The Giants had plenty of chances to win this game yesterday. 12 hits, plus 5 walks and only 2 runs? That's pretty horrible. And it wasn't just the 11 men LOB that killed them. They pretty much ran themselves out of this game.

A long standing rule in baseball (if not THE cardinal rule on offense) is NEVER make the first out of the inning at home or 3B. Well the Giants did just that twice yesterday. The first was when the human windmill, Tim Flannery, sent Aaron Rowand home with 0 out in the 2nd inning. It appeared to me that Rowand would be out by 20 feet as he rounded 3B. A good slide by Rowand made it a little closer than that....but still first out of the inning at home plate.......rally killed.......no runs in the 2nd. A little later on, Benjie Molina tried to go from 1st to 3rd on a long single. A mediocre runner could have made it easily, because it was a play that required not 1 but 2 relay throws. Molina was out by plenty. 1st out of the inning at 3B......another rally snuffed. Add that to the fact that the fastest man I have ever seen that just can't steal a bag, Fred Lewis, got caught stealing........again. That makes 4 CS in 6 tries this spring for Fred. How can I guy that fast not be better at base stealing? Add a couple of DPs into the equation, and you can see how every Giants starter could get on base by a walk or a hit..........7 starters reached base at least twice.........and the team still scored only 2 runs. You would think they would have lucked into more than 2 runs with that many players reaching base.

Erick Threets pitched the 7th and gave up 2 runs. Threets threw too many fastballs up in the zone. Brad Hennessey gave up a 2 out, solo HR in the 8th to mar his day. Once again, the Giants pitchers had problems IN the strike zone not by missing the zone. Between the 3 pitchers, they only issued 1 walk. I am not happy with the 5 runs allowed.......but the lack of walks is encouraging to me. Good things come from throwing strikes. The real problem with this game was not pitching, it was the Giants' frustrating ability to get TONS of men on base.......and not score.

As you can probably surmise from this late post.......I am not taking the 4 hour roundtrip ride to Tucson today. Frankly, I am just too damn lazy........especially since learning that Kevin Correia was scratched from the start. More injury problems.......like the Giants can afford that. Tomorrow will be my last game in Arizona. Wednesday, I fly back to San Francisco and Thursday I will be at the game in ATT Park. With my "busy" schedule..........I think I can afford to miss a game.