"That's More Runs Than We Scored All Last Year"

So chortled old Casey Stengel after his New York Mets had pounded the Chicago Cubs, 19-1, one fine afternoon back in 1964. Some Giants fans may be forgiven for drawing any sort of parallel between that game and last night's 15-3 rout of the Detroit Tigers at Comerica Park in the Motor City. Clobbering the ball in most un-Giants-like fashion before and after a lengthy rain delay, the "Hitless Wonders" of 2011 rolled up their highest run total since last August 24, though it seems longer.

However, even the most cursory examination shows little in common between the two ballclubs.  First,we doubt any Giants fan felt compelled, upon hearing his team had scored 15 runs, to check the team website or Sports Center to see if the team had actually won the game as well. Second, the Tigers are a first-place ballclub; the '64 Cubs battled the Mets all year for the National League cellar. And finally, of course, the Giants themselves are in first place in the NL West, leading the Arizona Diamondbacks by three games as the All-Star break looms a week from today.

Now, how many Giants fans would have predicted their team would be in first place at this time, given the following situations?

• Tim Lincecum is 6-6, 14th in the league in ERA, and not leading in strikeouts;     
• Madison Bumgarner has lost more games already than all but one pitcher in the NL;
• The Giants' most consistent starter all year barely made the team in spring training;
• Buster Posey is out for the season and has been since before Memorial Day;
• Freddy Sanchez hasn't played a game since mid-June and may not return this year;
• Only one Giants regular has an OPS over .800;
• Aubrey Huff is slugging .380;
• The team's fifth starting pitcher has a higher batting average than four starting position players;
• The Giants are 15th in the league in runs scored, 13th in walks and OBP, and 14th in slugging;
• They're only fifth in the league in ERA while issuing the third-most walks. 

Bill James posited years ago that the true cost of losing a superstar player is, at most, five or six ganes over the course of a season. Most teams, it turns out, recover reasonably well from such a loss and end up doing almost as well as they would have with the star player in the lineup all along.

The key word here is "almost."  Certainly the Giants have shown they can play winning baseball and contend for the pennant despite losing Posey, and, to a lesser extent, Sanchez. They were 27-21 when Buster went down, and are 21-15 since, which seems to reinforce James' observation. But as we all know, the Giants can play "almost" as well as they did  year ago-- and come up short of the postseason. They won the 2010 pennant by one game. The cost of losing a superstar, while unlikely to lead to collapse, certainly can make the difference in late September between going on and going home.

This morning we remember 1965, when Juan Marichal's bat attack on John Roseboro resulted in a eight-game suspension and a then-hefty $10,000 fine, which was probably about a fifth of his salary. (Memorable quote from Dodgers outfielder and later Giants brodacaster Ron Fairly, who witnessed the attack: "He should've been suspended for 10,000 games and fined $8.")  The point today is, that untimely suspension, in the heat of a pennant race, prevented Marichal from starting two and possibly three games. The 1965 Giants finished two games out of first place.     

Willie's Timing?

Not that we're a superstitious lot, mind you, but didja notice that since Willie Mays' 80th birthday, which the Giants celebrated by beginning a three-game sweep of the Colorado Rockies, the club is 11-3 overall and 8-0 at home? They've taken over first place in the division, and they have a chance now to sweep the crosstown rival Oakland A's with a win tomorrow.

Such are the pleasing thoughts engendered by Tim Lincecum's latest masterpiece, a complete-game three-hit shutout win this afternoon.  He struck out six without walking anybody, which is a testament to pitching right at your opponent's strength. Billy Beane's A's are famous for plate discipline, deep counts, and walks, with the inevitable strikeouts accumulating on the side. Lincecum was having none of that. He worked hard-- 133 pitches-- but he pitched his game, not theirs. Needless to say, last week's debacle in Denver didn't mean a thing. We've said it before and we'll say it again-- this, folks, is the guy you want on the hill when you have one game you must win. 

Could Be Worse-- Could Be Raining

Well, it is raining and has been raining and will be raining for a spell yet here in beautiful lush green Virginia, which is taking on a decidedly Seattle-ish look these days. And it was raining the other night in Chicago, enough to postpone the Giants-Cubs game and push Tim Lincecum's scheduled start back one day, to last night in Colorado, and we can all see how well that worked out, can't we?    

Needless to say, the Temptations' "I Wish It Would Rain" has been shoved to the back of the ol' playlist, while "Sunny Afternoon" by the Kinks is quickly moving up the charts here at Sodden-Death Acres.

Lincecum allowed fifteen baserunners last night while recording seventeen outs, and of the six ghastly walks he issued, only one was intentional. He struck out only three, which is not surprising when you see that his ball-strike ratio was 51-67.  You know how some football coaches will just burn the game film after a particularly ugly and out-of-character loss? Time for Bruce Bochy to fire up the old barbecue pit.

Heaven only knows how many runs the Rockies might have scored if they'd been able to run the bases with some degree of success! They had three runners caught stealing, another picked off base, and a fifth thrown out at the plate trying to score (thankyaverymuch, Andres Torres).  As for our beloved Giants, they grounded into four double plays and were 50-50 on steal attempts, so we can hardly afford any more snide comments.

Bright moments: four total bases, a homer, and the aforementioned assist from the .340-hitting Torres (and a belated welcome back to ya, buddy); Nate Schierholz continuing to hit (two-run shot, two walks, two-eighty-six on the season and batting fifth in another of "Boch's" creative lineups); two hits including a double from Miguel Tejada, who has finally hoisted himself north of the Mendoza Line; the Giants still holding a sliver of a half-game lead over these Rockies even after the loss. And Jonathan Sanchez sallying forth to do battle with Ubaldo Jimenez tonight. Eternally optimistic, we remain.

Happy 80th birthday, Willie Mays!

August 16, 1965, Candlestick Park, bottom of the fourth. Against Mets righthander Tom Parsons, Willie hits a line drive to right center that just clears the fence. It's one of 17 homers he hit that month, 52 for that MVP season, and 660 for his matchless career, and we were there, nine years old. What's YOUR best Willie Mays memory?

Another time... same place...  Candlestick, 1970, against the Cincinnati Reds. Bobby Tolan hit what should have been a home run to right center, and 39-year-old Willie, running full speed, leaped OVER Bobby Bonds, caught the ball as it was going over the fence, then tumbled to the ground and was completely still for 5 minutes before getting up and calmly jogging away. We saw it live on TV and couldn't believe what we'd seen. If anyone has a video of this unbelievable catch, please upload it to YouTube! We can't find it anywhere, and every baseball fan should see it.

Says Buster Posey, "Happy 80th birthday to Willie Mays, one of the greatest baseball players of all time and a true ambassador of game. Thank you for helping me understand the honor and privilege it is to play for the Giants."

Class act, that Buster.  Happy birthday, Willie, the Greatest of 'Em All!

Well, it's about time. Last night's stirring double-comeback win over the LA Dodgers was the first game in this young season that really captured the feeling and the spirit of last year's post-season run.  The way the Giants fought off adversity (not to mention a 3-0 deficit) and battled their way back to a necessary win was especially reminiscent of that great Philadelphia series. Once again, we had two ace starters-- Tim Lincecum and Chad Billingsley-- who opened the game strong, but were gone by the sixth. We had balls-out defensive plays, like Pablo Sandoval's heads-up throw home on a risky broken-bat grounder, in time to nail James Loney, or Tim Lincecum pouncing on a nasty little ricochet by Andre Ethier and throwing a bullet of a strike to get the runner at first. We had Aaron Rowand, scoring the tie-breaking run in the fifth and the game-winner in the seventh as he legged out a triple and then scored standing up on a wild pitch. And of course, it had to be Brian Wilson regaining his form, after two lousy post-DL appearances, with a brief, 14-pitch ninth inning save that was over so quick we didn't even have time to worry. As Lincecum said on his Facebook page this afternoon, it was a true "team win", and one the Giants badly needed against this team that has handled them too well thus far. Everybody take a bow! 

Notes
Concerns about the Giants' outfield defense continue apace. Pat Burrell has had "issues", shall we say, in left field, but the switch to right field has really been a major problem for Aubrey Huff, especially considering the vast swath requiring coverage at the 'Bell. Now there's talk of moving Brandon Belt out there and returning Huff to first base, which likely means that when Cody Ross comes off the DL, Belt (.158) will be Fresno-bound. The youngster helped his cause with a single and a run scored last night, but also made the team's only charged error...   Lincecum was taken out after he hit Juan Uribe with a pitch just moments after his sparkling defensive play on Ethier. Timmy has faced his jocular former teammate twice this year and hit him in both games.... Jeremy Affeldt "vultured" his first win of the season, being the pitcher of record when Rowand scored in the seventh. His line: 17 pitches, 10 strikes, a walk (intentional), two hits, and a homer. However, he had the good sense to give up the homer before allowing the other baserunners, and thus benefited from the yeoman efforts of Rowand, Sergio Romo,and Wilson.

Well, nobody ever claimed defending a world championship was gonna be easy.

Clayton Kershaw trimmed Tim Lincecum's sails last night and the LA Dodgers won their home opener against the Giants, 2-1. To put the best possible face on it, let's hope this is the start of a season-long dogfight between Our Boys and the Hated Foe. A Giants-Dodgers pennant race is good for baseball. Did anyone else hear the LA fans chanting "Gi-ants suck!" in the ninth inning last night (to the tune of "Beat L-A!") ? And here we thought they didn't care!

Kershaw was outstanding. Most good pitchers have a low-and-away strikeout pitch they work toward in the course of an at-bat, and certainly Kershaw delivered his share of those. But last night he also was busting 'em inside for strikes, and when that happens this guy is going to be tough to beat. Lincecum, for his part, pitched reasonably well and looked stronger over the final two than the first five, though his ball-strike count was 58-45, well below his standard. Take heart, folks; when wild, he was wild high, and he looked plenty strong.

No one who saw the Giants over the course of last season could be too surprised at their inability to hit Kershaw; "recurring lack of offense" was a theme-with-variations throughout the championship campaign. But three-error games (and those were three ugly errors, sports fans) definitely were not, and absent those gaffes it's not unreasonable to suppose that Pat Burrell's homer in the top of the ninth might have broken a scoreless tie and given the game to the visitors. Buster Posey's ill-advised throw to third in the sixth inning, following Burrell's misplay of Matt Kemp's single, resulted in Lincecum's only (unearned) run allowed, and the Giants' studliest player earlier suffered what seemed to be a simple lack of concentration when he let a fastball carom off his glove for a passed ball that, fortunately, did not lead to a score.

Bright moments: the suddenly lithe and agile Pablo Sandoval spearing a wicked line drive off the bat of former Giant Juan Uribe and nearly doubling James Loney off third; Freddy Sanchez hustling past Andres Torres in center on Uribe's single, then turning and throwing out Uribe as he slid past second trying to stretch it-- the defensive play of the game; and rookie Brandon Belt beating out a grounder for his first major-league hit and later drawing the only walk issued by Kershaw.

Tonight Jonathan Sanchez goes out to even things up, with Matt Cain tomorrow and a shaken-but-not stirred Barry Zito scheduled for Sunday evening's nationally-televised series finale, pending results of an MRI following his traffic incident Wednesday night with "one of those crazy LA drivers."

And while we're generally loathe to praise anything that smacks of Dodgerdom, we heartily congratulate skipper Don Mattingly on his new job. For a few short years in the mid-1980s he was the best player in baseball, and Giants fans would do well to compare and contrast his career with that of Will Clark, who came along a few years later. Both were sweet-swinging left-handed first basemen, and both saw their greatness peak too early. Absent the injuries that ultimately shortened their careers, both Mattingly and Will would be in Cooperstown today. And while we can't exactly wish him a whole lot of success in his new endeavor, we do hope that Mattingly does well enough in LA to build and sustain a long and rewarding career as a major-league manager.

The San Francisco Giants Open the 2011 Season!

Tim Lincecum, R            How will he ever top Game Five of the World Series?

Matt Cain, R                  Predict 2011 will be Matt's finest campaign to date

Jonathan Sanchez, L       Expect this'll be the year he makes it or breaks it

Barry Zito, L                  Staggers into clubhouse after yesterday's car wreck

Madison Bumgarner, L  The poker-faced youngster faces first full season

Sergio Romo, R             May take over closer role with "Blackbeard" on shelf

Ramon Ramirez, R         Throws as hard as anybody on the ballclub

Javier Lopez, L              Was one of many October heroes on this squad

Jeremy Affeldt, L           Giants have two of the best lefty relievers in game

Guillermo Mota, R         Some of these guys aren't gonna get enough work

Santiago Casilla, R         Considerably younger and shorter than Mota

Dan Runzler, L               Right now he's Mr Irrelevant, the 12th pitcher

Brian Wilson, R (DL)     Everyone's telling us not to worry about his injury

Buster Posey, c             By season's end, you can bet it'll be "his" team

Aubrey Huff, of-1b       Moves to the outfield with customary good humor

Freddy Sanchez, 2b      Let's hope he can make it through the year uninjured

Andres Torres, of         Former fifth outfielder comes off a true dream season

Pat Burrell, lf                Earns starting spot due in large part to Ross' injury

Miguel Tejada, ss         Takes over Uribe's role and has something to prove

Pablo Sandoval, 3b      "Panda" reports to camp about 40 pounds lighter

Brandon Belt, 1b          The exciting young rookie wins the starting job

Mark DeRosa, if-of      Not sure where he'll play, but expect he'll get his ABs

Aaron Rowand, cf        Expect Bochy'll keep the outfield in steady rotation

Nate Schierholz, of       With Rowand and Torres, makes up "All-D" outfield

Mike Fontenot, if          Every team needs a backup middle infielder

Eli Whiteside, c            Giants' version of the old "Maytag Repairman"

Cody Ross, of (DL)     Pray they'll send a pitcher down when he returns