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This Year
Giants are 47-41, 4th place in the NL West but only 4 games behind San Diego. They’ve been up and down, and were hovering around .500 before sweeping 4 in Milwaukee and then taking 2 of 3 in Washington immediately prior to the break.
The Mets used to do very poorly at AT&T (formerly SBC Park, formerly PacBell) Park which opened in 2000: they were 1-13 in their first 14 games (including playoffs) there. Recent times have been better and they’ve won the series in San Francisco each of the last 4 years.
The Giants were in New York in early May: you may recall our catchers each hitting walkoff home runs to win the first two games. The third game, which went to the Giants, featured an Oliver Perez debacle, a gutty comeback, the bullpen blowing the game, and David getting ejected arguing balls and strikes with no position players left on the bench in what was one of the more frustrating losses of this year.
Pitching Matchups
Thursday: R.A. Dickey vs. Tim Lincecum (R) – 10:15 PM EDT
9-4, 3.16 ERA is a bit of a down year for Lincecum coming off his Cy Young Awards each of the past two years. 131 Ks (leads NL) and 48 walks in his 117 innings so far.
He was the Giants starter in the aforementioned rubber game earlier this year and was good but not great. Davis was 2-2 with a walk off him, including a big RBI single in the 6th that started the Mets’ first rally of the game. It helped that we kept his pitch count up and he was out after 6 innings.
Friday: Jon Niese v. Barry Zito (L) – 10:15 PM EDT
Hard to believe it’s already the mid-point of Zito’s fourth year with the Giants and that this might be the first one where he finishes with an ERA under 4. He’s 7-4, 3.76 ERA. Not much change in the K or BB rates but the hits (and homers) allowed are down this year. There are still 3 (plus an option/buyout) more years on his contract.
Zito last faced the Mets in August 2009; he lost 3-0 and was bested by Bobby Parnell in Parnell’s first major league start. Pagan nailed him with a leadoff homer.
Saturday: Mike Pelfrey v. Matt Cain (R) – 9:05 PM EDT
Cain (6-8, 3.34 ERA) was arguably the Giants best pitcher for a while this year until a string of bad outings. He had run off 5 straight starts of 7+ innings, 1 or fewer earned runs before several tough outings right before the break, including getting knocked around by Houston and Washington. Fun fact: he’s the youngest member of the Giants’ rotation despite having more ML experience than either Lincecum or Sanchez.
Cain beat the Mets twice last year and nearly killed David Wright in the process. By all accounts he’s a nice guy but anything less than a full-fledged beatdown of him would be disappointing.
Sunday: Johan Santana v. Jonathan Sanchez (L) – 4:05 PM EDT
Sanchez (7-6, 3.47 ERA) strikes out a lot of batters but of course is occasionally prone to wildness and high pitch counts that take him out of games early. He faced the Mets in May and got a no-decision with a pretty good outing, giving up 3 runs (all solo homers – 2 for Ike and 1 for Barajas) in 7 innings.
Giants Hitters
Catcher-of-the-future Buster Posey (R) was promoted on May 30, and given the starting job when Bengie Molina was traded to Texas. He’s off to an extremely hot start, .350/.389/.569, and 7 homers in 95 ABs. Was just named NL player of the week. Posey has also seen some time at first to keep his bat in the lineup when he’s not catching.
1B Recently, Travis Ishikawa (L) was in a semi-platoon with Pat Burrell (R); against righties, Ishikawa plays first with Aubrey Huff in the outfield; against lefties, Burrell gets some playing time with Huff at first. Ishikawa is very good defensively and has hit in limited time (.932 OPS in 65 ABs). Burrell was picked up on June 4 after Tampa cut him and has 5 homers in 91 ABs with the Giants (.849 OPS).
2B Freddy Sanchez (R) came off the DL and has been hitting a lot of singles. .285/.348/.360
3B Pablo Sandoval (S) will really need to pick things up if the Giants are going to do anything this year. Has only 6 homers and a line of .263/.322/.382.
SS Juan Uribe (R), with 12 homers and 50 RBI: .251/.320/.438.
LF Aubrey Huff (L) has exceeded expectations to become the team’s best hitter this year: 39 XBHs, .295/.384/.544
CF Aaron Rowand (R) still excellent with the glove but terrible (again) with the bat: .238/.281/.400.
RF Nate Schierholtz, .685 OPS in 160 ABs.
OF Andres Torres (S) is actually 4th on the team in ABs, with 263 and has a .281/.378/.483 and sees regular time at all 3 OF spots.
Backup Catcher Eli Whiteside (R) is nothing special .263/.327/.463 but had 2 good games against the Mets in May.
Bullpen
We saw closer Brian Wilson (R) pitch the 8th inning on Tuesday in the ASG. He’s been very good this year, with 50 Ks in 37.2 innings, with only 16 walks and 1 homer allowed. He got a 5-out save (all Ks) in the rubber game earlier this year. Mets had no trouble last year with him, though including 2 games he lost and a blown save in a 3rd.
If we should be so unfortunate to see Wilson save a game this series, he is going to make a series of hand gestures that are some sort of tribute to his father and his Christian beliefs but have also been mocked by the Dodgers. I’m sure his motives are pure but showboating is still showboating, Brian. Just ask our closer.
Sergio Romo (R) served up the Barajas and Blanco homers but has been pretty solid otherwise, with a 2.21 ERA, 37 Ks, 8 walks and 26 hits in 36.2 innings.
Other key relievers:
Chris Ray (R), recently acquired from Texas in the Bengie Molina deal. Combined stats: 21 K/18 BB/26 H in 38.1 IP, 3.05 ERA.
Our old friend Guillermo Mota (R), 19 K/15 BB/31 H in 33.2 IP, 3.21 ERA
Jeremy Affeldt (L), 28 K/20 BB/36 H in 31.2 IP, 4.5 ERA
Denny Bautista (R), 35 K/23 BB/21 H in 28 IP, 2.89 ERA.
Injuries
Their top left reliever, Dan Runzler, dislocated his left kneecap in his first major league at-bat and is out another 6 weeks.
5th starter Todd Wellemeyer strained his right thigh after trying to beat out a double play in early June and hasn’t returned yet.
Ex-Mets
Mota
Ex-Giants
None
Splash Hits
Since the park opened, there have been 72 balls hit into McCovey Cove on the fly. 32 were by Bonds, 20 by other Giants players and 20 by visiting players. (Officially, only the ones hit by the Giants are considered “splash hits.”)
Interestingly, despite not playing in San Francisco very often, the Mets lead all visiting teams with 4 (2 each from Floyd and Delgado). Here’s hoping Ike can help the Mets pad their lead.
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