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Are you ready for a 4-gamer in San Fran starting with 3 late night starts and wrapping up with a daytime affair?
No? Well let’s hope the team is.
- Monday 10:15 PM EDT -- Hefner vs Bumgarner [11-6; 3.10 ERA; 1.04 WHiP]
- Tuesday 10:15 -- Harvey vs Lincecum [4-11; 5.88; 1.51]
- Wednesday 10:15 -- Niese vs Cain [10-3; 2.80; 0.97]
- Thursday 3:45 -- Young vs Zito [8-7; 3.89; 1.35]
Our seemingly standard assortment of seeing half our opponents go with LH starters - Bumgarner & Zito in this case
We last saw the Giants for a 4-gamer in just the 5th series of the year back in Apirl at Citi. Mets came away with a 1-3 record from that, losing the opener when Frank-Frank gave up 1 in the 10th; overcoming a combined Frank-Frank + Rauch meltdown in game 2 and winning on a rare walk-off; they then proceeded to get skunked in the 3rd & 4th ones by Bumgarner and, in one of his few good games this whole season, Lincecum.
SF greets us at 55-46 with a virtually even RS/RA ratio and a mediocre 11-11 record during July. They just got swept at home by LA (shut-out twice) which dropped them into a virtual 1st place tie in the NL West with those very same Dodgers and right in the middle of the WC(s) hunt for whoever falls behind in that battle.
Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes:
Almost NONE since we saw them in April. This tam has, with the use of some platooning at 1B, 2B & RF, started virtually the same players all year long and needed just one game start outside their five regulars. Man I wonder what that’s like? It’s like maybe that kooky city government they have out there declared the China Basin region of the city where the ballpark sits to be some kind of ‘Transaction Free Zone’. I wouldn’t put it past them.
The few changes they have had to make recently include:
- Just traded for Marco Scutaro, mostly to fill in at 3B at this point although he can play SS & 2B also
- Just reactivated 1B/OF Aubrey Huff from DL where he’s spent most of the year
- And just added ersatz AS starter Pedro Sandaval to the DL for the 2nd time this year, this time for a yanked hammy. Panda had been playing a little 1B for a few games and did a full split while receiving a throw, reminding me of when I saw the similarly built Harmon Killebrew do the same during an ASG like a million years ago ... except that Killebrew’s was even uglier. It was like you could hear the hammy rip on TV and that wasn’t even with high-def.
Lineup? Sure they have one.
1B - Brandon Belt
Just sort of shuffling along in this his second ML season despite his minor league promise. I mean yeah he’s in a pitchers’ park, but only 4 HRs from a 6' 5" IB-man?!?!
If he were an Olympian the long and lean Belt would be on the volleyball squad but, as a native Texan, it would be the indoor variety since he would have learned the game in the HS and college gyms not on the beaches.
2B - Ryan Theriot
Ryan the Riot has virtually no power (0 HRs and only 11 doubles) but with his decent speed and French name we’re going to stick him on the cycling team
SS - Brandon Crawford
Eh hitter with a good glove.{.236/.290/.340]
Now this 6’ 2” Californian would be their guy on the beach VB scene
3B - Marco Scutaro
An arrival via a Saturday night trade to replace the injured Panda, whatever he gives them is going to beat the hell out of whatever they'd get from brief NYM Joquin Arias who now gets knocked back to the bench. Not sure where the Italian/Venezuelan Scutaro would wind up, but I could see Panda, between his bulk and surprising athleticism, on the Judo team but only because Sumo isn’t yet an Olympic sport.
LF - Melky Carbrera
The real surprise of the season [.356/.397/.526 + an NL-leading 139 hits] their AS and now #3 hitter has been their best acquisition this season even though he’s on his 4th team in 4 years.
Melky strikes me as the Dominican Republic’s lone wrestling representative. Sure he’s a bit too chunky which would force him into competing in a too-high weight class causing him to get his ass kicked by some lean/mean Turk or Bulgarian in the first round, but he’d be celebrated at a homecoming anyway just for the effort.
CF - Angel Pagan
Is having the same mix of good, bad, and ugly that we all knew him for around here. [.277/.322/.397]
Would make a good decathlete although would probably lose some points in the strength events and lord knows where his shot-put and discus throws would wind up. Plus he might run the wrong way in the sprints or decide to go under the hurdles.
RF - Gregor Blanco
He gets conflated in my mind with Omar Infante and Geraldo Parra to the point where I’m not convinced that they’re different people, although if they are we should just enter them all as a relay team.
And when he’s not playing Nate Schierholtz fills in whenever he gets free time from the German Team Handball squad.
C - Buster Posey
Hitting great and playing near every day following his lost 2011 season although is seeing more and more time at 1B lately (like one game out of three). He’s no longer blocking the plate these days but, really, how often is that going to matter?
And if Buster were an Olympian he’d just quit and go right back to good ol’ American football cuz that’s just what all 6’ 2”-220 lb guys named Buster who grow up in Georgia and go to college at Florida State do.
Pen:
Santiago Casilla is their designated closer in the absence of media whore Brian Wilson
But Sergio Romo seems to be the best reliever with his 1.17 ERA and 0.82 WHiP
Javier Lopez and Jeremy Affeldt are their LH relievers although with Duda & Nieuwenhuis disappearing by the day the emphasis for opposing managers to keep their LHPs on constant ‘Code Red’ has been lessened lately.
This series, plus the one in Sandy Eggo which follows it, represent our last west coast swing of the year (and there was much rejoicing ... Yay!) and there will be only two series outside the eastern time zone (3 games each in StL & Mil) for the remainder of the year.
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