Sunday, May 23, 2010

No contest in the Coliseum III: nothin' but zeroes

Jonathan Sanchez gave up runs--what was he thinking? Hasn't he learned? He has to throw complete game shutouts to give us a chance to win. The bullpen imploded in the 8th inning today, which meant we wouldn't lose 1-0, so we can take some comfort in that. I don't think our offense is really this bad, but the problem is they aren't very much better, even at their best. But I'm tired of writing about our hitting woes, it is such an old and bitter topic, and there doesn't seem to be much the Giants can do about it at this point. Sure, Buster Posey will get the call eventually, and I genuinely believe his bat will help, but it's not like we are adding an offensive force on the scale of, say, Prince Fielder or Adrian Gonzalez. And even if we added Fielder or Gonzalez to the mix, it wouldn't make us the Phillies, although it would certainly make us better.

The best that we can say about the San Francisco Giants is that they won't be playing tomorrow. Perhaps going back to AT&T Park will improve things this week. The Nationals bring their 23-22 record and above-average offense (.334 wOBA, T6th; .759 OPS, 6th), that has so far failed to score an above-average number of runs (190 total, T11th; 4.32 per game,  T11th). They also bring a weak pitching staff, their 4.78 team FIP is tied with the Pirates for next-to-last, and their runs allowed (211, 4th most) and runs allowed per game (4.80, 5th most) are ugly. Speaking of ugly, Livan Hernandez returns to torment us with his guile and grit and Rueter-esque luck, matching up with Todd Wellemeyer. Perhaps throwing our worst pitcher at them is the best way to break the losing streak. C'mon Giants, you're making me ill. Score some runs.

--M.C.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

M.C. I'm sad.

Brother Bob said...

My boy J Sanchez did a fine job today. Fewer Ks than usual. I'd say he's a bona fide reliable stud.
No love yet for F Sanchez. All the "little things" mean nothing unless he gets hits, and lots of them, and in clutch situations.

Anonymous said...

He did pitch good. The walks don't bother me because he doesn't give up many hits (less than Timmeh methinks). He's really starting to put everything together. I love watching him pitch, every start is special. I don't love watching us hit though (especially with runners in scoring position). It's sad, when I see our guys bat, it's like they're so aggressive just to get a piece but they have no power or commitment to their swings so they end up grounding out, popping out, striking out, not walking, etc. I don't even care that they're all free swingers, I just can't stand that they don't go all the way. If you're gonna overswing, at least aim for a big cut, not just a desperate hack.