San Francisco Giants: 10-Game Road Trip Defines Season
By some miraculous series of events, the San Francisco Giants find themselves only three games back of the NL West lead.
They have begun to capitalize on the Padres' recent slump and have inched closer and closer as the Giants near a four-game set with San Diego.
Tim Lincecum had his first great outing since July 15.
The Giants took a series from Colorado and, if not for a broken bat triple, may have swept the Rockies.
These next 10 games will show everyone if the Giants are worthy of a playoff spot. But a lot of things have to go right for this to happen.
Three in Los Angeles, three in Arizona and four at San Diego.
We'll take it series by series and see what has to happen.
Three at the Dodgers
1 of 4
Three games at the Los Angeles Dodgers
Probables:
Saturday: Matt Cain (10-10, 3.11) vs. Ted Lilly (5-1, 3.29)
Sunday: Jonathan Sanchez (9-8, 3.54) vs. Hiroki Kuroda (10-11, 3.39)
To this point in the season, the Giants and Dodgers have had their laughs at the others expense.
Early on, the Dodgers swept the Giants in Los Angeles and then came up to San Francisco and nearly repeated the feat.
Since then, the Giants have repaid the favor.
They are 6-6 against each other this season.
The Giants have already been handed one loss to begin the series and Chad Billingsley was his normal dominant self against San Francisco.
He was carrying a career 2.98 ERA against the Giants into the game last night and all he allowed was two unearned runs.
Barry Zito continues to struggle, giving up four runs in four innings.
Going into the series, the Giants' offense had started getting the clutch hit and it hasn't come from one source.
Juan Uribe, Buster Posey, Andres Torres.
Sometimes it's a stolen base. Darren Ford comes to mind.
If the Giants do not win the second game, something is wrong.
Dodgers starter Ted Lilly holds a career 5.12 ERA against the Giants. Matt Cain had been dogged by his zero wins against the Dodgers but that changed during his last start against them.
The pitching match up is heavily in their favor.
The Giants are going to need some luck in the third game.
Jonathan Sanchez has never beaten the Dodgers and carries a 6.04 career ERA against the So-Cal rivals. Sanchez is wildly inconsistent and needs to carry his last start against the Rockies to this start.
Getting runs early in all three games of the series is crucial.
With Cain, it seems whenever he gets early runs, he relaxes and cannot be hit.
Sanchez could use the early runs just in case something goes haywire with his control.
Three at the Diamondbacks
2 of 4
Probables:
Monday: Madison Bumgarner (5-4, 3.76) vs. Ian Kennedy (9-9, 4.20)
Tuesday: Tim Lincecum (12-9, 3.78) vs. Barry Enright (6-2, 2.45)
Wednesday: Barry Zito (8-11, 4.18) vs. Daniel Hudson (5-2, 3.03)
The Giants are facing a team they have defeated eight of the 12 times they have played. But they dropped two of the last three.
The pitching was nowhere to be found in the series and the Diamondback pitching was much better than earlier in the season.
San Francisco has faced each of these pitchers within the past month and a half and varying successes against them.
If Madison Bumgarner is back on his game like he was against the Rockies, he will be tough to hit. The Diamondbacks are also a team with little patience at the plate.
Stretch the zone and chances are they'll chase. They lead the majors in strikeouts.
Ian Kennedy was shaky the last time he saw the Giants. He went 6.2 innings giving up four runs in a Diamondback loss in Arizona.
Barry Enright and Daniel Hudson shut down the Giants in San Francisco.
Hudson pitched seven innings, allowing two runs on four hits and picked up the win.
Enright did one better. The rookie from Stockton pitched seven innings, allowing no runs on six hits.
He, too, picked up a win.
Hudson and Enright are huge upgrades to the D-Backs rotation. They are 28th in Major League Baseball with a 4.98 team ERA. They were the leagues worst for the better part of the season.
If Lincecum can pitch like he did against the Rockies, then we are probably in for another pitching duel between Enright and Timmy.
The only way the Giants win the third game of this series is if Barry Zito can get his head on straight again.
He surrendered eight base runners in four innings. In no league can you get away with that and win.
The Diamondbacks are playing spoiler and, so far, doing a very good job of it.
San Francisco will have to scrounge for runs against a revamped pitching staff.
Four at San Diego
3 of 4
Probables:
Thursday: Matt Cain vs. TBD
Friday: Jonathan Sanchez vs. TBD
Saturday: Madison Bumgarner vs. TBD
Sunday: Tim Lincecum vs. TBD
The Padres have hit their first significant losing streak of the season. Eight games and counting.
During this eight game losing streak, they have scored an average of 2.4 runs. This vaunted San Diego pitching staff has allowed 5.6 runs per game during the streak.
What could possibly be the remedy for them?
Facing the team that has not figured out how to beat them. The Giants are 2-9 against the Padres this season, losing two of three in San Francisco last time they played them.
During the past week, the Giants pitching staff looks like they have found some swagger again. Well, except for Zito.
San Francisco also has the benefit of throwing their best four pitchers against San Diego. But pitching hasn't been the problem against San Diego.
The Giants are only allowing 3.63 runs per game against San Diego this season.
San Francisco has only been able to muster 2.1 runs per game.
This series comes down to the offense.
Some have talked about Aubrey Huff and Andres Torres being the team MVPs this season. Huff and Torres have struggled lately and, for them, it couldn't have come at a worse time.
Here are their numbers against the Padres.
Aubrey Huff vs. SD: .239 BA, .603 OPS, 0 HR, 2 RBI.
Andres Torres vs. SD: .194 BA, .609 OPS, 1 HR, 3 RBI.
As a team, the Giants are batting .219 with an OPS of .588.
Maybe the Padres carry their eight game losing streak to the Giants series. Maybe they don't.
One thing is for sure, if the Giants offense production doesn't improve, they will be in trouble in San Diego.
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How Do The Giants Need To Finish The Road Trip?
4 of 4
Back by three in the division. Back by three in the Wild Card.
The message is clear. Just win.
In September, there are no excuses to why you didn't win. You do or you don't. That's it.
The Giants have not played well against their divisional opponents all season, despite some solid stretches.
If you're going to win a division, a team must beat the teams in their division.
The Giants cannot worry about what the Padres are doing until they get to San Diego. They cannot worry about the Phillies and what they are doing.
Scoreboard watching takes the focus off the game at hand.
The Giants must finish the road trip with at least five wins and, most importantly, split in San Diego.
Losing another series to the Padres would be disastrous to the Giants playoff chances.
Is it possible for the Padres to continue to scuffle and the Giants slide around them? Sure.
A message to the Padres now could set the tone for the season ending series against those same Padres.
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