Friday, March 07, 2008

Giants 1, Angels 9, March 6th

For the second game in a row since I stupidly made the comment that lack of offense hasn't been hurting the Giants this spring..........lack of offense hurt the Giants yesterday. The Giants managed only 3 hits against the Angels.....although it wouldn't have mattered too much because Matt Cain decided to join the ranks of Giants' pitchers who have had really bad outings. Matt was up in the zone throughout his day as he went 2.1 innings, allowing 5 hits (including a LONG Vlad Guerrero HR) a walk and 5 earned runs while tallying only 1 strikeout.

Vinnie Chulk was the only Giants pitcher who really had a good day. Vinnie allowed a harmless single and struck out 2 in his inning of work. Looking at Erick Threets' line you might think he had a good day; 2/3 inning with no hits and no runs. Threets managed to allow one of Cain's runners to score on a balk. He balked on a pickoff attempt that he threw WAY over Rich Aurilia's head at 1B. If the umpire hadn't called a balk.......2 runners would have scored instead of just 1. Threets also gave up a walk.

Steve Kline had another bad outing as he gave up 2 earned runs on 3 hits and a wild pitch. Pat Misch gave up his first run of the spring on a walk and a triple. Pat registered one strikeout. Since the Giants have said that Misch is in the running to replace Noah Lowry in the rotation, I am really not sure why they chose to throw him only 1 inning again. 39 year old, Keiichi Yabu was probably the second best pitcher of the day (lord help us). Yabu went 2 innings and allowed 1 run on 2 hits and a walk, while striking out 1. Yabu also uncorked a wild pitch. The Giants must lead the Cactus League in wild pitches.......seems like they throw a couple every day.

Offensively (if you can call it that), the Giants only tallied 3 hits on the day; singles by Kevin Frandsen and Dave Roberts and a solo HR by Eliezer Alfonzo. The HR was Alfonzo's first (and only) hit of the spring. He is now hitting a robust .050....but I am sure he is happy because he has the HR he has been trying for. He seems like he is swinging for the fences on every at bat. Speaking of free swinging......the Giants were doing that all day. The only 2 walks in the game for the Giants were walks by Nate Schierholtz and Justin Leone who came in late in the game and only had 1 plate appearance each.

The good news is that the defense went error-less today and turned 2 Bocock to Durham to Aurilia double plays. Can you imagine what the score would have been like without those DPs? I just love Brian Bocock's defense. He isn't as flashy....but he looks to be as good as Omar and he has a cannon for an arm. Kevin Frandsen played his first game at 3B.....so naturally he didn't get any chances.

I didn't take any photos yesterday as I decided to kick back and just enjoy the game. Boy, did I pick the wrong day to try that. Of course, it seems like every day is a bad day to enjoy the game for Giants' fans. The other good news is that the Prime Rib and Martini's at Bandera after the game were excellent.......so I have that going for me.

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