Tim Hudson came into this game with a 2.36 ERA good for 4'th in the NL, so the Giants got dominated by a very good pitcher who has owned them in the past. Still, to manage just 4 baserunners all night has to be just a bit discouraging, especially since the offense hasn't exactly been scaring anybody for about 2 weeks except for Tuesday's game against the Rockies. Key Lines:
Matt Cain- 5 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 2 BB, 4 K's. ERA= 3.06. Cainer kept wiggling out of trouble and needed one more good pitch to get out of the 4'th inning. Unfortunately, he didn't get quite enough break on a 3-2 slider to Troy Glaus with 2 outs and the bases loaded and Glaus ripped it through the middle for a two run single. Rick Ankiel followed with a run scoring double off the RF wall and that was the ballgame.
Santiago Casilla- 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K. ERA= 2.77. The Giants have 13 pitchers on the 25 man roster, probably 1 more than they should have. Who gets sent out? I would think that they would wait until September to bring Affeldt and Runzler off the DL.
Aaron Rowand- 0 for 3, 2 K's. BA= .241. I don't know of Rowand has a particularly strong split against Tim Hudson, and I can see why Burrell was in the lineup, but didn't this seem like an awfully RH heavy lineup against a guy like that? I know Travis and Nate aren't going to put a scare into a guy like Hudson and it probably wouldn't have made any difference, but I know I would have felt better with another lefty bat, and Rowand would be the guy to sit.
Tim Hudson- 8 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 6 K's. ERA= 2.24. The line says it all. I think any team would have been fortunate to score runs off Hudson tonight.
With the L, the Giants failed to capitalize on another loss by the Padres who's lead remains 1 game over the Giants with the D'Backs winning 6-5. Pedro Alvarez hit a 3 run walk-off HR in the bottom of the 10th inning against the Rockies after the Rocks had taken a 2 run lead in the top of the inning for a 8-7 win. The Rockies remain 6.5 games behind the Padres. The Dodgers edged the Nats 3-2 in 10 innings to pick up a game on the 3 teams in front of them, now 7 games behind the Padres and 6 games behind the Giants. The D'Backs crept up to a 21 game deficit with their win over the Pads. The Phillies lost to Johan Santana and the Mets 1-0 while the Cards fell to the Marlins 5-4 so both teams remain 1.5 games behind the Giants in the Wild Card race.
The Giants send Jonathan Sanchez to the mound tomorrow against Derek Lowe to try to salvage a split in the 4 game series and the road trip. Both Lowe and Sanchez have been inconsistent, but this is a game the Giants should win if Sanchez can pitch up to his recent norm. The Braves have a LH heavy lineup while the Giants should be able to muster a few runs against Lowe. I would expect Buster to sit or play 1B though.
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