I’m sitting here in the press box at AT&T thinking about what the Giants can do to end this extended 2 week funk. They’ve had moments of brilliance including taking 2 of 3 each from the Rockies and Nationals, plenty of walk-offs for the season, and the bullpen has been solid.
However, the offense is starting to peter out a bit, and their starting rotation has the fewest quality starts in the National League at 21, tied with San Diego. This is unbecoming of this staff, and I keep hearing that the pitching will eventually come around, but the season is 1/3 over. This is a significant sample size, and there are signs that Cain is coming out of his funk, but Lincecum is right back to where he was at the end of last year with an ERA over 5. Zito is looking human again (starting today, btw), Vogelsong has been demolished before his pinkie suffered the same fate, and his replacement is still a mystery. Only Bumgarner has been performing to last year’s standards, and even then, he’s looked very human lately.
The road record is also a huge concern. Even though they won the division by 8 games last year, their road record was 46-35. That’s only 2 games behind their home record last year. Back to the present, only their home record is keeping them barely above .500 overall, and their road record is an abysmal 9-15.
So, here they sit, about to play game 4 of the Bay Bridge Series, with ex-Athletic, Barry Zito standing between a demoralizing sweep by their cross-bay rivals. Let’s hope he can find some of that Zen today to have at least a quality start and give the Giants a fighting chance to cut off the A’s fans broom tops and stop them talking about 1989.
Oh, and by the way to those A’s fans, if your team does sweep the Giants. Kudos to your team; they are hot right now, and the Giants are stumbling. I suppose the Giants’ players can sob at their locker after the game and wipe away their tears with both World Series rings.
As far as today, please tune into twitter.com/torturecast for my stream of baseball thoughts throughout the day, and feel free to tweet back any questions, comments, or insults you have. I can take them all day with my free caffeine source.
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