Game Wrap 5/25/2012: Marlins 7 Giants 6

The Story is pretty simple here.  Tim Lincecum had another disastrous inning aided and abetted by some poor Giants fielding.  A solid performance from the offense was not enough to overcome that deficit.  Key Lines:

Gregor Blanco- 3 for 5, 2 2B.  BA= .274.  Blanco is fun to watch and he's more than just a slap and dash hitter.  He's got some punch up there.  He's making a strong case for being kept around next year.  Not sure if he's even arbitration eligible yet.

Brandon Crawford- 2 for 4, SF.  BA= .240.  Crawford is rapidly becoming a force in the 2 hole in the lineup.

Melky Cabrera- 2 for 5, 3B(6), HR(3).  BA= .363.  Melky stays red hot, but got caught looking for the final out and maybe nonchalanted a ball in the OF that started Tim Lincecum's downfall.  I'll give him a pass on the final K as Ozzie Guillen clearly had a well thought out plan of how to pitch to him and Cishek executed it perfectly.  The final strike was a slider that Sergio Romo would have been proud of.  On the ball Infante hit to lead off the 6'th inning against Lincecum, it looked like Melky might have been a bit overconfident and let the ball get by him for a double.  It's by no means certain that stretching that hit into a double made a difference in the inning, but it certainly did not help.  Also, gotta wonder if Timmy was thinking about that play later in the inning.

Joaquin Arias- 2 for 4, 2B.  BA= .270.  Arias is looking good at the plate.  In addition to the 2 hits, he hit another ball right on the nose but right into the glove of the first baseman.  I would think Arias would slide over to 2B when Pablo gets back and the Giants would have a pretty darn good 1-8 lineup.

Brandon Belt- 1 for 2.  BA= .233.  In his first AB, Belt took a defensive swing on a weak flyout to LF, but in his second AB attacked the ball nicely on a solid single to CF.

Ryan Theriot- 1 for 4.  BA= .183.  Not that he's any great shakes himself, but Burriss is a better player than Theriot right now.  Theriot just looks done, much like Tejada and OCab last year.  Hopefully 2B goes to Arias after Sandoval returns.

Tim Lincecum- 5.2 IP, 6 H, 6 R, 4 BB, 5 K's.  ERA= 6.41.  The pitching line does not begin to tell the story here.  Timmy came out on fire with a crisp fastball that sat at 93 and touched 94 MPH.  He got through the first 4 innings with a low pitch count and a dinger by Giancarlo as his only blemish.  He then labored through the 5'th inning issuing two walks.  The first batter of the 6'th inning, infante lined what should have been a single to LF which Melky appeared to misplay into a double.  After Hanley struck out looking, Gincarlo singled to CF to drive in Infante and then stole 2B.  That's when everything went to hell in a handbasket so to speak as Timmy gave up a walk to Morrison, a single to Bryan Peterson, LONG SF to John Buck and a dinger to Chris Coghlin.

In addition to the crisp fastball early on, Timmy appeared to junk the splitter and use a sharp curveball that was quite effective.  When he did throw a changeup, it behaved more like a straight or circle change than the splitter and was also effective.  It looked like Timmy was hanging the deuce in the 6'th inning, most likely due to fatigue. Trying to come inside with it to Coghlin was a highly questionable selection.  Not sure if that one is on Tim or Buster.

In summary, I think a lack of stamina is most likely what did Timmy in tonight.  More on that later.

Bruce Bochy-  OK, I'm going to nitpick here a little and there are definitely arguments that can go either way here:  1.  With no outs and runners on first and second, Theriot grounded into a DP.  Kruk mentioned at the beginning of the AB that Theriot would ordinarily be bunting but obviously not with Lincecum coming up.  Now, if the bunt is successful, you get runners at 2'nd and 3'rd with the pitcher coming up.  First of all, you do have some options with the pitcher.  There's a chance he might put the ball in play and drive in a run.  He could lay down a squeeze although it might be a bit too obvious.  At worst, he makes an out and you still have runners at 2'nd and third with Blanco coming up.  I'm not a huge fan of giving up outs, but this is a case where a DP ball was so likely, I would have preferred to try to advance the runners but sac bunt.  2.  In the 6'th inning with Infante on 2B and 1 out, I think I would have walked Giancarlo.  He's the one guy in the Marlins lineup who can hit the ball out of that stadium in any direction and he's killed the Giants lately.  Intentionally walking him there takes the bat out of his hands and sets up a possible DP with Morrison coming up.  I know it would have brought the go-ahead run to the plate, but I'm a big proponent of not letting the best hitter in the opposing team's lineup beat you.  3.  Bochy should have recognized that Timmy was losing it long before the dinger to Coghlin, and had someone ready to bring in right about the time he walked Morrison.

The Dodgers lost to the 'Stros 3-1 so the Giants remain 6.5 games behind the division leaders in 2'nd place.

Madison Bumgarner takes on Mark Buehrle in a 4:10 ET start tomorrow.