The Blahs: Mets 7, Giants 4

The Giants had been playing well recently, but their series winning streak seemed more like an oddity than a barometer of their strength as a team. They've been a bit lucky play the Nats, and the Dodgers right after they lost Manny. Sure, they were playing well, but so many of those wins were predicated on infield hits and 1-run victories. That trend was bound to turn. A lull in momentum is inevitable in baseball no matter how good you are. When they lost to the Nats on the eve of the Mets visit for a 4-game series, I wondered if this might be the time. Tonight did nothing to quell those fears.

The Giants scored 2 runs in the 8th, tying the game with an improbable comeback. Well, improbable besides the fact that the "rally" was started by an infield hit (Fred Lewis, leading off the inning), and ended with an infield hit (Edgar Renteria drove in the tying run, but appeared to injure his hammy legging out the hit*). But Brian Wilson continued to struggle in non-save opportunities, surrendering 3 runs to Mets in the 9th, allowing them to ice the game.

TOMORROW: The Giants need a win if they plan to at least split this series with New York -- remember, Johan Santana is scheduled to pitch over the weekend. The Good News: The Giants have ace Tim Lincecum taking the hill tomorrow. The Bad News: They'll face Livan Hernandez. I know, Livo is not so good anymore, and comes in with a 5+ ERA, but he's exactly the kind of pitcher who dominates the Giants, and it's the kind of thing that would drive me up the wall. So it's bound to happen.

* The way he left the field, I could easily see Renteria going on the disabled list, so you better get used to Juan Uribe at SS for while.

Riches to Rags to Riches: Giants 9, Nationals 7

The Giants turned their worst loss of the season into their best win with one mighty swing of Pablo Sandoval's bat. The Kung Fu Panda's 3-run bolt of a HR off reformed Dodger Joe Beimel gave the Giants a stirring come-from-behind win despite blowing 4 run 7th inning lead to the worst team in baseball and then trailing with 2 outs and nobody on in the 9th.

It was the Giants first real comeback win of the year, and puts them a season-high 4 games over .500, and guarantees them yet another series win. In the last 9 series including this one, they are now 7-0-2, both those ties coming on the road after losing the series opener. It was also the second game in a row, the Giants have allowed 7 runs (albeit against one of the best offensive teams in the NL so far), yet still scored enough to win it with their hitting (albeit against one of the worst pitching staffs in the NL so far). Oh yeah, and Pablo's HR kep the Giants undefeated when scoring first (14-0).

The Giants comeback followed what could have been a crushing rally by the Nationals, who scored 3 runs each in the 7th and 8th to erase a 5-1 lead and steal a win away from Matt Cain. Cain cruised through the first 6 innings, allowing just what should have been an unearned run (Adam Dunn's double should've been caught by Nate Schierholtz, who misjudged it and saw it clank off his wrist), but ran into trouble in the 7th. With 1 out and none on, and Cain on a pitch count which might allow him to finsih the game, Alex Cintron got his first hit of the year. Cristian Guzman followed with another hit before Nick Johnson crushed a good pitch from Cain (knee-high, outer third) for an opposite-field HR -- his first hit ever off Cain.

Right then, you knew it wouldn't be easy.It didn't take long for that to prove out. Cain stayed in to retire Ryan Zimmerman (who had 2 hits to extend his hitting streak to 30) and Adam Dunn to end the inning, but left after 7, having thrown just 100 pitches (not that much for Cain). The combo of Howry (mostly) and Affeldt (just a little) blew the lead by allowing 3 runs (albeit on some pretty weak contact) and the Giants suddenly trailed 7-5. A sure victory for Cain was gone, and the game seemed lost -- even when Bengie Molina led off the next inning with a HR.

I figured the Giants would lose by one, just to make it that much more frustrating. But with 2 out and none on in the 9th, Emmanuel Burris singled, and after being wild-pitched to 2nd, Edgar Renteria drew a crucial walk in a great at bat plate appearance. That set the stage for Sandoval, whose dramatics had to be all that much sweeter to him following an embarrassing play a few innings earlier when he stumbled trying to leg out a triple and took and header in the basepath.

TOMORROW: Barry Zito takes the mound against ex-Giants farmhand, 4-0 rookie Shairon Martis (who was criminally given awaty by Brian Sabean in the Mike Stanton robbery trade) as the Giants go for the sweep of the Nationals. Will Zito continue his recent run of unexpected mastery, or will he run out of smoke and/or mirrors?

April Flowers: Giants 9, Dodgers 4

The Giants April schedule is over, and they end it with a 10-10 record. From where I'm sitting, that's something to build on. They were 2-7, and looking lost. Since then, the starting pitching has been every bit as good as I thought it might -- even better, considering Zito's newfound decentness -- and the everything else has been just good enough to win.

Tonight was more of the same -- Lincecum dominating, the offense contributing more than usual, the bullpen less. The Giants rarely score 9 runs (or get 4 hits from Renteria), but Lincecum pitched well enough to win 4-3. The Giants team which played the Dodgers in this series was a complete turnaround from the one which was swept in LA on a 0-6 road trip. They very well could've swept this series, but for a total fundamental breakdown on Tuesday.

If you believe the starters can keep this up, which is unlikely, then the Giants are in good shape. The hitting will likely improve at least a bit as the year goes on as young players get some experience, and the overworked troika in the bullpen (Wilson, Affeldt, Howry) should get another arm when Sergio Romo comes off the DL soon. With lots of young stars coming up through the minors, the future would look mighty bright.

If the starting pitching falters, however, it could get ugly very quickly. While Giants have lots of good young starters in the minors, the ones at AAA Fresno are not particularly enticing. The hitting will likely improve, but I don't expect it to be much above average if at all. And the D and bullpen aren't good enough to save the day. Barring a major trade, the starters are the keystone the season rests on.

So far, so good.

TOMORROW: Off-day. The Giants are back at it Friday night as they host the Rockies. The Big Unit will take on Ubaldo Jimenez in a battle of historically ugly vs epically ugly.

.500 And Loving It: Giants 5, D-Backs 3

The streak of great performances by the Giants starters is over, but the Giants ability to do just enough to win continued. Of course, it was the D-Backs, so I'm not sure just what that really means yet, but a win is a win. And when you take 6 of 7, you don't ask questions. You just keep smiling. And when a win gets you back to .500, that goes double.

The Unit was malfunctioning tonight, unable to throw strikes consistently, walking 7, and getting yanked in the 4th inning. It being his first start back in Arizona, I'm willing to cut him a little slack, but his ERA is 6.16 after 4 starts, and one of those a 1-hitter for 7 innings. Johnson was able to hold the damage to a minimum -- 2 runs -- and keep the Giants in the game. This allowed the Giants to storm back with 4 runs in the 5th to take the lead. The big blows were a 2-out 2-run double by Renteria after a great AB, and a HR by the very next batter, Randy Winn.

Though they tacked on another run later, that was all the Giants would need. Justin Miller allowed a run in his 1.2 innings, but Jonathan Sanchez, Bob Howry, Jeremy Affeldt, and Brian Wilson are held Arizona scoreless. The pen has been mighty for some time now -- especially the Affeldt, Howry, Wilson troika -- but it's been overshadowed by an even more impressive rotation.

TOMORROW: The Giants go for the rare road sweep behind Matt Cain, who will attempt to raise his record to 3-0. John Garland will start for the D-Backs.

The Trend Is Your Friend: Giants 8, Padres 3

The trend of Giants starting pitchers delivering great starts continued, as did the trend of me having to follow the game online and watch it later on TiVo. This is because I am whipped and need to spend time with my wife in the evenings after we get home from work. So, usually I'm watching shows on TiVo while I record the game. But not tomorrow -- I'm off work, and will be watching the businessman's special in my boxers. The bad news: Zito's pitching.

But there will be plenty of time to be glum about having to sit through a Zito start tomorrow. Tonight I'm just happy to watch Cain go to 2-0 by allowing 2 runs in 6 innings (with 5 K's and no walks!), and, more surprisingly, getting terrific run support -- mainly from Edgar Renteria, who made his first Giants HR a grand slam. Travis Ishikawa also had a nice night -- at the plate and in the field.

I'm also thankful to have power. Last night, just as the wife and I were settling in to watch shows, we lost our electricity. On the hottest day of the year (no coincidence I'm sure). No AC. No TV. No internet. After a few hours, no computers (the batteries ran out). Finally I tried to go to sleep, even though I can only sleep with the TV on, and tossed and turned for a couple hours. Just as I finally fell asleep, the power came back on. It was one of the worst night's sleeps I've ever had.

Also, I was unable to post late last night, as I'm accustomed to. I had planned to write an off-day post, but at least it wasn't a game day, or I would've broken my streak (it may be only two weeks, but I'm such a quitter, I've already impressed myself. Sad, isn't it?) Also, I had planned a special bonus post -- finally telling the story of the Crazy Flower Lady. But with no computer (the only one with batteries was playing 'Twilight' -- don't ask), I was unable to finish it. And because it turns I have one last round of notes on a script I've been polishing, I probably won't get to it for another couple of days.

RANDOM PREDICTION: I think little-used Nate Schierholtz will start in RF in the series finale. He's only had 5 AB's so far this year, but had a double as a pinch-hitter, and a day game after a night game is the perfect time to rest a vet like Winn or Rowand. Also, Nate's a high fastball hitter, and that's starting pitcher Chris Young's specialty pitch. But really, I think Bochy will think, "Hey, Nate's hitting .400, and he's also a lefty. And that Chris Young -- he's a righty", and from there it won't take him long.

RANDOM GRIPE: As much as I love Kruk and Kuip -- and I love them dearly -- they have one annoying trait: They tend to be apologists for some of the players, especially veterans. Being ex-ballplayers, it's no surprise, but they're so great in every other way, it kind of stings to hear them parsing their words, and bending over backward to avoid criticism. Tonight, Aaron Rowand got a terrible jump on flyball -- something which is less and less rare -- they were each guilty of making excuses for him. Kuip said he thought the ball would go futher, and Kruk wondered aloud if the ball might have knuckled. I'm not grizzly vet, but it looked like an end-of-the-bat bloop all the way to me. Later, when Rowand did get a good jump on a ball to make a nice play, they went out of their way to praise him.

TOMORROW: See above.

Giants Diary: The Rites of Spring

In my first baseball post last week, I mentioned a few of the things we'd undoubtedly see around the Giants spring training in near future -- things we see every spring. Already, less than a week later, several have have come to pass:

I wrote: "It means sore hammies, and tendonitis, and various tweaks and turns which will worry me that they'll become the next catastrophic year-ending injury". Within 24 hours, Noah Lowry, who missed all of last year with arm woes, experienced soreness in his shoulder. Now he says he's doing much better, but until he takes part in an organized game -- something he hasn't done in about 18 months -- I'm not expecting anything from him this year.

I wrote: "we will soon be deluged with reports out of Scottsdale about the dazzling skills and bright futures of some Giants prospects as well as the always-popular "He's in the best shape of his life" and "Last year's bad season was actually die to an unreported injury" stories."

Today, MLB.com Giants beatwriter Chris Haft obliges, with both a story about the triumvirate of young infield prospects vying for the starting 2B job, and another about the "leaner and meaner" story of new Giants SS, Edgar Renteria. Henry Schulman of the Chron also chips in with a "leaner and meaner" piece on Matt Cain.

I'm still waiting for a good "unreported injury" story. I'll keep you posted.