YOUR San Francisco Giants: Padres 2, Giants 1

This is the Giants -- like it or not. They will waste leadoff doubles with alarming consistency. They will leave men on 3rd with less than 2 out. They will threaten to score over and over, and fail over and over, just to lose by 1 run. And, it appears, they will do it most of all while Barry Zito is on mound -- the better his performance, the more frustratingly ineffective their offensive attack will be. This was again the case Tuesday night as the Giants wasted yet another impressive outing by the resurgent Zito, who had to realize his fate after just 2 innings.

In each of the first 2 innings, the Giants had their leadoff man reach 2nd base with nobody out (and in each case, in the person of one of their fastest baserunners -- Eugenio Velez and Randy Winn, respectively), but failed to even advance them as far as 3rd. In the meantime, Zito allowed nothing 2 runs, each coming on solo HR's (both with 2 out to make it even more frustrating). other than that, Zito was great, going the route, as he watched the Giants squander yet another man-on-2nd-no-out situation and other potential rallies. In all, they went 0-12 with RISP, 0-11 in the first 4 innings alone.

The biggest villain on offense had to be Rich Aurilia, who looks about as done as you can look. Aurilia flailed in attempts to advance a runner from 2nd, and also to drive one in from 3rd with one out, striking out both times. Aurilia can only play 1B at this point in his career, and he can't hit, so I'm not sure what role there is unless they come up with a new one called D.S: Designated Strikeout. If Jesus Guzman, the 1B prospect tearing it up at AAA, isn't called up soon, Aurilia could burn through all the good will he's earned with fans (including this one), and the Giants may end up D.H.-ing a pitcher during interleague play, Rays-style.

TOMORROW: Sachez v. Gaudin.