♫ U P R I G H T B A S E B A L L ◱

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.

Last night the Giants finished off their fifth sweep of the 2012 campaign including a four game sweep of the Cubs that started off June.  Now they face the equally hot St. Louis Cardinals for a four game series at Busch Stadium.  The Cardinals are coming off of their own sweep against their divisional rivals, the Milwaukee Brewers and have won seven of their last ten games.  Since the All Star break both teams are 13-9 although the Giants lead the National League West while the Cardinals trail the Cincinnati Reds by seven games in the NL Central.  The Giants will face four, fairly solid right handed starters which is a shame since both Melky Cabrera and Buster Posey have been lighting it up against left handed pitching.  In mid May, the two teams split a two game series at AT&T Park.

The Giants pitching staff will face a tough St. Louis lineup which leads the National League in batting average (.277), On Base Percentage (.345), and On Base Plus Slugging Percentage (.781) but the Giants counter well, ranking in the top three in the NL in Batting Average Against (.238) and WHIP (1.26).  Matt Holilday, Yadier Molina, and David Freese all present a potential challenge to the Giants, ranking seventh through tenth in NL Batting Average whereas Melky Cabrera and Buster Posey will threaten the Cardinals pitchers, ranking first and sixth respectively.  Posey is hitting .545 with a home run, five RBIs, and a base on balls in two games against the Cardinals this season which are similar to his post All Star break numbers so hopefully he’ll be able to continue his streak.

The most compelling pitching match up of the series is tonight’s opener with a righty on righty battle between Matt Cain and Jake Westbrook.  Both pitchers are looking for their 11th wins of the season tonight and they both have similar numbers across the board on the season although Cain’s BAA is a good .080 lower than Westbrook’s.  The Giants will look for Cain to take the game into the latter innings as nearly the entire bullpen was called into the game last night.  As I noted in my last post, the Giants bullpen struggled against the Rockies and they needed five pitchers to record the final nine outs of yesterday’s win. 

Tomorrow, Barry Zito will face off against Lance Lynn who leads the Cardinals with 13 wins.  Zito, the lesser of the Giants lefties, is still putting up better than expected numbers although he was rocked by the Dodgers and the Mets at home in his last two starts.  Both teams got to Zito early and often with the Dodgers scoring seven earned runs in 5.1 innings and the Mets scoring six earned runs in 4.1 innings pitched.  His last quality start came against the Atlanta Braves on July 17 in which he pitched seven innings of shutout baseball while getting plenty of offensive support lead by Buster Posey.  That win sparked the Giants solid road trip.  Lance Lynn recently got shelled by the hapless Cubs at Wrigley Field, giving up six earned runs in five innings although the Cardinals rallied behind him and gave him the win.

Wednesday will bring Ryan Vogelsong to the mound against Joe Kelly who will be making his 11th Major League start since making his debut on June 10, a day after his 24th birthday.  Kelly is 2-4 with a 3.14 ERA and 1.40 WHIP and has pitched an average of 5.71 innings in his first ten starts.  Vogelsong’s last outing was fabulous up until the 7th inning when the Rockies started shelling him.  Knowing what I do about Vogelsong and his fierce competive spirit, I would imagine that he’ll come out looking to blow away the Cardinals hitters. As a side note, Vogelsong retook the pole position as National League ERA leader after Nationals pitcher, Jordan Zimmermann, gave up four runs in five innings on Saturday.

Madison Bumgarner will take on Adam Wainwright in the series closer on Thursday.  Wainwright’s ERA currently sits at 4.03 although he’s coming off of a one run, complete game against Milwaukee on Saturday.  Wainwright has been steadily dropping his ERA since the All Star break but he’s still far from his 2010 numbers when he won 20 games for the Cards.  Bumgarner is on a hot streak, giving up two or fewer runs and pitching six or more innings in each of his five starts since the All Star break although his record stands at 2-1 during that period.

Cardinal’s closer, Jason Motte, has 24 saves from 28 opportunities while presumed Gyros closer, Santiago Casilla has converted 24 of 30 chances but has a significantly higher WHIP, BAA, and ERA as any Giants fan could probably guess.  Hunter Pence hit a two run shot against Motte in his only at bat against him this season which represents two of the 14 earned runs Motte has given up all season.

Elsewhere in the National League West, the Dodgers start a three game home series against the Rockies who will hopefully give them a harder time than they gave the Giants over the weekend.  The Diamondbacks will also start a four game series against the Pirates at PNC Park in Pittsburgh.  The Pirates have an NL leading home record having won 33 of 49 games—the Cincinnati Reds have won three more than the Pirates but they have also lost four more.  The demonic Dodgers and the devilish Diamondbacks currently reside a half game and four games behind the Gyros respectively while the Padres are 14 games back and the Rockies are 20 back.