And for the first time all weekend, the Giants delivered.
For the second consecutive year the San Francisco Giants were swept in Oakland by their cross-bay rivals. After being swept themselves in San Francisco, the Athletics evened the annual Bay Bridge Series to three games per side.
In a word -- embarrassing. Since the Giants swept the A's in late May, the Giants had lost only 2 of their last 8 series despite losing both Buster Posey and Freddy Sanchez to injury. The A's had only won 2 of their last 8 series, going 8-18 between their two meetings with the Giants.
First, let me disguise myself as a gracious loser. The A's outplayed the Giants in all three games, and thus, deserved the series sweep.
Now, to the whining. With the exception of the outcomes, this East Bay installment of the Bay Bridge series nearly mirrored that of last month's meeting. An inch (read: chair) here or there, and the Giants could have easily won two of the three games.
In May, the Giants' three victories were decided by at total of 5 runs. This month, the A's three wins were by a total of 6 runs.
Unfortunately, close losses are still losses and chairs are still in play. The Giants' offense leaves Oakland with as much confidence as Steve Urkel in the Syracuse Lacrosse team's locker room.
This has to feel good for the A's and their few loyal fans. They've had the 2010 World Series shoved up their nostril for the past 7 months. More than that, they've had AT&T Park shoved up the other nostril for the past 11 years. They have been Cinderella scrubbing the basement in rags while the Giants run off to the ball with attractive and rich, White men. Finally, if only for one weekend, they got their turn on the dance floor. And they danced like there was no tomorrow. Like this pumpkin man:
There are certain times in baseball, and life in general I suppose, when you're able to truly relate to your opposition. This weekend was one of those times. Eric and I talk about baseball with each other every day. I see him agonize over the A's. He cares. And when everyone else is jumping on the Giants bandwagon, he sticks by the team in a dilapidated stadium and franchise in jeopardy. I see him search for daily comfort from his team only to be rewarded with late-inning collapses and sparsely attended home games. He is a true A's fan. And it's only after you've walked through the fire that you can truly enjoy the good times. It is loyalty repaid -- finally. And any long-suffering Giants fan who really got 2010 should be able to appreciate that.
As an emotional Kevin Malone once said after winning back his parking space, "After Stacy left, things did not go well for a while. And, it was hard to see...[pause]... It's just nice to win one."
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Now for Giants baseball:
Friday's game was the only contest I had the privilege of seeing in person. I went with Eric, and while we were tempted to do some live-blogging, we chose to photo-bomb Comcast Sports Net instead:
Friday's fiasco summed up the weekend pretty nicely. Tim Lincecum v. Grahm Godfrey. You have to win that game. Have to. No excuses. Losing that match up was so unthinkable, so embarrassing, I really think it keyed both the Giants and A's to lose and win the next two games.
Tim Lincecum's performance was obviously the most anticipated aspect of Friday's game. I'm pretty sure most Giants fans would have accepted a 1-0 loss if it meant Timmy looked like Timmy again. While his performance on Friday was clearly not up to Lincecum's elite standards, it was a solid start and certainly an improvement over his last. What's more important is he seemed to get better as the game went along. He certainly walked too many, but he also struck out seven and allowed only 2 hits in his last three innings. In sum, he got his feet back under him.
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The offense is horrendous.
Case in point -- first inning Friday night. Andres Torres leads off the game with a double. Bill Hall comes to bat with one job and one job only: move the runner over. From there, you have a great chance of scoring, drawing first blood and giving an anxious Tim Lincecum some early support. Hall failed the get the job done and the Giants lost by one run. If this team is going to win, they have to do the little things.
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The fact that Giants have managed to play above .500 ball since losing Posey and Sanchez is remarkable. But the affects of those injuries may just now be catching up with the Giants.
Losing Posey and Sanchez is like being forced to breath through a straw after having been breathing normally your whole life. You're not going to suffocate immediately. You'll be fine for a few minutes. It's only after time that you'll start to get light headed, and eventually pass out.
The void left by Posey and Sanchez is only going to grow larger over time.
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The Giants need a catcher.
You can't have a minor-league catcher catching an All-Star staff. Despite making two nice throws to catch runners on Friday night, Christ Stewart also air-mailed a throw to third into left field, allowing a run to score and more importantly frustrate an already testy Tim Lincecum.
The problem is, they don't have a lot of options. The Giants don't want to waste their legitimate trade chips on another team's backup catcher, particularly when Posey will be back in 2012. However, I don't see how they're going to make the playoffs with Stewart or Whiteside adding another automatic out to the end of the batting order. As a matter of fact, between Crawford (.197), Stew-side (.174, .190) and the pitcher, the Giants are essentially batting with a six-man lineup right now.
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| Yorvit? |
On Deck:
The Giants need to win a game now. A four game losing streak can quickly become a seven game losing streak. Which can quickly become a ten-game losing streak. And ten-game losing streaks end seasons. Just ask the Oakland A's.
In 2010, the Giants lost a season-high seven games in a row from June 26 to July 2. Obviously, you can recover from a lengthy losing streak. But from July 3 on the Giants were other-worldly. They went 51-30 over their last 81 games. And still barely made the playoffs. My point here is that the Giants don't have a lot of time to right the ship. They are still in first place, but it took an enormous surge over two and a half months to make the playoffs last year. And they don't look like a team that's ready to make a surge any time soon.
A few months ago, it looked like the Giants had caught a huge break in their interleague scheduling. They'd face the Minnesota Twins (the team with the worst record in baseball), the Cleveland Indians (who couldn't be for real) and the Detroit Tigers. Well, the Twins are all of a sudden the hottest team in baseball. The Indians are indeed for real. And the Tigers have the hottest pitcher on the planet in Justin Verlander.
It's been an incredibly eventful season so far, and an exhausting one at that. The Giants have three weeks until the All-Star Break. They're 6 games over .500. These next 19 games become extremely important. A limp into the first-half finish line could end up costing them their season. The key is to do whatever they can to finish strong and set themselves up for another second-half surge.
At this point, they'll take a spark wherever they can get it. Because, after all, you can't start a fire without a spark.
Song of the Week: Dancing in the Dark
If you need to cry, do it to this.
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