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.

.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.

See No Evil: Giants 7, Brewers 1

Very scary moment in the game tonight as Giants rookie pitcher -- and team-leader in wins -- Joe Martinez was struck in the head by a line drive off the bat of Mike Cameron. Martinez was bloodied and dazed, but walked off under his own power, and seemed okay pending tests. It doesn't seem serious, which on a day where one baseball player has already tragically died after pitching the best game of his life, is welcome news. Because that is all terribly depressing, I'm going to ignore it for the rest of this post:

I've determined the secret to winning Giants baseball -- I need to not watch it live. So far this season I've had to TiVo two games because of work, and the Giants are 2-0. I've watched one game live, and they are 0-1. Some people will tell you three games isn't a large enough enough sample size to determine trends about baseball. Those people probably also hate America. Until I have any more evidence, I'm just going to go with the old scientific theorem, "The trend is your friend".

Matt Cain was great, and more amazingly, he got run support, as the Giants won it, 7-1. Cain allowed only 1 run and 6 baserunners in 7 innings, while striking out 5. He accomplished this against a strong Brewer lineup, settling in nicely after a bit of a lucky start, when two long flyballs to right Death Valley were knocked down by the wind and died in Randy Winn's glove at the wall.

Speaking of Winn: He looked great in the field and at the plate -- a good sign for the notoriously slow starter -- and more and more, I'm coming to believe those who believe he's one of the more underrated players in baseball. He plays very well in the toughest RF in the league, hits .300 (3 of the last 4 years), draws walks, and steals bases at a very high rate (42/47 last 2+ years). If he has another good year, the Giants may be able to trade him for something shiny at the trade deadline if they fall out of the race.

Not that I'm thinking they'll be out of the race. In fact, if the prospects I had the most confidence in coming into the season -- Sandoval, Lewis, Ishikawa -- keep hitting (though I doubt Lewis will hit .500+), I might struggle to supress my fanboy optimism. I know the Giants have a potentially great rotation, but there's no guarantee it'll workl out that way. If the offense was good enough that they didn't need a dominant staff, I could be talked into their chances to win the division. Yeah, that's right -- I said it.

TOMORROW: The Giants take it on the road down to San Diego, where they take on the lowly Padres. Lucky for San Diego, the Giants are throwing Barry Zito -- the perfect cure for my fanboy optimism. He'll take on the Padres' Shawn Hill.

This Year's Jason Ellison?

In my first spring training post, I said exhibition games meant that "some prospect/reclamation project will become the dazzling phenom who hits .460 and fools you into thinking they might contribute this year (see: Ellison, Jason)." Well, it's starting to look like this year's prospect/reclamation project is 31-year-old OF Andres Torres, a 10-year minor leaguer who's spent the vast majority of the last six straight years in AAA.

In fact, in that time Torres has had more AB's in AA (305) than the majors (257). His line in the majors --.210/.258/.276 -- doesn't bode well for his chances. Nether does his pedestrian minor league line of .272/.363/.396, or his age, though he has had decent lines in AAA the last couple of years. Still, on most teams, Torres just sniff a roster spot. But on this Giants team, anything's possible -- especially when you're hitting .433 with as many AB's as any plater on the team.

It's a nice story for now, and will be a really nice story if he makes the opening day roster. A nice story for him, that is. For the Giants, not so much. They already have OF spots held for Randy Winn, Fred Lewis, Aaron Rowand, and Nate Schierholtz. That's four, right there. Though the waiving of Dave Roberts would seem to open a spot for a 5th OF/pinch-runner type, that would likely go to Eugenio Velez. So, could they keep six OF's? Sure -- like I said, anything's possible with this roster. And Velez's ability to play 2B makes him more than a pure OF. John Bowker could be in the running for that six OF spot, but he's young, still has options left (unlike Schierholtz), and could probably use a full year at AAA to see what he can do. Torres has already had that year at AAA -- five times or so -- and the Giants might take that, and his spring, to heart. That's just the kind of short-sighted, bone-headed crap they do.