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.

This Is Not A Recording: Mets 9, Giants 6

More of the same for the Giants, who basically took the worst of the first two games of the season and combined them in Game 3 -- poor starting pitching over come by good offense, followed by leaving in the starter too long, and bad relief pitching -- especially in the 9th -- plus an extra helping of bonehead managing to lose it.

This time it was the Unit getting the Giants in an early hole, 3-0 to Johan Santana. That would be enough most days, but the Giants fought back to tie it at 3-3. Johnson and the bullpen immediately gave it all back and more, allowing 4 runs in the top of the next inning. Down to Santana again, the Giants looked like toast. Again. But they came back. Again.

The Giants scored 3 to get within 7-6, and got the tying run on base to lead off the 8th. But their rally died when they made an out on the bases (their 3rd of the day) on a busted hit-and-run, which was just a terrible idea by Bochy. It was a 3-2 count, but Travis Ishikawa was at the plate -- a big-time strikeout threat -- and the not-too-speedy Juan Uribe was on base. After the Giants gave up their requisite 2 runs in the 9th, the game was over.

Unfortunately, his is becoming the status quo for the Giants -- doing just enough to give yourself a chance, but not enough to win. It was less than 100 hours ago, they were 4 games over .500, hadn't lost any of their last 9 series, and were going for the sweep against the poor, pathetic Nats to go 5 under for the first time since 1994. Now they are 18-18 and have to avoid their own sweep at the hands of the mighty Mets, who's middle of the order has feasted on Giants pitching. It's not just them, either: The Nats scored a lot of runs, even in their losses (7 each), so it's been all homestand so far. Suddenly, it's the offense which has become their only hope. Strange days, indeed.

TOMORROW: Matt Cain for the block.

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.

...And The Beat Goes On: Padres 7, Giants 3

Not much to talk about tonight. Zito pitched, and the Giants lost. That's how it works. Barry did his thing -- allowing runs (4) and baserunners (9) while not eating many innings (4). He threw a bit harder than he has recently, and his breaking ball had some bite. But when you're a veteran and have your best stuff and are that unsuccessful, you have major issues.

On the postgame show, Mike Krukow made excuses for Zito, saying it was just nerves in the 1st inning, when he allowed 3 runs, that he settled down after that, and that his next start would be better. I'm sick of excuses for Zito -- now, he had "opening night jitters", next he's given extra rope because he's always been a slow starter. Then, before you know it, it'll be mid-season, and those same apologists are predicting a big 2nd half and getting all worked up for the random competant start. But down deep we all know what we have -- an albatross. The only question is whether is how soon the Giants come to terms with this and pull him form the rotation.

Zito wasn't the only thing wrong with the Giants on Friday night. The defense let him down a bit, and the offense was generally lethargic, save for a couple of stunted rallies with the Giants down 4-2. One ended on an Ishikawa GIDP with the bases loaded and none out and a pathetic K by Rowand, the other was dashed by a dazzling tying HR-saving catch by Scott Hairston on a drive by Molina to CF, followed by another flyout to the wall by Ishikawa. Hairston followed that with a 3-run HR to ice the game, and Pad's won 7-3.

Bright spots: Emanuel Burriss (his first two hits of the season, along with two walks), Fred Lewis (another hit and walk, hitting .500) and new call-up for the DL-ed Joe Martinez, Justin Miller (two scoreless innings).

TOMMOROW: Jonathan Sanchez has the unenviable task of taking on Jake Peavy. Hey, it could be worse, Jonathan -- you could have Barry Zito's stuff.

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.

Day 2, Game 1: Giants 10, Brewers 6

This season, the Giants will survive only if their pitching holds up, because their offense won't give them much. In their first game of the 2009 season, not so much. It was Opposite Day at Mays Field, as Tim Lincecum struggled mightily -- as did a couple of the relievers who followed him (though Joe Martinez vltured a win in his big league debut despite struggling) -- the the prolific Giants offense out-scored the Brewers 10-6. While Lincecum struggled with his command all day (which was just three innings -- the shortest start of his career), just about every hitter had a big day.

The Giants compiled 12 hits, hit three HR's (something it took them 64 innings to accomplish last season), and even did a lot of the little things right (sac fly, successful hit-and-run, even a perfectly-executed butcher boy base hit by Lincecum). They also did some things very sloppily -- particularly Pablo Sandoval's D at 3B, but also including a very bad throwing error by Fred Lewis in LF.

The power came from Randy Winn, Bengie Molina, and Aaron Rowand, who bounced back from a terrible Spring to have two hits and a walk. Travis Ishikawa hit what would've been a grand slam in almost any other park in the first inning, but since it was to Triple's Alley, he had to "settle" for a three-run triple. Sandoval, Burris, and Lewis all chipped in, and one can only hope this was a sign of good things to come. Though, definitely not this good.

The pitching, likewise, will likely not be this bad. Lincecum didn't appear hurt, or really that far off -- it seemed to be a case of overthrowing leading to poor mechanics and rhythm, which isn't hard to understand. He is the defending Cy Young winner, and this was his first Opening Day start. Plus he met Sully Sullenberger like two minutes before the game started, and that can't help but throw you.

Watching the game on TiVo this afternoon after I got off work, I was reminded why Kruk and Kuip are tow of the best announcers in the game. They pointed out how small Ryan Braun is for a power hitter, and Krukow likened him to Will Clark, showing his swing, and how he maximized his strength with toque and timing. Moments later, they showed video of The Thrill hitting one out to compare and contrast. Kruk capped it off with a quote from Rick Reuschel, inspired by Clark's ability to hit: "A genius is a guy who makes something hard look easy".

This first game could be viewed by those looking to jump to conclusions as the first win of many for a maturing team, or a sign of the youthful, sloppy play which will plague the Giants all year. But it's probably neither -- just one game of 162. Who knows what the next 161 will bring. Whatever it is, I'm ready. Baseball is back. Yippee.

TOMORROW: A night game, so I might actually get to catch some of it live. The Giants will whip out the Big Unit, as Randy Johnson makes his SF debut against Yovani Gallardo.

It's (Almost) On!

Don't let the fact I haven't written much about the Giants, or baseball in general, convince you I've given up on this whole Giants Diary idea. I still plan to write a little something -- usually a very little something -- every day of the baseball season, I just haven't had much to say during Spring training -- there's just something so meaningless and hypothetical about it. More like a tease, then the real thing. This year, because of the WBC, Spring training lasted even longer, giving it an even more useless feel.

But now the clubs are back in their big league cities -- I'm watching Tim Lincecum mow down the A's right now (3-0 Giants in the middle of the 3rd) on Comcast SportsNet Bay Area (thanks, DirecTV!) -- and the season finally feels like it's actually going to happen. The first game (or "Opening Night" as ESPN prefers to call it) is Sunday, most teams open Monday, and the first Giants game (against Milwaukee) is Tuesday.

It's great to see the big league parks again -- especially PacBell Park SBC Park AT&T Park Mays Field -- and it doesn't hurt when the first time up in their home park your team puts up three runs. That's not likely happen too often this year with a Giant offense everyone agrees is a weak spot, but I think they have a few hitters who could be better than a lot of people think. Fred Lewis, coming off an impressive first full year in the majors, is one. Travis Ishikawa, a once-fallen prospect coming off a revitalizing and dominant minor league season, is another. But the most excitement surrounds fan favorite, Pablo Sandoval, who's already starting to earn some national recognition.

Only time will tell, but as a Giants fan, I go into this year with much more enthusiasm than in any year since at least 2004. It may come to nothing, but at least for now, it's Spring and I'm hopeful, and there's something to be said for that.