else to say you can’t read elsewhere so I will wrap it up.

Go Giants!

Lohse Impresses, Milwaukee Outlasts the G-Men

18 Thursday Apr 2013

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Game Two was well-played and much more like a normal Giant game – a close, low-scoring, pitchers duel – and sadly, one in which we couldn’t score enough runs to get the win. The Giants left five on base and Pagan, Belt and Crawford, failed to bring runs in with Runners in Scoring Position with two outs: better than recently, but in a tight game, too important to neglect.

Vogelsong looked good, hit his spots for the most part, and while Kyle Lohse dominated the Giants the first time through and had a no-hit, near perfect game going through 5, the whole order made adjustments to make it a game. The Brewers won on a 9th inning bases-loaded single off Casilla.

Brandon Crawford continues to bat well, which is a great bonus thus far this year. I would love to see him hit .300 and win a Gold Glove. He and Sandoval have 10-game hit streaks now. Hunter Pence drove in two runs to give him 10RBI for the season – he’s batting .262.

Santiago Casilla has played more ball than most, having anchored the World Baseball Classic Championship team from the Dominican Republic and while he has had great outings, like last week against the Cubs, last night’s was shaky at best. He was behind in the count a lot and Bochy left him in way too long, given his performance.

I approve of working middle and late relief, but in a tight game, Bochy has to be more responsive, quicker on the trigger.

Today’s a day game, so I’m off to set up the gear in the corner.

Go Giants!

Giants vs. Cubs at Wrigley Series Recap (3-1)

15 Monday Apr 2013

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This was a wild one in the windy city.

Let Cain and Bumgarner go six innings for the quality start and then pull them as standard procedure for a few months, maybe even the whole first half of the season.

This provides two benefits: rest for their arms over the long season and opportunities to develop middle, long and late relief.

One reason I started GBC was to capture memories of crazy weekends that get lost in the rapid, fluid pool of information we all swim through, hoping to memory-hole it prosaically but concisely for reference.

The Windy City

This was the earliest in a regular season that these two clubs ever played at Wrigley Field in the long, storied history of the NY/SF Giants vs. the Chicago Cubs.

The as-yet-unrefurbished park in early Spring and the weather were significant factors. It was 40 degrees when the Giants got off the team bus on Thursday, with icy rain. It was cold, wet, icy and even snowy at moments over the series.

There was no ivy on the wall and the exposed brick damaged Angel Pagan who ran into it and was forced to sit out the rest of one game. This broke up his seven game hit streak. Mike Krukow made an impassioned plea to put padding on the walls at Wrigley. The stadium is currently undergoing a 5-year, $300 million renovation.

There were errors galore in this series, many of which would define the losses for the Cubs.

But an indicator of the conditions is that the errors included Brandon Crawford’s first of the year. The young shortstop has been brilliant and was rock solid barring the error. Brandon is also having continued success at the plate: the weekend series featured his opposite field home run that decided game 1. [Bochy put Crawford in the 2 spot, resting Scutaro – a sweet piece of managing to test out possibilities].

All errors were superseded by the astonishingly bad Wild Pitch/Passed Ball/Balk Parade that lost the last game of the series for Chicago. The hapless Cubs tied a major league record for Wild Pitches in an inning (5) and in the same inning balked in a run! Jon Miller commented, “The last time I saw this many wild pitches was when I watched my ten-year old in a little league game.”

The Giants came from behind in all three victories and though they scored 23 runs in the four games, the lone home run came in the top of the ninth of the last game in dramatic fashion when down a run with two outs in the top of the ninth, ‘The Reverend,’ Hunter Pence, 30 years and a day old, ripped a solo shot to tie the game and take it to the tenth, allowing the Giants to win 10-7 and Sergio Romo to record his seventh save (7-1).

The Giants only loss, in Game Two, came on a pop fly that was carried by the wind of Chicago out of the park – resulting in Sergio Romo’s first missed save.

Since the series was all day games and the last game against Colorado at AT&T was also, the Giants played five straight day games for the first time in 17 years.

A Note on Defense and Nick Noonan

The weather was horrible and it made it hard to play. While the Giants made their share of mistakes, they also performed admirably under the conditions. Great catches by Pagan, Pablo, Blanco and Pence were keys to ending innings.

Nick Noonan’s first start was amazing: it started with his first error, a result of the horrible conditions and one of the first plays of the series, costing the team a run. But he quickly got past it and then shone in his debut going 3 for 4, recording his first hits and earning his first RBI’s.

In 2 games in Chicago, Nick Noonan had 4 hits in 6 at bats, scoring twice and knocking in two runs. In the last game, Noonan pinch hit for Lincecum, and hit a two-run single for the Giants first lead (5-4)! Great work, Nick – MAJOR LEAGUE HIT.

Hitting

The Giants were down and up in the series and developed situational hitting and better performance as the series wore on. They took advantage of Cubs mistakes by the end of the series to win it by being the better team, but they won by slim margins and were forced to fight back with good hitting, base running and defense.

Though the Giants were short on power and struggled with runners in scoring position much of the time, they made key hits.

Brandon Crawford, Gregor Blanco, Hunter Pence and Angel Pagan deserve particular mention. Hunter Pence legged it out to first to prevent double-plays several times. Pagan hustled (he also over-hustled, but that’s what we want from our lead-off man, El Caballero Loco). Crawford’s opposite field home run was a game-winner, but he was equally good getting RBI’s and key hits in the last two games.

Unfortunately, Hector Sanchez is the glaring issue at the plate. But he is a catcher. We are absurdly privileged to have Buster Posey as our catcher – an anomaly in terms of hitting ability. Most teams have a catcher they have to hide in the order because hitting isn’t what they’re on the team to do.

The problem is the absence of his bat coupled with the impression that Tim Lincecum doesn’t want to be caught by Posey. We say there is no conspiracy. Bochy knew he had to rest Posey from catching at least one game in the rotation. Lincecum got matched up with Sanchez early, and it’s better to be consistent, at least at first, especially if there are extenuating circumstances – like Brandon Belt’s stomach virus or Panda’s elbow, or Pagan running into a wall.

Sanchez slumping looks way worse than he is in this context.

Brandon Belt broke out of his slump with a key double in the top of the eighth with two out that gave the Giants the lead in Game Two. Unfortunately the wind carried a pop fly out of the park and Sergio Romo recorded his first missed save.

Starting Pitching

Poor Matt Cain. We had better start a Hall of Fame campaign for The Big Horse now because we have cheated this stable, big, powerful right-hander of run support for Wins for seven years and we did it again in this series – against a weaker opponent! Granted the weather was a factor, but Matt Cain remains winless in the early season.

Madison Bumgarner took his win, but was left in too long, resulting in the two-run homer that marred his otherwise great performance.

Tim Lincecum had his FreakOUT inning but then settled down and retired batters until the Giants could catch up. The formula worked to protect Tim: great defense, situational hitting and taking advantage of Cub mistakes.

Relief

Santiago Casilla glittered in relief Saturday night. The World Baseball Classic Champion pitched two scoreless innings to register his first save of 2013.

George Kontos handled business in Game Four, pitching a scoreless tenth to get the win and set up Sergio Romo, who picked up his seventh save in the bottom of the tenth.

Romo’s sole missed save was burdened with conditional problems – he was forced to go into Game Two suddenly on short warm-up because the Giants took the lead suddenly, with two outs in the 8th on a two-out double by Brandon Belt. Rushed in, Romo dealt and a pop fly turned into a wind-assisted homer.

I blame us:

Want this posted by 9am so I am ending here but wow! What a series with the Cubs in Chicago!

Karthik

Colorado Series Recap (3-0 Sweep) – Zito Dominates

11 Thursday Apr 2013

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The Rockies have been a punching bag for the Giants in recent years and Colorado’s been particularly good for Barry Zito. After yesterday’s game, Zeets’ option is now making national press like this from NBC’s Matthew Pouliot:

“Including last year’s postseason, the Giants are riding a streak of 16 straight victories with Barry Zito on the mound. The left-hander pitched seven scoreless innings and went 2-for-3 with two runs scored Wednesday in a 10-0 drubbing of the Rockies. Zito posted a 1.69 ERA in his three postseason starts last year, and he’s yet to allow a run in 14 innings in 2013.

“Perhaps no one but me is thinking of next year right now, but at the rate Zito is going, the Giants might actually pick up his $18 million option for 2014, a possibility that would have seemed preposterous at pretty much any point since the first year of his seven-year, $126 million contract.”

We’ve been discussing Zito’s option in local press for a week, including CA Sportswriter of the Year Tim Kawakami’s piece and this guy claims, “perhaps no one but me is thinking of next year right now” wow.

Batting

This from Noey Kupchan of AP sums it up nicely:

“After hitting .224 and scoring 15 runs during a 3-3 start, San Francisco (6-3) found its offense during a three-game sweep of Colorado. The Giants hit .365 and outscored the Rockies 23-8, including Wednesday’s 10-0 win. Buster Posey and Andres Torres both went 3 for 5 and drove in a combined five runs for San Francisco, which went 7 for 18 with runners in scoring position.”

7/18 with RISP still isn’t 50% of the time, but it’s a damn sight better than 0 for 7.

Game One homers by Pence and Panda and Game Three situational hitting resulted in big wins for the Giants, but Game Two was perhaps the best victory.

With Tim Lincecum on the mound, The Giants fells behind early and were down 6 – 2 before rallying to win it behind Brandon Crawford’s opposite field three-run homer followed by excellent situational hitting from Scutaro and Pence – who tied the game with a bunt to advance the runner and an RBI single, respectively. Andres Torres pinch-hit to get aboard and Angel Pagan drove in the winning run. It was great to see the Giants make the comeback and to win with good hitting.

The 10-0 blowout was all about Barry Zito – who has been sensational on the mound since August of last year. But he was also 2-3 at the plate. What if he keeps this up? Could the guy bat .200+? Continue getting shutouts, wins and hit? Let’s hope so because it has been a joy to watch and the feeling of redemption every time is epic.

Way to go Barry – everybody’s talking about how you have more hits than Heyward and they haven’t even noticed the scoreless inning streak!

Relief

Santiago Casilla had a very rough outing  in the Opening Series in Los Angeles, after being a key member of the bullpen for the World Baseball Classic Championship Team from the Dominican Republic. He had a wild pitch that scored a run in LA and looked generally uncomfortable.

Not so Tuesday as Casilla pitched a scoreless 8th inning to set up Sergio Romo, who struck out two in the 9th inning to pick up his fifth save.

Romo is looking sharp and staying ahead of batters. His play prompted Jon Miller to declare the other day, “There’s a little bit of Eckersley in him.”

Javier Lopez and Chad Gaudin had 3-up, 3-down innings in relief of Zito, with each recording a strikeout.

GBC Recap – The Opening Series v. LA (2-1)

04 Thursday Apr 2013

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It took a perfect outing from one of the best lefties in baseball – including the first home run he ever hit in his life  – to mar what was otherwise an excellent opening series for the San Francisco Giants.

The Giants looked crisp off the mound and decent at the plate, hitting in rotation situationally and even manufacturing runs. The biggest issue at the plate is we are once again on pace to lead the league in hitting into double plays! But it’s early and that stuff will hopefully start to winnow out. Pitching – particularly Cain, Bumgarner and Romo – was stellar.

The Giants won the series 2-1 over their NL West division rivals the Los Angeles Dodgers to take an early season lead in what will likely be a fight for first place in the division with Arizona. The Diamondbacks made a statement in last night’s game – a scrappy, hard-fought, come-from-behind, 16-inning win over the St. Louis Cardinals to start their season 2-1 as well.

Pitching

Starting pitchers did not allow a single earned run.

Cain was, typically, Big Horse consistent and stable. Bumgarner was intensely precise and Lincecum used balls and walks liberally, but stayed on top of his game.

Madison Bumgarner’s performance was platinum. He had tight, controlled movement and dominated the Dodger lineup. It was great to see from the young, powerful Big Country Mad Bum.

Relief

Bruce Bochy showed smart sensitivity pulling Cain in the first game. Cain and Lincecum are the eldest on our very young staff, and both got pulled before the 7th. This is how to develop middle and late relief and to protect starters’ arms over the long season.

Over the course of the last two years Bochy has slowly shown an increasing willingness to use the bullpen rather than risk fatigue – either of arms in the long term or of minds on the mound in the short term – with our starting pitching. This has culminated in the masterful use of a committee of late relief and closers last year down the stretch.

It’s important because our most significant problem (as pointed out most clearly by Bay City Ball) is depth at Starting Pitching. If one of our big 5 goes down, we’d have to adapt fast.

That said, poor George Kontos …

Image

shake it off homes. freak swing by the opposing pitcher.

Before that Kontos had an excellent 7th inning and looked ready to work the middle and pass the ball over to one of our capable lefties before Romo. It was a shame it shook out like that. We believe in you George, it was a solid outing before the guy decided he wanted to make history in LA.

In a way George, we needed you to take that hit because a LOT of us really don’t want Matt Cain getting any more losses in tight games than he has to. The poor guy has suffered his entire career with win-loss records beleaguered by our inability to produce runs. You took those runs that night so Matty wouldn’t get them and the loss and we appreciate it.

Casilla’s wild pitch, Lincecum’s, others’ can be chalked up to the season being very young and we should be honest and expect more sloppy working it out in the first month or so.

In Casilla’s case especially, the guy is coming off winning the World Baseball Championship – The Dominicans ran the table! and he was overwrought and excellent in relief. (Haft has details on Casilla’s effort).

The guy has played more ball under pressure than most this year – Casilla gets a one month pass.

(DR vs. Japan would’ve been interesting)

TWEET

Casilla’sWP:coming off winning the WBC,beating PR to do it,more ball under pressure than most this year – Casilla gets a one month pass.

Sergio Romo was SOLID GOLD. and he tweeted throughout including one which read that his “goal” was 50 saves! That was exciting to read.

I hope you make it my man … That’s What’s Up!

Batting

Shutdown performance by Kershaw was followed by a solid job of hitting by the Giants in game 2, specifically by Joaquin Arias, but as YahooSports pointed out “The Giants scored their first run on three consecutive one-out hits, including Arias’ RBI single.”

Situational hitting and manufacturing runs was the story of the offense and this continued to game three when Crawford and Pagan joined in on the action. But the team added homers by Pablo and Pence! Thrilling stuff to see the offense coming together – power, contact, base-running (I’m excluding el caballero loco on that last one). Pagan leading off, Scutaro, Pablo and Posey behind him is going to work well.

The problem remains that too often the Giants destroyed opportunities by hitting into double plays. It is the beginning of the season and on any other team I wouldn’t bat an eye, but we have a historic problem that reaches back several years in this regard. Maybe bunt practice in order to take advantage of squeeze chances would help in other situations as well. If we aren’t going get a lot of hits, or score a lot of runs we have to at least keep runners on the paths and continue to manufacture runs as we have been doing the last year and change.

Defense

Infield

With Brandon Belt falling sick, Bochy had a chance to do more moving of the chess pieces. Arias on first and Sanchez behind the plate yielded and didn’t, had succeses and problems, but more I was happy to see this kind of constant moving about of players. I am of the mind we need a flexible team offensive scheme.

(Hec or Bus)ter at plate

Belt, Posey, Arias or Panda at first

Arias, Panda or Scutaro at third

Blanco or Torres in LF.

It’s flex-offense. I love Bochy for this team approach and have no problem with half a season going by with pieces moving in concert or individually to suit opponent, weather, interleague and etc. I have come around on this. Used to chew my nails to shreds over Bochy’s calls, now I see a logic in it. We can recreate units to suit. Cool.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Brandon Crawford also known as @bcraw35 continues to rock short. Golden Glove campaign [BCrawGG13] required.

Outfield

Hunter Pence still looks like a crazy-eyed wild man going after balls. I trust him … and yet … it makes me nuts to see Pence and Pagan still doing the chipmunk act from the old Looney Tunes cartoons .. “After you.” “No, After You. “No I insist.” (ball drops to the field). I know Pence has only been out there a few months for us, but he and Pagan have to work that out because problems we saw last year continue. Pagan manhandled CF again. LF hardly saw any action at all so the platoon was untested.

All told an excellent series for the Giants and a great way to launch Giants Baseball Corner. I will be posting Series Wrap-ups like this whether I post full series game for game or not. Feel free to comment, feedback etc. best is on TWITTER, in my opinion.

Sorry to everybody but particularly to Julian for over tweeting while getting GBC set up.

All are welcome here where we are focused on the relentless flow of the positive river.

Karthik