♫ U P R I G H T B A S E B A L L ◱

The Giants have jumped past .500 in games in which I’ve been in attendance for the first time since I was in Philadelphia in July.  I saw three wins at Citi Field, two losses in DC, a win and a loss in Philadelphia, a loss against the Braves at home, and yesterday’s thrilling walk-off.  The Dodgers were able to come behind and win the the 11th of their game against the Padres so the Magic Number only dropped to 23 but the Giants have proven themselves a resilient and tenacious team since the All Star break.  If the Giants keep playing the way they’ve played since the start of the month, it’ll be hard for anyone to catch them.

As I suspected, Xavier Nady jumped up in the lineup to the six spot.  He pulled an oh-fer and had a great opportunity to gain the title “Mr. September” in the bottom of the 9th but he struck out. Surprisingly, Joaquin Arias did not get the start at short stop against a left handed pitcher but it’s not surprising that some aspect of Bruce Bochy’s lineup surprised me so take it with a pinch on the back.  The bullpen had its ups and downs but new right handed Jean Machi threw a solid inning and Sergio Romo struck out two of the three batters he faced on route to recording the win.  By the way, Machi is from El Tigre, Venezuela—Spanish for The Tiger, Venezuela—and looks like the spawn of Pablo Sandoval and Guillermo Mota.  It doesn’t require a great imagination to come up with a nickname for Machi, you can go to weight route—he’s listed at 6’0, 250 lbs.—and call him Merry Machi or keep it simple and stick with hometown and call him El Tigre or perhaps a mix of the two—El Tigre Grande.

I’ve also decided to sign off each post with a different quote on the great game of baseball. Think of it as the fortune in a fortune cookie—the cookie isn’t that great so you rush through it and get to the fortune which ends up being somewhat disappointing in itself. The first quote in the series is courtesy of Mr. October, Reggie Jackson.

After Jackie Robinson, the most important black in baseball history is Reggie Jackson. — Reggie Jackson

Today’s mid-day post is brought to you by the Magic Number 25. The baseball calculation of the month is the Magic Number—the amount of wins plus the amount of second place team losses that will propel the first place team to the postseason—and I’ll give you, dear reader, the easiest formula to generate it.

M=163-(W1+L2)

Where M is the Magic Number, W1 is the amount of wins from the first place team and L2 is the amount of losses from the second place team.  In this case, the Giants have won 75 games and the Dodgers have lost 63.

Therefore:

M=163-(75+63)

M=163-138

M=25

Thus, the Magic Number is 25.

Quod erat demonstrandum.

There’s your math lesson for the day.  I covered history with the Giant of the Week earlier today so let’s get to religious studies and examine the whims of the baseball gods over the past month.

The Giants have been playing like a studlier version of the 2010 squad as of late whilst the Dodgers have been playing like group of car sick tee-ballers.  It seems like no amount of greenbacks—regardless of how obscene that sum may be—will placate the baseball gods in the City of Angels.  The Giants have made moves but they’ve been cheap and smart, quite the opposite of the Dodgers strategy which has seemingly been an internalized conversation along the lines of “the more expensive it is, the better it is. Right? Right.”  Wrong.  While Gyros fans bemoaned the loss of the Melkman and maniacal Dodgers fans cheered for the new blockbuster trade that each week brought, I have been content to watch a team of miSFits somehow piece together some of the best offensive baseball that the city of San Francisco has seen in years and doing it in such a stealthy and unheralded fashion that me thinks some of Brian Wilson’s mental ninja-ry rubbed off on the impressionable Brandon Belt.

Note to the reader: The following paragraph is a transcript of the mid-afternoon conversation between Wally and an empty chair alla mystery Republican National Convention speaker, Clint Eastwood.

What’s that, dear reader? You would like some proof of the aforementioned offensive stealth? Fair enough, but please tell me which player had the best batting average in all of MLB in the month of August? You’re stumped? Joaquin Arias. Absurd, right? Right.

The Giants found a way to top the National League in runs throughout August and all of their offensive splits have been near the top of the Majors with the exception of slugging percentage.  I don’t mind that, I don’t mind that one bit.  It means the Giants are playing smart and hitting well.  They don’t depend on the deep ball the way they did in 2010.

Trying to figure out what lineup Bruch Bochy is going to hand in is like trying to answer a question about Prince’s discography without use of Wikipedia—it used to be somewhat difficult but now it’s just impossible.  At the present moment, the hot handed Arias is platooned with teenage heart throb, Brandon Crawford, at shortstop. However, there have been hints that Bochy is encouraging Arias to play in left field so he can get to the plate more as the left handed Crawford gets most of the starts. By hints I mean Bochy has told the media that he has asked Arias to play in left.  That said, Bay Area native and boyhood Giants fan, Xavier Nady, got his first start in black and orange at left field today and made Brian Sabean look like a deranged, mad scientist, genius yet again.  In his first at bat, Nady cleared a loaded pond with a steaming double right inside the bag at third.  Somehow the Baby Panda—Hector Sanchez—huffed and puffed his way from third to home, a feat in itself.  If Nady can keep things going and prove he’s still capable of Major League at bats and Arias agrees to play in left, correctly picking the Giants lineup will be on par with hitting the power ball.

Nady’s three ribbies proved to be enough as Tim Lincecum threw a solid game to pick up the win.  Lincecum’s only tough moment came in the third inning when he gave up a walk to start things off and then watched David of Jesus (DeJesus) blast a 1-1 fastball offering out of the park with the wind at its back.  As always, Timmy was still able to confuse the heck out of the opposing lineup and registered seven strikeouts in 6.1 innings pitched.  The bullpen shut down the Cubbies for the final 11 outs of the game, allowing just one base runner, and Sergio Romo executed the save.

Pitching has been solid, it could be better but it could be worse. In this sport—as in life—you learn to praise the things you have and not get too greedy.  Sure, I could regale you with statistics and point out that the bullpen has been throwing better yet could/should be lights out but let’s keep the eye on the ball and remember where the team sits right now, five games up on the Dodgers.  You’ll never hear me complain about that.  Heck, they could be 14 games behind the Rockies but there would still be a silver lining to that cloud if the boys in blue trailed the Giants by five.

Here’s to hoping the Dodgers will help lower that magic number this evening and here’s to a great August and here’s to closing down the NL West in September! Slainte!

The title of this post comes from a Bruce Lee movie—“Return of the Tiger”—which I have admittedly not seen and have little interest in actually seeing.  That said, the actual return of the Kung-Fu Panda is something that Giants fans have universally been looking forward to since he went on the disabled list in late July.  I’ve checked several times throughout the day to see if Pablo Sandoval will be activated today but there’s still no solid news although there is plenty of innuendo and insinuation that today will be the day.  Most people expected him back either yesterday or today and Sandoval’s personal twitter account tweeted “Thank you San Jose for the hospitality - I felt great and ready for tomorrow - Let’s go Giants #PANDAMODEON” last night after his game with the Single-A San Jose Giants ended.  I assume he meant to write “pandamonium” as a play on “pandemonium” unless he was referring to an odeon where ancient Greeks and Romans gathered to perform early musical theater in which case I don’t follow.

My strong hunch is that Sandoval will return to AT&T Park on the active roster tonight.  When he does come back, I’d imagine that one of the lesser right handed relievers—Brad Penny, George Kontos, and Clay Hensley—or lefty, Jose Mijares will be sent down to make room for him although there’s an off chance that either Joaquin Arias or Brett Pill might get nudged off of the active roster.  My money is on Brad Penny since the Giants currently have thirteen pitchers and only twelve position players—most teams carry eleven pitchers and thirteen position players with the last spot up for grabs.  Of the eight relievers on the active roster, there are five righties and Penny is usually the last one off of the bench, he’s certainly the pitcher I have the least faith in with the game on the line although he seems to be a good inning eater.

The move really depends on what skipper, Bruce Bochy plans to do with the infield when the Panda comes back and who he thinks he’ll need in the bullpen until September 1 when rosters are expanded.  Washington has four lefties and three switch hitting position players on their active roster so it’s 50-50. Bochy is notoriously hard to read and sometimes his decisions regarding who gets playing time and who stays on the active roster seems capricious at best.

There has been a mini-debate raging through Giants fandom for the last few weeks regarding what the Giants should do with their infield when Sandoval returns.  Since the signing of Marco Scutaro at the edge of the trade deadline, the Giants find themselves in the enviable position of sporting too much infield talent.  That said, each guy brings something different to the lineup and the defensive structure of the team so I’ll give a quick run through of the contenders.

As I wrote earlier today, Brandon Belt hasn’t been getting a whole ton of love from Giants fans this season but he has stabilized his offensive game and shown some strong improvements since ending a terrible 2 for 50+ streak nearly two weeks ago.  The thing that many people overlook when they peer through his offensive statistics is that he can generally be counted on for a quality at bat.  Even if he ends up striking out, he makes the opposing pitcher work for it, fouling off pitches and laying off “come get me’s.”  He’s also a solid defensive first baseman and with his large yet gangly frame he’s able to get to balls that some of the other options at first might not be able to.  I personally like Belt at first given the choices and I think he has the ability to really start heating up as the Giants go to work down the stretch.

Brandon Crawford has been the regular starter at shortstop but he doesn’t give the offensive support that impatient fans have come to demand over the last season and a half.  His defensive play is joyously outstanding 90% of the time and dismally bleak 10% of the time.  Like Belt, there are some people out there that would like to see someone who is more offensively inclined to assume his starting role but Crawford has also shown a lot of improvement and he can force scoring opportunities from the bottom end of the lineup.

Ryan Theriot is a heckuva character, he’s got the energy of Pat Burrell during the 2010 season, running around and punching his teammates after walk offs.  His defense is strong at second base and he does a good job of holding down the latter part of the middle of the order, coming through with punchy singles in clutch moments.

Marco Scutaro is a jack of all trades type who can play second, third, and short and I’ve even heard that he has been taking a few reps at first.  He’s been pretty outstanding for the Giants since he joined after Sandoval’s injury in late July, sufficiently filling in the Panda’s clown sized shoes at third.  He’s generally hitting second in the lineup and he’s been doing a great job there, moving Angel Pagan over or getting things started himself.  At his age—he’s 36—his defense isn’t quite as strong as most of the other candidates but the Giants sure could use his bat.

Joaquin Arias is sort of a stop gap and defensive substitute.  He plays shortstop well and he’s picked up third base fast where he’s made most of his appearances.  His offensive prowess is sub-Crawford but even he still has the ability to get things done in the clutch and he’s probably the second or third fastest Giant which comes in handy as a pinch runner when Sandoval represents the tying run on first or second unless they install an oxygen tank at third.

Brett Pill comes in from time to time as a pinch hitter and has been platooned with Belt on and off throughout the season at first base.  He hasn’t gotten a lot of playing time but his offensive numbers are fairly solid.  That said, Buster Posey generally gets a start a week at first base and Belt has been heating up so Pill’s role will probably continue to diminish throughout August and into September barring an injury or a rough patch for Belt.

Aubrey Huff is still on the DL, who knows when he’ll be back.  He probably won’t factor much in the rest of the season although I can see him making some pinch hitting appearances in September.

All of that taken with a grain or two of salt, the following is what I would personally recommend if anyone ever thought of asking me:

1st: Belt should be the regular starter with Posey taking occasional starts when he needs a day out of the crouch.

2nd: Theriot should be the regular starter although Scutaro should be worked in so he plays the majority of games, splitting his time between 2nd, short, and a little third.

SS: Crawford should be the go to guy but Scutaro should take a few games.

3rd: Panda all the way unless he needs a breather, in which case Scutaro should take the start.

Now there are the people who want Sandoval to continue playing first as he had been doing when he was injured but I think that’s just absurd and should only be employed if the Giants find themselves in dire offensive straits in September.

I must be some sort of soothsayer sent from the baseball gods to predict baseball future—half man and half Cooperstownian, my powers must never fall into the wrong hands… Humility aside, I would like to personally take some credit for Hunter Pence’s game winning home run yesterday which coincidentally simultaneously beat the Rockies and the spread.  He hit a heck of a ball yesterday which elicited my loudest moment of baseball induced joy in the solitude of my apartment since the season started.  The Giants really needed that five run, 8th inning for an amalgamation of obvious reasons which I will briefly outline below.

1. A win is a win, you gotta win games to win a pennant. Simple enough.
2. A series loss to the Rockies at home would’ve been pretty demoralizing even though the Dodgers did exactly that thing last week.
3. The Dodgers beat the Hanley-less Marlins earlier in the day and the Giants were in jeopardy of sharing the lead with the hated boys in blue.
4. The Giants haven’t won a series at home since they took down the San Diego Padres in late July.  The win allowed the Giants to even out their post All Star break record at home to 8-8.
5. With a potentially tough series against the Nationals starting today, the late offensive surge will hopefully provide momentum and serve as a springboard for the Giants to propel themselves forward alla McKyla Maroney.

It was the near perfect setting for Hunter Pence to get his first home run in San Francisco colors—the only thing that could’ve made it better for him would’ve been if Buster Posey had struck out, leaving the bases loaded for a grand slam that erased the one run deficit. There have been a lot of Pence naysayers—or “Pence Sitters” or “Pence-ive fans” as we refer to them at UpRightBaseball—but 42,000+ people left AT&T Park yesterday with a much better feeling about him.  Pence also came up with a huge, diving catch in Triple’s Alley in the 4th inning to quell the Rockies rally, disproving some of those who say he’s virtually a scarecrow in right field.

However, the unsung hero of the game is definitely Brandon Belt who went 4-4 with two doubles and a walk.  Between those two guys, the Giants definitely have the most awkward and gangly players in baseball.  Watching Belt hustle into gear to steal bases or to dig out a double is probably one of the more comical images despite his surprising speed.  In fact, I’ve come up with my own personal nickname for Belt as a result of his running gait.  I call him the “Night Train” because it takes him a couple steps to get going but once he hits his speed he can carry his caboose around the plates all night—it honestly looks like it’s hard for him to stop going.

It was great to see both of those guys come up big especially with all of the criticism both players have been receiving from Giants fans as of late.  There’s always a touch of beautiful irony when you watch a guy who was on the precipice of being booed and heckled by the hometown fans receive a “we’re not worthy” bowing ovation which is precisely what Pence got when he returned to right field in the 9th.

Buster Posey continued his excellence, putting in a tremendous, nine fastball at bat against the Rockies rock solid closer, Rafael Betancourt, before scoring Joaquin Arias on a sacrifice fly to tie the game.  He also drew three walks and singled on his only official at bat of the game.  Melky Cabrera and Ryan Theriot each grabbed two hits.

The late game theatrics and the game winning home run from a slumping hitter gave the game a certain throwback feeling to 2010.  At this point, no one can say the Giants aren’t a hitting team as the lineup has really started clicking over the last few weeks.  Granted, there are still times when the Giants offense reverts to its anemic roots but all and all everyone seems to be on the upswing, so to speak. Over the course of the last week, the team wide batting average is 24 points higher than the number for the season—.287 versus .263.  On base percentage and slugging percentage are also much higher during this period in comparison with the rest of the season—OBP: .361 versus .323. SLG: .442 versus .387.  The Giants have also stolen nine bases over the last week which is nice to see. Bruce Bochy doesn’t like playing small ball or risking base runners which often infuriates me but it seems like he has given Angel Pagan and Brandon Belt a yellowish-green light on the base paths.

The bullpen has been up and down but I still see no reason for concern, Sergio Romo is throwing like his old, nasty self and Jeremy Affeldt has put in some great appearances.  I’ll be writing about Pablo Sandoval’s return later today which will likely remove one of the relievers from the active roster, probably Brad Penny.  An important thing to note is that Guillermo Mota’s 100 game suspension is due to end in in the next two or three so he’ll be able to rejoin the team when the rosters are expanded. Mota isn’t a lights out pitcher but he does do a solid job of eating up innings and holding the game close which may prove crucial considering the amount of work the starting staff has put in thus far.

I’m looking forward to this upcoming series against the Washington Gnats.  The Giants got swept in three tough games in DC and hopefully they will be able to repay the favor and tie up the season series.

The Giants came up with a very respectable series split in St. Louis to finish their road trip 5-2.  Madison Bumgarner got penned for the loss today despite a very solid outing, allowing three runs on three hits and a walk with seven strikeouts over the course of six innings.  The third run came after a blown call when Jon Jay was called safe when stealing third.  The replays showed that Joaquin Arias got the tag down on Jay a good four inches before he reached the base but the umpire’s view was obscured by Arias and Allen Craig followed up with a sacrifice fly to score Jay. The final score was 3-1 as the Giants failed to cash in on a several opportunities throughout the game.  They didn’t look quite as fierce at the plate as they have been as of late but I find no reason to be concerned.  Adam Wainwright did a good job of mixing in his off speed pitches as he went through the Giants lineup for the second and third times before going to the fastball late in the count and it didn’t appear like any of the Gyros hitters were able to get a good reading of him.  Since the Dodgers have the day off, they picked up a half game on the Giants and now only reside a game out of the lead with each team slated to play 50 more games.

Jon Jay was almost a sure thing with a single for the Cardinals this series, going 10 for 15 and raising his BA from .284 to .308 in the process.  However, only one of Jay’s hits was for extra bases—a double off of Bumgarner which set up the opportunity for the controversial call at third today—and the Gyros were able to limit him to two runs during the series.

Games like this always make me wish I was somehow given the power to spread a few runs around throughout a series.  The Giants won with 14 to spare last night, laying the bat heavy on the Cardinals while Ryan Vogelsong gave a lights out performance.  Hunter Pence produced two big RBIs in his first two at bats when the game was still in question and Marco Scutaro came up with his third career grand salami in the top of the 9th to shore up the win and help the Giants beat the spread by 16.5 runs. 

Bruce Bochy’s new left handed toy, Jose Mijares, came into the game in the bottom of the 9th and although he allowed two base runners, he got out of the inning clean and finished off the shutout. The Giants picked up the Venezuelan born Mijares off of the waivers from Kansas City and put right handed reliever, Shane Loux, on the DL to free up a space on the 25 man roster.  This gives the Giants bull pen three solid lefties along with Jeremy Affeldt and Javier Lopez.  Lopez is more of a leftie specialist while Affeldt and right hander Brad Penny are probably the closet things the bull pen has to a long reliever although I wouldn’t want to see either of those guy pitch more than two innings.  From what I can put together about Mijares, he sort of falls between Lopez’s left hander dominance and Affeldt’s ability to take over for several innings if need be.  This leads me to imagine that Mijares will be the third leftie off of the bench but it still adds depth to the bullpen and gives Bochy the ability to play his favorite, three card monte-esque game of matching up pitchers against batters in the later innings.

One thing that I noticed and was particularly impressed by during this road trip was the Giants ability to get their lead off man safely on base to start each inning.  In Colorado, the lead off man reached safely 15 times out of 27 innings—.556—and in St. Louis, he reached 13 our of 36 innings—.361—for a grand total of 28 for 63—.444. The Giants also were impressive in the 1st and 9th innings of the games, scoring at least one run in the 1st inning of the first six games they played and scoring in the 9th in four games.  First inning runs are important on the road because it allows the starting pitcher to take the mound with the lead which helps to settle some of the pregame jitters. 

The Giants are set to face the Rockies again, this time at AT&T Park.  Since the All Star break, the Gyros are 4-6 at home—they swept the Triple-A Astros before being swept by the Dodgers and dropping three of four to the Mets after a strong road trip.  During the same period, the Giants are 9-4 on the road against some fairly contentious teams. 

Tim Lincecum will get things started for the Giants against fellow right hander, Tyler Chatwood.  The 22 year old starter had a decent outing by Rockies standards against the Giants on August 5, giving up one earned run on two hits and four walks in 3.1 innings pitched.  His ERA sits at 6.61 and his WHIP is at 1.96 so the Giants would do well to continue their offensive trend of getting the lead off man on base and scoring early, especially since the Rockies have an awkward four man starting rotation and they cap their starters at or around 75 pitches.  Hopefully, I’ll be able to wish you a Happy Lincecum Day tomorrow and the troubled right hander will be able to pick up his third straight win and quality start.  One thing that has gotten overlooked during his rough season is that Lincecum has still been able to register strikeouts, racking up 139 Ks which puts him in the top ten in the National League.  Lincecum’s post All Star break ERA is currently at 2.48 so I strongly feel like I’ll be writing a post in the coming weeks entitled “How Timmy Got His Groove Back.”  With a guy like Lincecum, the mental game plays so much into how he pitches and it’s been clear that he’s over thought his delivery and pitch selection.  I think it’s just a matter of getting comfortable with his velocity and his battery mate and he’ll find himself in the League’s elite pitching corps again.

A lovely thing to note is that the Dodgers lost their series against the Rockies, winning only one of three.  The Dodgers were completely blanked on Tuesday night which has to be embarrassing when the Giants put up 35 runs against the same team.  In the last week and a half, the Dodgers have done away with a lot of the older guys that had kept them competitive while Matt Kemp was out on two extended trips to the disabled list—Tony Gywnn Jr. and Bobby Abreu were designated for assignment and Juan Uribe was dropped down to the Minor Leagues-.  The hired guns that they’ve brought in have been fairly productive but they just weren’t able to get it done against the Rockies at home for whatever reason.

This weekend the Dodgers will face off against the Marlins on the road for Hanley Rameriz’s home coming and the floundering Diamondbacks will head home to face the Nationals after today’s series finale in Pittsburgh—they currently lead 6-3 in the top of the 8th and if they hold on, they will sit four games behind the Giants.

Earlier today the Giants finished off their fourth sweep of the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field which opened in 1995—the Rockies played at Mile High Stadium in 1993 and 1994.  Each of the three wins was fairly resounding and the Giants hitters came into the game with a chip on their collective shoulder with several of them having a rough go of it over the course of the last few weeks.  They scored 35 runs off 45 hits 17 walks.  Every player reached base safely in each game they received a plate appearance with the exception of Tim Lincecum today who still managed to get a crucial RBI early on in the game.

Ryan Vogelsong, Madison Bumgarner, and Tim Lincecum threw 18.1 innings with a 2.95 ERA and a 1.25 WHIP—and just a 1.00 ERA and a 1.06 WHIP if you exclude Vogelsong’s rough 7th inning on Friday night.  Together, the three starters stuck out 17 and walked eight.  Today, Lincecum was able to battle back after a tough 1st inning in which he threw 35 pitches.  However he still had trouble with his location throughout the game, walking five Rockies. 

Lincecum has been steadily improving since the All Star break with a couple of spotty performances thrown in here and there.  In his five starts since the All Star Game, Lincecum has won three games, a 2.48 ERA, a 1.22 WHIP, and lasted an average of 6.53 innings per start—the three wins double his 2012 total to six, he lowered his ERA from 6.42 to 5.43, his WHIP has dropped from 1.53 to 1.49, and raised his innings per start from 5.37 to 5.62.  I know that’s a bit number heavy so if that’s not your style, read the above as “he’s pitching much better than he was before.” 

As rosy a picture as I just painted for you, dear reader, not everything was perfect.  Collectively, the usually lights out bullpen had a 7.56 ERA during the series—allowing 7 runs in the 8.2 innings they pitched.  I won’t bother you with the other numbers/I don’t want to calculate them and ruin my mood but I can tell you that they aren’t great just by looking through the box scores and recalling the three games.

The Giants offense got the bullpen off the hook by scoring 22 of their 35 runs in the last three frames of each game.  As I mentioned earlier, Bruce Bochy’s pregame motivational speech on Friday supposedly touched on closing out games and that’s just what the Gyros hitters did.

Now everyone knows that the Rockies are struggling at his point in the season and aren’t exactly what one would consider an elite team but at the same time the Giants did exactly what they needed to do, you beat crap teams and you beat them badly to send a message to the rest of the League.

Tomorrow night the Gyros will start a four game series in St. Louis.  The Cardinals are looking to sweep the Brewers and are currently battling out a close game in Sunday’s night slot—they have a 1-0 lead going into the bottom of the 7th.  I’ll put together an in depth series preview tomorrow for your perusal, dear reader.

Side note: I generated all of the numbers in this post regarding Tim Lincecum and the series wide numbers.  Everything was triple checked but if it looks wrong, let me know and we’ll discuss.  I’d hate to throw incorrect numbers into the blogosphere.

Yes, dear reader, let us pour a libation to the baseball gods and thank them for our sweet fortunes.  I could write another post like yesterday’s, describing in minute detail the individual accomplishments and statistics of last night’s trouncing but I’ll keep the revelry as brief as possible and do my best to avoid another statistically driven post. 

That said, I do have to mention a few numbers, just to get them off of my chest.  Buster Posey is hitting .453 since the All Star break—34 for 75—and last night he hit his six home run since the break, number 16 on the season.  The Giants scored ten or more runs in their second consecutive game for the first time since a late August series in 2010 against Dusty Baker’s Cincinnati Reds.  For the second straight night, all starting position players got a hit and the two players off of the bench—Brandon Belt and Gregor Blanco—went 1-2 with a sacrifice fly and a run scored. 

Madison Bumgarner threw a fantastic game to get his 12th win of the season, striking out seven Rockies in six innings and only allowing six base runners.  The bullpen was a bit on the shaky side of things though, giving up five runs in the final three frames of the game—one might say that our bullpen looked “Rockie” last night or perhaps they got “Rockied”… I don’t know which makes for the better pun, dear reader.  But, like last night, the Giants refused to take their foot off the gas pedal late in the game and went for the jugular, scoring four of their own runs in the 8th and Angel Pagan hit a solo shot in the 9th to keep the game out of reach. 

Pagan has been red hot in the lead off spot in the last two games, going 7-10 with six runs and four RBIs.  He seems much more comfortable hitting lead off than he does out of the six spot or anywhere else where Bruce Bochy puts him and I would venture to say that he has momentarily regained his spot at the head of the lineup.

Okay, now that last night is out of the way, allow me to briefly preview today’s game which starts in a touch over two hours.

Buster Posey is going to get the start at first base so Hector Sanchez will be catching Tim Lincecum today.  The Rockies starter, Christian Friedrich, has been pulled with what sounds to be a season ending back injury so the Giants will likely face Tyler Chatwood who was called up from Double-A Tulsa yesterday.  Chatwood is 1-1 with a 7.62 ERA in seven relief appearances for the Rockies this season.  In the minors, he’s gone 0-2 with a 5.79 ERA in nine Triple-A starts and 1-1 with a 3.00 ERA in four Double-A starts this season.  Hopefully the Giants can get to the 22 year old right hander early and force the Rockies to go to their battered bullpen  by the 4th or 5th inning—keep in mind that the Rockies have a silly four man rotation and starters are removed from the game after they have thrown 75 pitches so this isn’t an unattainable goal, especially against a 22 year old who hasn’t thrown a big league pitch since July 5.  Chatwood was drafted out of high school in the second round of the 2008 MLB Draft with the 74th overall pick.  The Angels brought him up last season and he had 25 starts with two relief appearances, posting a 6-11 record with a 4.75 ERA and a 1.76 WHIP.  The Angels traded him to the Rockies last November for catcher, Chris Iannetta.

I have faith in Timmy today.  Although his worst start of his career came in April at Coors Field, I sense that he’s regaining his confidence and having sat and watched his fellow starters Ryan Vogelsong and Madison Bumgarner receive 27 runs in support will hopefully allow him to loosen up and bring out the jovial, smiling Timmy that we all know so well.

Giants win, Dodgers lose. I could get used to this.

The Giants had everything clicking on all cylinders to start off this road trip in Atlantam dropping nine runs on the hapless Braves who were throttled by lights out pitching from former franchise pitcher, Barry Zito. The Giants benefited from a hot handed Buster Posey who knocked in five runs on three hits and even Zito got into the action with an RBI single.  Hector Sanchez AKA Little Panda left the game in the top of the forth with a strained knee and although he’s scheduled for an MRI on Wednesday, team doctors don’t think it’s that serious and no roster moves have been made.  That will make Pablo Sandoval AKA Big Panda Buster’s emergency replacement.  Fun fact that all Giants fans should know by now: Big Panda’s original position was catcher. 

The good news is that Posey can catch Zito well. Four of Zito’s seven innings of three hit, shut out baseball came with Buster behind the dish.  It certainly frees things up in the lineup for Bruce Bochy to throw Brandon Belt in at first against a right handed pitcher if Sanchez is struggling and Zito is chalked to make the start.  The jury is still out on whether I’d like to see Sanchez making the signals and Posey at first or Posey behind the dish and Belt at first in that situation but I reckon that’s what the second half of the season is all about.

The Dodgers bullpen dropped another one in late innings after being handed a lead from their starter.  So far, the Giants have won all four of their post All Star Break games and the Dodgers have lost four straight after winning their first.  Let’s keep our fingers crossed that the rest of the road trip will be as easy going.