Game Wrap 6/11/2011: Reds 10 Giants 2

This is a game that is probably best dumped on the scrap heap of Giants Baseball History and forgotten about as quickly as possible. Timmy got shelled and seemed to be all kinds of out of sorts while the offense, once again, did squat against a good, but certainly not great, opposing pitcher. Key Lines:

Pat Burrell- 1 for 2, HR(6). BA= .223. This was Burrell's first HR since April 15 and it was way too little, too late as it came in garbage time with the Giants trailing 10-0.

Tim Lincecum- 4 IP, 7 H, 7 R, 4 BB, 1 K. ERA= 3.41. What's wrong with Timmy? Well, for starters, possibly nothing. As recently as June 1 he actually had a dominant start with 9 K's and 0 BB's and got bitten by the BABIP gremlins. He's really had just 1 poor start and 1 terrible start, so way too early to start panicking just yet. I have to say I haven't been thrilled by Timmy's body language on the mound for awhile now. Maybe he's still in mourning over Buster Posey. Maybe he's on the outs with dad again. Maybe he hates having Eli Whiteside catching for him. IDK. Whatever it is, it's very noticeable and I don't like it. From Timmy's reactions on the mound and Baggs' comments on his blog, it does appear that Whitey's defensive struggles behind the plate may be grating on Timmy more than some of the other Giants pitchers. If that's the case, then they should give CStew a chance. One theory is that Timmy is afraid to really cut loose on the splitter because he's afraid Whitey won't stop it. I was really impressed by the way CStew got way down low with Brian Wilson a couple of games ago. He was practically on his knees and elbows in the dirt and calling for the ball in the dirt. He and Willie had the batters scraping the dirt flailing at low pitches. If CStew thinks he can catch Brian Wilson pitches in the dirt, he shouldn't be intimidated by Timmy's splitter either. So there, that's my solution to What's Wrong With Timmy?! Let CStew catch Timmy's next start!

I also think the whole team took another huge punch to the gut with Freddy's injury. They were shellshocked for a couple of games after Buster went down and bounced back. They will recover from this too. Gotta wonder how many more major injuries this team can survive though.

With the Loss, the Giants lead in the NL West contracted once again, down to 1 game over the D'Backs who downed the Marlins 9-5. The Rockies lost to the Dodgers to remain 4.5 games off the pace while the Dodgers gained a game to 6.5 behind. The Padres lost to the Nats 2-1 to stay in last place 7.5 games behind the leaders.

Jonathan Sanchez takes the hill to try and salvage a split of the 4 game series with the Reds facing Edinson Volquez who runs hot and cold. The way things are going, he'll most likely be hot against the Giants today.