Giants End First Half on a Roll

Even though the Giants couldn't complete the 4-game sweep of the Padres on Sunday, they still took 3 of 4 from San Diego, and enter the all-star break with the second best record in the National League at 49-39.

Once again, it was the starting pitching that paved the way for the Giants in the Padres series. Although it's kind of old news by now, we didn't get a chance to touch on Jonathan Sanchez's no-hitter Friday Night yet, and I wanted to do so. Sanchez was bounced from the Giants rotation at the end of June, do to his struggles at finding the strike-zone, but he went to the bullpen for a few weeks and had a couple of really nice outings in relief. He showed enough improvement to where Bruce Bochy felt comfortably inserting him back into the rotation in Randy Johnson's spot, and he did he best impression of "The Big Unit", no-hitting the Padres and striking out 10 batters in the process. Almost as impressive as the no-hits though, was the goose egg in the walk column. Sanchez has been averaging about 5 walks per 9 innings pitched, and that was really the area which was getting him into trouble. If fact, it was the only time this year in which Sanchez pitched 4 or more innings without allowing at least 3 walks. Only a booted ground ball by Juan Uribe cost the 26 year-old lefty the perfect game. Sanchez was probably also feeding off of Tim Lincecum's brilliant start from the night before. Lincecum carried a no-no into the seventh inning on Thursday night, but unraveled a bit in the 7th and ended up being removed from the game before he could get out of it. Nonetheless, taking away Zito's start on Sunday, the Giants pitching staff, both starting and relief, was nearly untouchable for most of the weekend.

Even though the Giants are really playing good baseball right now, and are one of the hottest teams in the league over the last 6 weeks, there are a lot of players on the roster who could use a three-day rest. Edgar Renteria, Bengie Molina and Aaron Rowand are a few guys who have been playing a ton, and not taking many days off. Molina got a few days off in the Padres series in addition to the upcoming 3 day break, so Bengie should be nice and rested for the second half. Renteria's only had one day off over the last 15 games, and his average is starting to take a bit of a dip because of it. Rowand is the type of guy who will fight Bochy to stay in the lineup everyday, so the all-star break is about the only time that Boch can give him a rest without having Rowand in his ear about it. The Giants actually are off on Thursday as well, so their all-star break is essentially 4 days long, although they will be traveling to Pittsburgh on Thursday.

Update on Cain: Matt Cain, who was selected to his first all-star game last week, took a line drive off the right-elbow in the second inning of his start on Saturday, and his status for the all-star game is looking doubtful right now. The X-rays revealed no break or fracture, and the injury is being classified as a bruise at the moment, but its going to be swollen and stiff for a couple of days, and due to the fact that it's on his pitching arm, likely means he'll be unavailable to pitch for the National League on Tuesday. Cain will still make the trip to St. Louis and hopefully he'll still get to enjoy everything else. Either way, the Giants don't think the injury will keep him from missing any starts at the beginning of the second half, although they may re-align the rotation and have him start the fifth game after the break, which would give him about 10 days in-between starts.

Pablo Appreciation Post

Well, the final verdict came on Thursday, and Pablo Sandoval just missed being voted onto the NL all-star team, as he finished second in the voting behind Philadelphia's Shane Victorino.

Now, there is still a slight chance the "Big Panda" will sneak onto the team if someone gets injured between now and then, or to a lesser extent, if somebody decides to bail out on the game. Unfortunately, Charlie Manuel decided to take Jayson Werth as a replacement for Carlos Beltran, who will not be available for the National League. I understand supporting your own players and what not, but Sandoval's hitting .328 which is 60 points higher than Werth's .268 clip. Whether he gets to go or not, Pablo Sandoval's first half has to be appreciated, as he's become the most exciting offensive Giant since the days of Barry Bonds. Heading into Friday night's game, Sandoval's also got 13 bombs and 50 RBI to go along with that .328 average. What's more impressive though, is the way he's putting up these numbers. He's been one of the most clutch hitters on the Giants, and puts up his numbers when the team needs them, not when the games already decided. Coming into the year, I was expecting Sandoval to be around .280-.290 with his batting average, and possibly finish the year with 15 homers and 75+ RBI, and I would have taken those numbers. However, the 22 year-old versatile beast is on pace to hit .330 with 27 home runs, 98 RBI. Maybe he won't end up in St. Louis for the all-star game this season, but I think he's aware that he's deserving, and I would certainly expect to see Pablo Sandoval be in the running to make many, many more mid-summer classics in the future.

Speaking of Giants and the all-star game, Tim Lincecum made his final start before what likely will be his first ever all-star game starting assignment. Lincecum was brilliant for 6 innings, as he took a no-hit bid into the seventh vs. the struggling San Diego Padres, but allowed a leadoff single to Tony Gwynn Jr. and eventually was 3 earned runs in 6 2/3 innings. Not a bad start at all, but not one that Lincecum was too pleased about after straight dominating the Padres bats for most of the night. The outing was still go enough to net "The Freak" his 10th win of the year and should still keep him right on track to start in the all-star game on Tuesday evening. Matt Cain, the teams' other all-star, won't pitch until Saturday afternoon, but that would still give him a couple of days rest before the all-star game, so 'Cainer should be available to pitch in the game as well. Bochy said he plans to speak with Manuel about the Giants two pitchers, and will relay that he would like Lincecum to go no more than 2 innings (which is pretty standard for starting pitchers in the all-star game) and Cain to be held to 1.

Bowker Returns: After placing Randy Johnson on the 15 day DL, the Giants re-called outfielder/first basemen Jon Bowker from Fresno. Bowker was absolutely tearing the cover off the ball for the Grizzlies, hitting .347 with 17 jacks and 64 RBI and 10 steals. Giants fans have been clamoring for the powerful lefty to be recalled for a few weeks now, and with Johnson's shelving, it finally became a possibility. The Giants are out of options on Fred Lewis, Nate Schierholtz and Travis Ishikawa, but can still have one on Bowker, which could actually work against him staying permanently on the roster. If he starts hitting like he did in Fresno though, the Giants will find a way to have him stick. He didn't have the best 2009 debut Thursday, going 0-3 with a strikeout, but based on the numbers he's put up in Fresno, I'm very intrigued to see how Bowker does this time around.

Giants Take 2 of 3 From Florida

Even though they failed to pull off the sweep on Wednesday, the Giants beat the Marlins two out of three times this week en route to pulling off yet another series victory.

The big bright spot in the series for the Giants was Barry Zito's magnificent start on Tuesday night. The Giants 18 million dollar fifth starter put forth one of his best efforts since dawning a Giants uniform in 2007, going 8 1/3 scoreless in his victory over Florida. This start was a huge one for a few different reasons. With Randy Johnson recently hitting the disabled list, the Giants are going to be without their #2 starter for the next couple of weeks, and while The Unit is out, the Giants need their starters to step it up a bit. The two guys in particular who will have the spotlight on them are Barry Zito and Jonathan Sanchez, who's taking Johnson's spot just about 10 days after he lost his own spot in the starting rotation. Although he won three games in the month, Barry Zito did not have a particularly strong June, as he 5.81 era and a 1.52 WHIP in the month. The Giants are going to need him to be more like the Zito from May, in which he sported a 3.53 era spanned out over 40 innings of work. Sanchez has really struggled in the rotation all season long, but he had a few nice outings out of the bullpen, and maybe this time off will get him focused again. If the Zito and Sanchez do not pull their weight, the Giants rotation isn't going to be the strength that they have been throughout the season.

While they did do just enough to give the Giants the series victory, the team's offense didn't necessarily have their best offensive series vs. the Marlins. They mustered only 8 runs, as they were shutout in the final game on Wednesday, and part of the reason for that was due to Aaron Rowand's struggles at the plate recently. The Giants leadoff hitter could do no wrong for the first few weeks he was moved to the top spot in the batting order, but over the last four games, Rowand has sort of disappeared offensively. He went 0-11 with 3 k's and just one walk in the three-game set with Florida, and because of it, his batting average has dipped below .290 for the first time since late-May. Not that I'm panicking whatsoever about Rowand's mini-slump, just pointing out why the offense has been somewhat stagnant over the last couple of days.

Vote For Panda: Also, remember tonight is the last night to vote for Pablo Sandoval to get the final National League All-Star team roster spot. It's basically coming down to Pablo Sandoval or Shane Victorino from Philadelphia, and I believe Sandoval still has the slight edge in total votes right now, but a lot can change over the next 12-24 hours. Sandoval's numbers trump Victorino's in every single category besides stolen bases and runs scored, not too mention Sandoval has the versatility to play three positions and play them all pretty well. If Sandy doesn't get the nod, I would rather it go to Matt Kemp or Mark Reynolds, as those two have been much more deserving than Victorino in my opinion... Anyway, get to the online polls and vote for Pablo Sandoval; he definitely deserves it!

Cain and Lincecum Named All-Stars

The 2009 Major League Baseball all-star rosters were announced on Sunday, and, as expected, the Giants had their top two starting pitchers named to the NL's squad. However, not all the Giants that were deserving of the honor got the nod.

Pablo Sandoval, who's leading NL third basemen in OPS and average and is amongst the leaders in all other major offensive categories, did not get named to the team as a reserve, but he is on the ballot of five NL players with a shot at that final roster spot. Sandoval's numbers are more impressive, all around, than the NL's starting third basemen, David Wright, but with the fans deciding who gets to start, Sandoval never really had a shot at getting more votes than the Mets third basemen, but I'm a little perplexed that he wasn't named as a reserve. Whens the last time you saw a guy who's fourth in the league in hitting? Not only does he have all these impressive offensive numbers, but he's also got the ability to play multiple positions, which would make it easier for Charlie Mannuel to actually work into the game. Giants fans, hit the Internet and start voting, because The Big Panda deserves to be in St. Louis for the mid-summer classic!

In addition to Sandoval, Bengie Molina and Brian Wilson were two others who had the numbers to get selected, but did not make the team. Wilson's numbers are quite as spectacular as what Sandoval's doing on the offensive side, but the Giants' closer is tied for second in the NL in saves and ranks third among NL closers in strikeouts. Wilson's 1.22 WHIP and 3.41 era, while still very impressive numbers, weren't quite up there with the league's other elite closers though, and those are likely the areas that separated him from the guys that were selected. Molina leads all NL catchers in homers and RBI's and he's leading in RBI's by a landslide. The closest full-time catcher to Molina's 47 RBI are Brian McCann's 33, just to show how much more valuable he's been to the Giants than other catchers have been to their respective teams. Molina's also catching and doing a great job with one of the best all-around pitching staffs in baseball. He's certainly done enough in this first half to warrant a selection, and probably should have actually gotten the start, based on the numbers.

OK, enough about the guys who didn't make it, or are on the bubble, and back to the guys who will actually be there. Tim Lincecum will be making his second appearance at the mid-summer classic, while Cain will take it in for the first time in his career. However, Lincecum missed the game last year due to illness, and wasn't able to fully participate in all the games' festivities, or the ballgame itself, so it's almost like these guys will be enjoying the whole process for the first time. It was pretty obvious that Lincecum, who's 9-2, with a 2.23 era, 1.05 WHIP and a major league best 141 strikeouts in 121 innings pitched this year, was going to get named to the squad. In fact, he's probably the favorite to start the game for the NL at this point. It wasn't as sure of thing that Matt Cain would make the team, so hearing his name get announced was certainly re-assuring. Cain has really been a lot better pitcher over the last couple of years than what his record shows, and this year, the Giants are finally giving him some support. His numbers on the year are very impressive: 9-2, 2.48 era, 88 k's and only 90 hits allowed in 108 innings pitched. This is year in which it's kind of all coming together for the big 24 year-old righty, and it's been a pleasure to watch. Can't wait to see both of these guys represent the Giants on July 14th, and hopefully Pablo Sandoval can be there with them!

Offense Comes Alive Vs. Astros

The Giants put up one of their most impressive offensive showings of the year Friday night at AT&T Park against the Houston Astros, banging out 15 hits and scoring 13 runs en route to a 13-0 victory!

Leading the offensive charge for the Giants were Nate Schierholtz, Pablo Sandoval and Edgar Renteria. Schierholtz rebounded after a couple of o-4 nights by going 3-4 with a double and 2 RBI hitting out of the fifth spot in the lineup. Sandoval had his typical multi-hit night, going 2-5 with his 12 home run of the year while knocking in 3 runs to give him 43 on the year. Finally, Renteria, who's temporarily been moved to the sixth spot in the order because of his solid RBI output, provided a three hit night as well and both scored and drove in a run. A couple of other Giants who haven't been quite as productive as the three guys mentioned above, but have been starting to turn things on lately are Randy Winn and Travis Ishikawa. Both of them had multi-hit nights on Friday as well Travis Ishikawa has been really flexing his power lately, as he's know hit 5 home runs over his last 12 games after not hitting his first of the year until May 25th. Winn's average had dipped down to the low .260's towards the end of June, as he was really struggling there for a while, but now he's back up to .279 and rising. The Giants showed Friday night just what this offense could do when they're clicking on all cylinders.

Of course, the Giants offense wasn't the only headlining act in Friday nigh's ballgame. Ryan Sadowski, making just his second career major league start, recorded his second straight major league victory, and was even more impressive than he was last week in Milwaukee. Sadowski held a potent Astros' lineup scoreless over 7 innings, and only allowed 3 hits on the night while striking out 4. With Rich Aurilia due to come back from the bereavement list at any time now, the Giants are going to have a tough decision regarding Sadowski. I don't know how they can send him down after the way he's thrown the last two games. My guess is that Matt Downs will be sent down, but then that would leave the Giants with just Juan Uribe as an option at second base for them. Another option could be sending down Eli Whiteside for the time being, which would leave the Giants with just Bengie and Pablo, but with the all-star break right around the corner, now might be a good time to do that. No matter what they decide, Sadowski needs to be given the ball every fifth day until he proves otherwise.

Saturday In-Game Notes: As I'm writing this post, the Giants are in the middle of their game with the Astros and Pablo Sandoval both drove in and scored a run to give the Giants and Tim Lincecum a 2-0 lead over the 'Stros in the 6th inning. That should probably be enough for Timmy with the way he's thrown lately! Sandoval already has another 2-hit ballgame as well and Timmy's allowed only 2 hits while striking out 8 through 6 scoreless!

Giants Keep On Rollin'

The stretch of baseball that the Giants have put together since late May up to now (July 1st) is probably the best 6 weeks of ball the Giants have played since 2004. After winning the first two games of their 4-game set with St. Louis on Monday and Tuesday, the Giants upped their record to 42-34, a season-high 8 games above .500.

Once again it was brilliant pitching, from both the starters and relievers, which carried the Giants in the first two games of the St. Louis series. Tim Lincecum provided his second straight complete game, and his third in his last four outings on Monday night. He held the mighty Cardinals lineup, led by Albert Pujols, to a measly two hits en route to his second shutout of the season. Lincecum may have cemented his place as the NL's starting pitcher for the upcoming All-Star game in a few weeks. The kid just keeps getting better and better with each start. His June stats were ridiculous, as he threw 48.2 innings over the month, allowing just 8 earned runs on just 35 hits and an amazingly low 9 base on balls. Lincecum was 4-1 in June, striking out 48 batters over that stretch while keeping an era of 1.48 and a WHIP of 0.90. "The Franchise" either leads or is in the top-3 in all major categories for NL starting pitchers. He's second in innings pitched and era to only Dan Haren, and leads the NL in strikeouts, complete games and shutouts which gives you an idea on just how dominant he's been compared to the rest of the league. He also took the era lead on his own team for the first time all year with his most recent outing, as he's now 20 points better than Matt Cain's 2.57 mark.

The bullpen wasn't really needed in Monday night's game, but they did shut the door on the Cards for Randy Johnson on Tuesday. The "Big Unit" improved his record to 8-5, as he went 5 1/3 allowing 3 runs on 4 hits while striking out 3 batters. It wasn't his best outing on the year, but it was another solid, winning effort for the Giants 45 year-old legend. Johnson has been improving as the year goes on as well. The lanky lefty went 4-1 in June, sporting a 3.25 era, a 1.14 WHIP and a .218 BAA. However, he got plenty of help on Tuesday, as the Giants bullpen provided 3 1/3 innings of scoreless relief. Jeremy Affeldt, who's arguably been the Giants best reliever, went another 2 scoreless frames, dropping his season era to 1.48. Brian Wilson also came up big on Tuesday, as he came in in the eighth inning in order to get his 21st save on the year (good for second in the NL).

In addition to the great pitching, the Giants have been having little trouble scoring runs over the last 4 games. In fact, the Giants have scored 29 runs in those last four games, and Bruce Bochy may finally be figuring out which lineups are working well. Lately, it's been the lineup with Nate Schierholtz and Travis Ishikawa in it. Both Ishikawa and Schierholtz have been a big part of the teams' last few victories. We've talked about Schierholtz plenty here over the last couple of posts, as he hit .375 with 3 homers and 8 RBI in 64 at-bats in June. He did most of that damage towards the end of the month too, as he really wasn't playing to often at the beggining. Ishikawa hasn't necessarily been tearing the cover off the ball as of late, but he's coming up with clutch hits and driving in runs when he's got the opportunity. The Giants' young first basemen has 4 home runs and 10 RBI's in his last 10 games, and had a homer and 5 RBI in the Giants last 3 wins. He's really turned it on lately, and although his numbers for the year pale in comparison to most NL first basemen, his numbers over the last few weeks don't.

Trade Talk: The newest player to be mentioned in the Giants' on-going search for a bat is Bay Area native Jermaine Dye. KNBR reported on Tuesday that the Giants had some people in Chicago watching the Cubs-White Sox series over the weekend. Dye would be ideal for the Giants, as he's a right-handed power bat who can play a good right field and help them beyond this year. He's not quite a spring chicken at age 35, but he's one of those types of athletes that will probably be plenty successful into his late 30's, so I wouldn't really worry about age with Dye. I still wouldn't give up Bumgarner or Alderson or any of the teams top-5 prospects, but for the right price, I think Dye could be a nice fit for the Giants for now.

Sanchez Bounced to Bullpen

It's been under consideration for the better part of a month now, and on Sunday evening in Milwaukee, Bruce Bochy finally made the decision. Jonathan Sanchez is temporarily out of the Giants' rotation, and will pitch in relief for the time-being.

Filling in for Sanchez on Sunday was 26 year-old Ryan Sadowski, and he was brilliant in his big league debut. Sadowski shut down one of the best hitting teams in the NL, in one of the toughest parks to pitch in. The right-hander gave the Giants 6 solid innings, in which he allowed just 4 hits, while striking out 2 batters and keeping the Brewers off the board. The quality start was good enough to give Sadowski, who's been in the minors since being drafted by the Marlins in 2003, his first big league victory, and also saved the Giants from being swept by the Brew Crew. Not only was Sadowski impressive, but the guy who's spot he took, Jonathan Sanchez, was pretty darn good out of the pen in his own right. Sanchez pitched the 9th inning for the Giants, and went 1-2-3, striking out the side on just 15 pitches. I don't know that moving Sanchez to the pen will last all year, but after the way they both threw yesterday, I think it would be wise to give Sadowski the ball as a starter, and Sanchez as a reliever until they both prove otherwise.

Providing the offense for the Giants on Sunday, and really all of June, was Nate Schierholtz. Nate just keeps getting better and better with the more playing time he's receiving and at this point, as he's pretty much taken over for the struggling Fred Lewis in the outfield. Schierholtz went 4 for 5 with a homer, an RBI and two runs scored while hitting out of the clean-up hole. The performance raised the Giants' right-fielder's average to .316. His 12 RBI's are already more than Lewis has provided on the year, and Lewis has had double the at-bats of Schierholtz. In-fact, Schierholtz has been on such a tear, that he and Pablo Sandoval are 1-2 as far as National League batting leaders for June go. These two have really stepped it up and have been the main cogs in the middle of the order in June, picking up for some other Giants who haven't been swinging as well. Bengie Molina and Randy Winn, who have really been steady offensive contributors for the Giants during their tenure's here, have been struggling lately. Winn has 4 hits over his last 2 games, so hopefully he's working out of it, but Molina's average continues to spiral down. The Giants catcher is hitting just .219 since May 1st, and has just 2 long-balls since May 12.

On-Tap: The get another tough road test, as they take on the St. Louis Cardinals in St. Louis for four, starting Monday night. The Cards' just added Mark DeRosa to an offense that was already one of the better ones in the league, so the Giants' pitching will be in for a good battle. Tim Lincecum takes the mound Monday night, opposed by Brad Thompson in a pitching match-up that heavily favors the Giants. It's crucial that they take advantage tonight and get Timmy his 8th win of the season...