Giants falling behind…

Pardon My Bias Bleacher ReportAug 23, 2010

The San Francisco Giants are playing their worst baseball of the season and it couldn’t come at a worse time. Since August 4th the Giants have lost 8-11, thats 3 games under .500 and unacceptable for a team pushing for a playoff spot. They were on the heels of the Padres after winning 21 of their last 27 prior to August 5th. The Giants who owned the 4th best record in the MLB at one point and were in control of the wild card (while only being 1 game back of the division leading Padres) have fallen to 3 games back of the Phillies in the wild card race and 6 games back of the Padres in the NL West. What exactly is going wrong with them and why can’t they put some more W’s on the board?

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First off, the Giants opposition has gotten exponentially better. During their 21-6 run, the Giants played the: Brewers, Mets, Nationals, Marlins, Diamondbacks, Dodgers, and Rockies. While 4 of these teams are above .500, the combined record of these 7 opponents is 412-439, which is a .484 winning percentage. On the other hand, in the past 18 days,the Giants have played the Braves, Cubs, Padres, Phillies, and Cardinals. The Braves lead the NL East, the Padres lead the NL West, the Phillies lead the Wild Card, and the Cardinals 3 games back of the NL Central leading Reds (who the Giants beat 11-2 tonight). The combined record of these 5 teams is 337-283, which is a .544 winning percentage. And its only that low because the Giants played the Cubs who are 52-74 (and who the Giants won 3 of 4 against), the other 4 teams are a combined 285-209 (a winning percentage of .577) and the Giants are 5-10 against these teams. There is no question about it, the opposition is better and this is a big reason the Giants have slumped. But maybe this shows the Giants don’t deserve to be in the playoffs, if you can’t beat these playoff contending teams in the regular season, then who is to say you will beat them in October?

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So where are the Giants having trouble? Are their bats cooling down or are the pitchers getting worked? The answer is both. The offense has struggled to put runs on the board in their 15 games against the Braves, Padres, Phillies, and Cardinals. The Giants were able to score more than 3 runs only twice in those 15 games: a 5-2 win over Philadelphia and a 6-3 win over St. Louis on Aug 19th and 20th. In fact, the Giants were shutout twice and put up only 1 run another time. Despite adding Jose Guillen’s veteran bat (who wasn’t that big of an upgrade to begin with), the Giants have struggled to advance runners and have failed to hit well with runners in scoring position. Buster Posey has been able to get the bat on the ball and continue his strong rookie campaign, but he hasn’t been able to drive anyone home since his teammates are rarely on base. Pablo Sandoval really needs to turn it around and return to 2009 form, and he needs to do it soon. If the Giants offense can’t put runs up to support this overworked pitching staff the Giants will miss the playoffs for a 7th straight season.

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But we can not let the Giants pitching off the hook. While they have had some great games, the starting pitching has been inconsistent as of late. The only pitcher who has been consistent has been Tim Lincecum. Lincecum has been consistently bad since the All- Star Break. He has had 4 terrible starts since the All-Star Break, in each of these starts he has given up 4 runs or more while pitching no more than 5 and 1/3 innings. Lincecum has lost a career high 4 straight losses and just seems to throw a bad pitch or two that really cost him. In these 4 straight losses, Linceum has posted an 8.38 ERA while averaging less than 5 innings per outing. While he shows flashes of the Lincecum that Giants have come to love, he makes mistakes more often and the opposing hitters have started to capitalize. The other 4 starters (Cain, Zito, Sanchez, and Bumgarner) have performed well but have all been hit hard during this slump. But the fact of the matter is that you rely on your ace to put you in position to win games, and Lincecum has not been able to this as of late. And until he does so, the Giants will continue to struggle.

Inconsistent pitching coupled with below average run support has seemed to doom the Giants 2010 season. However, it is only the end of August and the Giants still have 36 games left to right the ship and make a push for the playoffs. And after the Giants 11-2 win over the Reds behind Matt Cain tonight, the Giants show they still have great pitching and their hitting woes can be fixed.

This is just an opinion…so please Pardon My Bias.