SF Giants Follow Little Panda, Walk Off in Style

Much has been made about the sorry state of the San Francisco Giants' offense thus far in 2009.  And for good reason.

Despite beginning the day three games over .500 and only three games behind the division-leading Los Angeles Dodgers in the loss column, the boys by the Bay have been swinging limp noodles. 

Before the first pitch against the Washington Nationals on Tuesday night, SF ranked last in Major League Baseball in runs scored (120), home runs (16), runs batted in (109), and were second to last in slugging percentage (.358, last in the National League).

The only offensive category that doesn't find the Gents wallowing near the bottom is triples (7) and that's more to do with the unique dimensions of Triples Alley in Pac Bell Park.

Nope, the splinters have absorbed the majority of criticism in '09 and it's been warranted.

But it bears mentioning the NL West has been a pitching-dominated division now for several years.  This season, the maxim has been taken to (perhaps) a new level.

The Arizona Diamondbacks' rotation isn't totally healthy, but Dan Haren has been scintillating even if his record doesn't show it.  The Bums' staff has followed the lead of legitimate ace Chad Billingsley and has been stifling clubs all year. 

The San Diego Padres have cooled off and ace Jake Peavy doesn't have much to show for his efforts, but he's still Jake Peavy.  Finally, the Colorado Rockies—never known for a stingy stable of hurlers—actually boasts two nice arms on the front end in Ubaldo Jimenez and Aaron Cook.

This is a division that will cause a lot of lineups to struggle.

It's also a division weak on offense so there's probably some skew to the pitching metrics as well.  But make no mistake—this division has some of the best pitching in MLB.

Now, look at San Francisco's schedule to date.

The Giants have played 31 games (excluding tonight's) and only six outside the pitching-friendly/hitting-hostile confines of the NL West—three against the Milwaukee Brewers, two against the Chicago Cubs, and one against Washington. 

In those six games, the offense has averaged 6+ runs per game, .67 HRs per game, 5+ RBI per game, and is slugging .432.

Compare those to the averages for intra-NL West games:  3+ runs per game, .48 HRs per game, 3 RBI per game, and a slugging percentage almost 100 points lower.

The statistical differences don't look profound in absolute terms, but look at it in terms of percentages and you see the truth.  The Giants are almost doubling their offensive production (HRs is a stretch, I know) against teams hailing from a division other than their own.

I mention this because the disparity will only grow after tonight's game.

San Francisco hung nine runs, two bombs, and nine RBI on the Nats while slugging over .500.  Travis Ishikawa had another multi-hit game and collected one of the night's big knocks. 

Randy Winn continued to scald the ball with two more hits (including a double) as he works his average back to its customary .300 clip.  Emanuel Burriss got back on the hot track he found on the previous road trip by starting the winning rally in the ninth with a two-out, gritty single.

Aaron Rowand and Edgar Renteria each chipped in a hit and figured prominently in the offensive attack.  Particularly the new shortstop who drove in two HUGE, clutch runs.

The stallwart through the early season, Bengie Molina, connected for the first SF tater of the night.

As is becoming typical, Bengie brought the Giants back from the dead.  Bobby Howry and Jeremy Affeldt—through a combination of a couple bad pitches and some terrible luck—had just spent the last half-inning turning a one-run SF lead into a two-run deficit when Big Money strode to the plate.

Honoring the billing of his nickname, Molina wasted no time in depositing a pitch from Kip Wells over the left field wall to leadoff the bottom of the eighth.  It's impossible to overstate how much nicer a one-run deficit looks with six outs left compared to the two-run variety.

And then there was Pablo Sandoval.  To say Little Panda's evening was adventurous would be putting it mildly.

Not only did Sandoval have another busy and fabulous game with the leather at third base, he collected three hits in five at-bats so his night at the dish was no less eventful.  Pablo collected a single and was on his way to a triple with two outs in the seventh when the Dirt Monster between second and third tripped him up.

After seeing the little big fella go down in a belly-first heap and reach for his ankle, the triple-turned-out was the furthest thing from any SF fan's mind.  Ultimately, the "injury" appeared to be more to Sandoval's ego than to his wheel.

And that's a good thing for us.

Because it was Little Money's last at-bat that was the real kicker.

Down to his last strike and representing the Giants' last out in a game they once led by four but were now trailing by one, Sandoval got a mistake from Nats' closer du jour Joe Biemel. 

The ball was up, which is a terrible idea with two strikes on a batter.  Pablo showed exactly why by hitting a frozen rope that took no time to find the left field bleachers.

Game over, travesty averted, four games over .500, and only two back in the loss column from the hated Dodgers.  Not too shabby.

Especially when you consider this is the second consecutive game that's seen the vaunted San Francisco pitching sputter while the vilified timber won the day.

If the San Francisco Giants are serious about contending for the duration of 2009, it will clearly be their pitching that shoulders the heaviest load.  The staff figures to be one of the best in baseball.

And no matter how much spin you put on the offense, it will always be one of the weakest.

Still, it's nice to know reality may not be as ugly as the stats say.

**www.pva.org**