Game Wrap 09-22-2010: Cubs 2 Giants 0

The loss itself is not nearly as disheartening as the way it was lost. The Giants' offense was again impotent against a near MLB average pitcher never really threatening and hitting into bad luck when a threat could have been mounted. Key lines:

Jonathan Sanchez- 5.2 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 6 K's. ERA= 3.16. You can look at this start by Sanchez in two ways: 1. He clearly didn't have his command tonight running up over 100 pitches in less than 6 innings. 2. In spite of poor command, he hung in there and kept his team in the game, that is if there is such a thing as the Giants being in a game after the opposing team gets a 2 run lead. Again, this is a game where Sanchez likely would have melted down and been in the showers after 3+ innings in the not-so-distant past.

Randy Wells- 7.2 IP, 6 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 6 K's. ERA= 4.28. In defense of the Giants offense, Wells is a legitimate MLB starting pitcher who has pitched very well in stretches in the past. He also was coming off a great start in his last appearance. He had a nice sinker and a wicked little backdoor slider that the ump was giving him plenty of leeway on, at least to my eye. The Giants also hit into terrible luck: 1. In the top of the 6'th, Freddy Sanchez singled with one out. Aubrey Huff then hit a screamer down the first base line but right into the glove of Xavier Nady who was pretty much standing right on the bag for a no-effort DP. 2. In the 7'th, Pat Burrell singled with 1 out. Jose Guillen hit a bullet that ate up Starlin Castro, but Castro kept the ball close enough, and it was hit so hard that he still had plenty of time to get the ball to the second baseman for the force on Burrell then the relay to 1B for the DP. In both cases, the Giants went from potential of 2 runners on base with 1 out to being done for the inning on well hit balls. Still, a playoff caliber team has to find a way to scratch out a run or 3 against a pitcher like Randy Wells, and the Giants did not do that in this game. After awhile, every pitcher starts to look like Cy Young out there. I mean, if the Giants get blanked by Randy Wells, how do they stand a chance against the Ryan Dempsters of the world?

Carlos Marmol- 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 K's, Save(34). ERA= 2.72. Speaking of being dominated.....!

With the loss, the Giants tumbled back out of first place by 0.5 games to the Padres who beat the Choking Dogs again, this time by a 3-1 score behind the suddenly unhittable Tim Stauffer. The Rockies are losing late to the D'Backs 8-4 after taking a 4-0 lead in the first inning. If that holds up, the Rockies will be 3 games behind the Padres and 2.5 games behind the Giants. In the Wild Card race, the Braves lost again to the Phillies 1-0, so instead of a 1 game lead on the Padres, they now have a 0.5 game lead to the Giants.

Madison Bumgarner goes against Ryan Dempster tomorrow evening to try to win the series for the Giants. MadBum is a gamer, but at this point I don't think we can count on the Giants offense scoring on anybody, let alone Ryan Dempster.