San Francisco Giants Week #2 in Review

*Note*: Showtime's TV series on the Giants, The Franchise, aired its preview last night. While I was initially skeptical, I can't say I didn't enjoy the last 30 minutes. I sure do love this team: http://sanfrancisco.giants.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=13761045&c_id=sf

It's been a roller coaster week for the San Francisco Giants.

Their 5-3 record over the past 8 games has seen the Giants reach the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. On the field, they've seen consecutive walk-off wins and consecutive blowout losses. Off the field, they raised their championship banner, received their World Series rings, presented Buster Posey with his Rookie of the Year award, issued a plea for fan civility and held a pre-game presentation to commemorate the end of their pre-game presentations.

It's been a strange week. A hectic week. An emotional week. And the results reflect that.

All things considered, though, the Giants must see the last week as a success overall. They split two games with the Padres, took two of three from the Cardinals and two of three from the Dodgers. They're 5-3 since their embarrassing debut in Los Angeles, and while there are clearly not yet in a groove, they have to believe they're getting closer.


Series Breakdowns:

@ San Diego Padres:
The Giants opened up their brief two game series with the Padres with yet another frustrating loss. After scoring in the first inning, the Giants were unable to put another run on the board, including squandering a first and third, no outs situation in the top of the 3rd. Bumgarner threw 73 pitches in his 3 innings and the Giants went 1-8 with runners in scoring position. Bumgarner seemed almost "Sanchez-esque" losing his composure after Hudson failed to give him a called strike that would have ended the inning.

The Giants' second bout with San Diego was much more to their liking. Beyond a freakish start from Tim Lincecum, the Giants scored early and often and cruised to an 8-4 win. Lincecum was filthy that night, striking out 6 of the first 7 batters he faced on his way to 13 total. The Giants went 6 for 16 with runner in scoring position on their way to 8 runs in the first 6 innings. About the only thing that tainted this victory was Brian Wilson's shaky outing. He allowed 3 ER runs, recorded only 2 outs and had to be removed from the game.

vs. St. Louis Cardinals:
In many ways, the Giants' home opener on a gorgeous Friday afternoon felt like the true beginning of the season. After a raucous pregame ceremony, a 12 inning hair-puller ensued. After a signature Jonathan Sanchez start (5 IP, 4 H, 2 BB, 1 ER), the Giants turned to the bearded one to close out a 3-2 lead. Wilson retired the first two batters only to to give up a walk, a hit and hit batsman. After Ryan Theriot's go ahead base hit, I slammed my transistor headphones to the ground and promptly assured Eric that Torres, Sanchez and Rowand would strikeout, groundout and strikeout -- in that order. But as fate would have it, the Giants do what the Giants do (sometimes). They proved me wrong and came back. Aaron Rowand began his week of heroics with a walk-off hit in the 12th.

digital.davisenterprise.com

If Friday's win was remarkable, Saturday's was truly unbelievable. After allowing the tying run to score on a wild pitch, you could see the frustration in Matt Cain's eyes. Down 2-1 in the bottom of the ninth, the Giants got a two-out base hit from Buster Posey and a huge walk from the generally strikeout prone Pat Burrell. With Tejada at the plate, I had about 16% confidence he'd get the job done. Particularly with two strikes, I saw Miguel swinging through high heat and sending Giants fans home with their heads down (mainly because their necks were frozen stiff). Instead, Tejada put together one of the best at-bats of the season and launched a deep fly ball to center. It's pretty rare in baseball that a single play decides whether you win the game or lose the game. More often, a play at the end of a game is the difference between winning and going to extra innings, or going to extra innings and losing. But situations in which the play is made you win and the play isn't made you lose are pretty rare. This was one of those situations. The Giants went from surely losing, to winning in a single, unexpected instant. The look of complete surprise on fans' face as they jumped around in AT&T Park was fantastic, and also revealed a collective lack of faith in Tejada...

Sunday's series finale was a classic Sunday afternoon letdown. After two emotional wins, the Giants came out on Sunday like a flat balloon. Giving Posey, Burrell and Tejada the day off, the Giants scored just one run behind Barry Zito's five-walk performance en route to a 6-1 loss. But hey, I got my first AT&T sunburn of the season.


vs. Los Angeles Dodgers:
A week after going 1-4 in Los Angeles, the Giants welcomed the arch rival Dodgers to AT&T for a chance at retribution. If revenge was what the Giants wanted they did not find it on Monday night's 6-1 loss. Clayton Kershaw did was he most always does and shut the Giants down completely. He went from 95 on his fastball to 72 on his curveball and had the Giants looking silly. On the other side, Madison Bumgarner looked shaky in his second consecutive start, causing some to speculate whether or not last year's innings jump will indeed cost Bumgarner this season. All you need to see was Bumgarner blowing up the dugout after being pulled to know he's not in his groove yet. But Giants fans must remember his age. He pulled it all together for Game 4 of the World Series, but he can't be expected to perform like that every night. At least not until he's 23.

Tuesday night's game was likely the best win of the week for the Giants. For one, the Giants won a game started by Chad Billingsly, who always seems to pitch like Cy Young against the G-men. The Giants were more disciplined and determined at the plate, climbing out of a 3-0 hole to take a 4-3 lead. Brian Wilson finally lowered his ERA to under 40.00. Tim Lincecum bulldogged his way through 5.1 innings and the game was ultimately decided on the heroics of the oft-maligned Aaron Rowand.

Wednesday night I had the pleasure of seeing the game in person. Much like Tuesday night, it was yet another classic Giants-Dodgers battle -- close throughout and decided by one big play. While I ended up staring at the bottom of a urinal during Pablo Sandoval's game-tying home-run (thanks, bladder), I was able to see the rest of the Giants 4-3 series clinching victory. Sanchez pitched a determined 6 innings, giving up two of his three runs on one bad pitch to Rod Barajas. While Pat Burrell's lack of speed in left led to the game tying double in the 6th, Sandoval and Mike Fontenot picked up their teammate with solo-homers in the bottom of the frame to regain the lead. Bochy burned through relievers faster than Pat the Bat and a pack of Virginia Slims, but it all paid off as Wilson nailed down his second 1-2-3 save in as many nights. I also found out Tim Lincecum like Hall and Oates. Now if we weren't soul mates already...

The Good:
The Giants-Dodgers Rivalry: You can make an argument for the Yankees-Red Sox and their classic postseason series of the past 10 years, but the Giants-Dodgers is the best rivalry in baseball. For one, it's the oldest. The two teams first met in 1883 -- a full 18 years before the Yankees and Red Sox met for the first time. 1883! Chester Arthur (who?!) was President of the United States. Karl Marx was still alive! But beyond age, the Giants-Dodgers have had the most hard-fought rivalry in baseball. Regardless of the teams' current records, the Giants and Dodgers seem to always be evenly matched and play each other incredibly hard. They are constantly a thorn in each others' side.

Get this -- the Giants and Dodgers have played each other 2,175 times over the past 128 years. The overall record? 1089-1074-12 in favor the Giants. Think about that for a second. These teams have played over 2,000 times, and their head-to-head record is separated by only 15 games. That's incredible.

To compare, the Yankees hold a 185 game edge over the Red Sox.

Credit: Baseball Hall of Fame

Aaron Rowand: Much like last year, Rowand has been given playing time to start the season and is running with it. It's easy to forget that before he was hit in the face with a Vincente Padilla fast ball in May of 2010, Rowand was having a great start to the year. His injury gave Andres Torres a window and the rest is history. But Aaron Rowand's performance in the last week has been huge not only for the Giants W-L record, it's also significantly increased the Giants chances of trading him before July 31. If Rowand can continue to show this kind of value, the likelihood that another team will take him (and some of his $24 million salary) will increase dramatically. Getting something in exchange for Rowand, even if just some extra money to go after a free agent in the next few years could be huge for the Giants and their already crowded outfield.

The Bad:
Aubrey Huff: You don't have to be a rocket scientist to know that Huff is in a bad place. His discomfort in the outfield is clearly affecting his plate appearances and it's quickly morphing from a "he's just in a little slump" situation to Huff slamming his helmet after another strikeout with runners in scoring position. He's 3 for his last 19 and hasn't had an extra base hit in his last five games. Then there's the field. Even on the routine plays that he makes easily, he still has this terrified look in his eye. His body shakes back and forth. I can just hear him saying to himself as the ball is in the air, "Crap, crap, crap, crap, crap, crap, CRAP!"

Rumor has it he'll be back at First Base soon with Belt moving to the outfield (on his way back to Fresno). And that's the right decision. You paid him $22 to be your first baseman, not a utility outfielder. You have to think getting the water buffalo back to the water will help soothe his nerves. Once he can get some consistency back at First Base, I think he'll look at lot more comfortable at the plate.

The Emotional:
This may have been tainted slightly after Timmy plunked him on the arm for the second time in 9 days and the wicked stare-down that ensued, but seeing Uribe receive his World Series ring on the field before Monday's game was really something.

It wasn't just that the entire Giants team come out on the field and engulfed Uribe in a blanket of Black and Orange. It was the smiles on the Giants' players faces. They were legitimately excited to see him and give him a hug.

It's time like that that I get nostalgic. As I've said before, I don't blame Uribe one iota for going to LA. But seeing him jog out of that Dodger dugout and tear up while embracing his former teammates reminds you that the past can never be recreated. 2010 is over. Fans can still cling to the overused "Torture" motto. The Giants can give away as many World Series tote bags as they want. But when you see arguably the most important hitter of the posteason on another team, you realize -- things will never be quite the same as they were in that magical summer of 2010. And that's not a bad thing. If anything it just proves how truly special that season was. And the smiles on the players faces after piling on a teary-eyed Uribe shows you just how special it was for them too.

Credit: latimes.com

Song of the Week:
Play this song over the video of Uribe getting his ring, and then softly cry yourself to sleep:
http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=13703849

Play of the Week:
After a comebacker bounced of his hand, Tim Linececum scrambles and makes an incredible play from his knees to throw out Andre Etheir at first. It gave the Giants huge first out in the 6th inning, and based on the next three batters, saved a run. It also gave Mike Krukow a chance to refer to Linecum as a cat for the 25th time: http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=13732763

Play of the Weak:
After this Barnum and Bailey base hit to left, it was pretty obvious what kind of day the Giants were going to have in a 6-1 loss to the Cardinals: http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=13663267

On Deck:

After an off-day on Thursday, the Giants take their first roadtrip outside the great state of California for consecutive three game series against the Arizona Diamondbacks and Colorado Rockies. For a team struggling to stay around .500, any series is big, but these NL West matchups are particularly important as division opponents begin to size up their respective competition. As this will be the Giants' first look at both the D-back and Rockies, it will be interesting to see how the Giants hitters handle the Diamonbacks young pitcher and how the Giants pitching handles the Rockies lineup in the cozy confines of Coors Field. Through ten games, the Rockies are pacing the NL West at 8-2. While three of those wins came against the Pirates, they've done it without ace Ubaldo Jimenez. Coors Field has often been a house of horrors for the Black and Orange and it's large outfield could pose problems for the Giants' ever changing outfield. The Diamondbacks are not to be overlooked either. They took 2 of 3 from both the Reds and Cardinals and have scored 5 or more runs in 9 of their first 11 games. Taking 2 of 3 from each would be nice, but a 3-3 trip is a must lest the Giants want to return home under .500 yet again.