Balks, Walks, Cain Rocks: Giants 2, Mets 0

Matt Cain for the block, indeed. Cain did what he does -- fall behind batters, walk guys, run up his pitch count, then make great pitches to get out of seemingly impossible jams. Also, in his bag of tricks: Get inadequate run support, then take matters into his own hands, driving in a big run. The only aberration: Getting great bullpen work. Not so much from Bob Howry, who got through the 7th, but walked Luis Castillo to open the 8th -- an unforgivable sin in a 2-run game -- but definitely from Jeremy Affeldt, who got out of a big time jam in the 8th (his second escape act of the series) and Brian Wilson, who at least partially redeemed himself for two losses in the series, by saving it with a 1-2-3 9th.

The Giants somehow kept the Mets off the board despite several promising rallies -- usually started by walks, most notably Cain three free passes to open the 2nd -- using clutch pitching and good D (primarily Travis Ishikawa's 3-2-3 DP on a scorched line drive one-hopper). The Giants offense scratched out their 2 cheapie runs with the help of 3 balks by the very un-steady Mets starter Mike Pelfrey, and a clutch hit by Cain.

Of course, you might not have realized any of this by watching the game on ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball as color commentators Steve Phillips and Joe Morgan did nothing by drone on about the Mets and their leadership situation, completely ignoring the game being played before them. Something else you might have missed: The formerly hard-luck Cain is now 4-1 with a 2.65 ERA.

TOMORROW: Off-day Monday, Tuesday, the Giants travel down to San Diego for a threesome with the Padres (not as sexy as it sounds), with Barry Zito taking on Chris Young in the opener.

Unit-ed: Giants 3, Rockies 2

I'm sensing a trend in Big Unit starts -- dominant at home, bad on the road, dominant at home, bad on the road, dominant at home. This is a little worrisome as half his starts this year will come on thee road, but then again, half will come at home. It's too early to draw major conclusions from these results (especially the two bad starts), but this appears a classic glass half-full/half-empty, good news/bad news situation. Or, more precisely, a Good Unit/Bad Unit situation.

On Friday night, he was definitely the Good Unit. The result was 7 innings, 4 hits, 9 K's and no runs, as the Giants won 3-2. The game was well in hand -- 3-0 Giants -- through 7 innings before the Giants set-up men did their best blow the lead. Struggling righty set-up man Bob Howry allowed a leadoff HR to Chris Ianetta in the 8th, and Jeremy Affedt allowed 3 hits (though 2 were of the cheapie infield variety which a better SS then Renteria would've probably turned into outs) while only getting 2 outs.

Then Bruce Bochy did something he's been doing more and more after avoiding it the last season plus -- bringing in Brian Wilson to get a 4+ out save. In this case, Wilson was up for the task, though he needed the help of Renteria, who did a good job to stop Garrett Atkins' grounder in the hole from going into LF to keep the potential tying run from scoring. That loaded the bases, but the situation wasn't quite tough enough for the adrenaline junkie Wilson. So he ran the count to the next hitter, Ryan Spillbourghs to 3-2 before striking him out on a high fastball. Wilson walked one in the 9th (can't make it too anti-climactic) before striking out Ian Stewart to end it.

Again, the Giants offense did just enough to support the good pitching. Leading the way were Pablo Sandoval, who stayed hot, getting two hits (including an earth-shaking triple), and Travis Ishikawa, who stayed both hot and power-unlucky with two hits, including an RBI double, which would've been a HR in almost any other park. Ishikawa could easily have a couple of HR"s this year, but remains stuck on zero because of the park he plays in.

In fact, Fred Lewis, who's been slumping quite a bit lately, also has zero HR's. That gives the Giants three most impressive (and potential middle of the order) young hitters -- Lewis, Sandoval, and Ishikawa -- with 1 HR total. If this trend continues, I don't think the pitching can keep them afloat, but I'll enjoy it while I can. What I won't enjoy, however, is seeing Emmanuel Burriss continue to flail away at MLB pitching. I was in favor of giving Kevin Frandsen the starting 2B job before the season, and am even more so now. At this rate, it won't be long before those two players swap places -- Burriss to Fresno, Frandsen to The City.

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.

Dealin': Giants 2, D-Backs 0

Now that's more like it.

Pitching, defense, and just enough O -- that's what this team looked like in the catalog when I ordered. Jonathan Sanchez was dominant against a team who's hit him well in the past (and shut down Connor Jackson, who'd owned him). Fred Lewis kept hitting, and stopped misplaying flyballs (at least for one night). The bullpen finished off the effort, Wednesday night's goat Bob Howry getting a key strikeout when it was needed to pick a Bengie Molina error, and Brian Wilson notching his first save of the year. Just like they drew it up.

That doesn't all mean a lot -- certainly not as much as the six piss poor outings which preceded it -- but it was nice all the same. It was also nice to see longtime minor leaguer and 31-year old rookie Andres Torres hit just his second career HR and then sprint around the bases as if he thought he was on the 24 second clock. It was also good to see my first KNBR post-game wrap (featuring Mike Krukow, Duane Kuiper, Jon Miller, Dave Fleming) of the year. Unfortunately, the post game show this year looks worse than ever -- some forgettable guy and a stumbling, mumbling JT Snow (Sorry, JT).

The Diamondbacks were struggling almost as bad as the Giants coming in, so hopefully they can get well against Arizona. Speaking of which...

TOMORROW: Ace Tim Lincecum tries to get well -- from a slow start, and from an ailment which has caused him to lose some weight and velocity -- against Doug Davis.