The San Francisco Giants won their first series since defeating the Arizona Diamondbacks during the weekend of June 21st and 22nd. Prior to that, it was still during the Giants' heyday.
Back in early June, the Giants' domination of the St. Louis Cardinals trickled into June 1st with an 8-0 victory. Then came defeating the Cincinnati Reds in two games, then sweeping the New York Mets. After that? 5 wins and 17 losses prior to this series against the San Diego Padres.
It's been hell watching a 10-game lead evaporate and now seeing the Los Angeles Dodgers atop the NL West, but it's what everybody expected -- to see the Dodgers at the top. However, after the floor was pulled from under the Giants just as it was a season ago, at least they can still salvage things and rebound unlike last year.
Making adjustments in the batting order worked wonders. Even though it followed up with two straight losses, Hunter Pence leading off was a major reason the Giants were able to get on top early in Sunday's win over the Padres. It also helps that one of the long-injured players, Brandon Belt, is back to give the lineup a jolt.
With Belt back, that makes it easy to push Pence in the starting role, and that should fill the void of a leadoff hitter until Angel Pagan returns. But the weekend wasn't all fireworks -- now another injury was dealt to Pablo Sandoval, who's had one of the hottest bats in a meager offense during the downslide. Sandoval is simply day-to-day, but with the luck that the Giants have had with injuries, we'll see how fast he gets back into the lineup.
Tim Lincecum finds consistency. It's hard to believe, but Lincecum recorded his third straight terrific outings after Sunday's 5-3 victory. It wasn't dominating like his no-hitter against the Padres, throwing 105 pitches in 6.1 innings of work, but he was able to limit damage. He only gave up three hits and a run while striking out six. He moves to 8-5 on the season and quickly becoming the team's renewed ace.
Sergio Romo continues to struggle. He gave up a two-run bomb in the eighth inning to give the Padres a little bit of life and cut the lead to two runs. Thank god the team scored two runs in the top half of the inning. Romo is certainly in a slump and it's continuing to get worse. We can simply hope he gets it together to help out in the bullpen late in the year.
Is Saturday's comeback finally the turnaround the Giants need? Every fan is trying to pinpoint the moment that will turn this team back into its winning ways. We've been wrong so far. Would it be Big Time Timmy Jim's no hitter? Nope. Would it be the fourth inning against the Cardinals that resulted in stranding the opponent with bases loaded and zero outs and scoring in the bottom half of that inning? Nope. Now, can it finally be a game-tying Michael Morse home run in the ninth inning and winning in extras? It will have to be done against the Bay Area rivals that haven't slipped yet this season.
Next up: Oakland A's (55-33)
- 1st in the AL West
- Added Jeff Samardzija in a blockbuster deal with the Chicago Cubs
- Scored most runs in MLB (435) while having 14th-best team batting average (.245)
- Second-best team in MLB in pitching (3.16 ERA, Washington is 1st)
The offense won't wow you, but the A's are able to score. Derek Norris is the only regular that is hitting above .300. Coco Crisp is hitting .291 but has an on-base percentage of .383. Thanks to Crisp and Jed Lowrie, that's led to Brandon Moss and Josh Donaldson taking advantage at the 4 and 3 position in the order, respectively. Moss leads the team with 19 home runs and 62 RBIs.
For the Giants to keep the train moving positively, they'll have a tall order in a four-game, split-home series against the A's before having three against the Diamondbacks at home to end the first half of the season.
Pitching matchups
- Monday - Ryan Vogelsong (R, 5-5, 3.86) vs Jesse Chavez (R, 6-5, 3.23)
9:05 PM CT | TV: NBC Bay Area / CSN California - Tuesday - Madison Bumgarner (L, 9-6, 3.09) vs Sonny Gray (R, 8-3, 3.08)
9:05 PM CT | TV: CSN Bay Area / CSN California - Wednesday - TBA vs Matt Cain (R, 1-7, 4.27)
9:15 PM CT | TV: CSN Bay Area / CSN California - Thursday - Scott Kazmir (L, 10-3, 2.53) vs Tim Hudson (R, 7-5, 2.53)
2:45 PM CT | TV: CSN Bay Area / CSN California / MLB Network
Luckily, the Giants won't have to face Samardzija as he made his debut on Sunday. We don't know who will be pitching on Wednesday just yet, but the best matchup is the Thursday afternoon showdown between Kazmir and Hudson, assuming Hudson brings the good stuff. That game will also be seen nationally on MLB Network for those that don't live in California.
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