The Giants escaped from New York with a four-game split Monday, and grabbed the first game of a mid-week series in Cincinnati Tuesday thanks to plenty of offense. How about 18 runs and 30 hits in the past two games. The question remains; how consistently can the bats remain alive for this team to contend into September for the wild card -- or conceivably -- the division. After blasting Livan Hernandez and the Mets' bullpen for 10 runs on 18 hits Monday, San Francisco stung the Reds with a seven-run comeback to erase an early 5-1 deficit against Tim Lincecum. The 8-5 victory included 12 more hits by the Giants.
Monday, it was Aaron Rowand with four hits, including a home run; Tuesday, it was Ryan Garko, finally coming through with four RBI's, including the go-ahead runs with a clutch double in the 10th-inning. Garko has obviously been pressing since his late-July trade from the Indians. His batting average has hovered around .200 after hitting a solid .285 with the Tribe prior to the trade. The Stanford product may finally be coming out of his funk just in time, boosting that average, and picking-up the slack for Pablo Sandoval and Bengie Molina, who each struck out three times Tuesday. Randy Winn may also be awakening from his deep freeze, collecting two more hits (five in the last two games), and two more RBI's. Juan Uribe, who has been hobbled by injury in recent days, smacked a home run early in the game off Homer Bailey. Bailey pitched great through five-innings, but lost it in the sixth, surrendering four more runs. San Francisco also broke through against Reds' closer Francisco Cordero, touching him up for three runs - and the loss. Two more games against Cincinnati with Barry Zito and Matt Cain scheduled to pitch Wednesday and Thursday. Then, it's the big finale of the road trip with four games in Coors Field against the front-running, wild-card-leading Rockies.
As for Lincecum - he's human. He just didn't have his best stuff, and nearly lost to the Reds for the second time this month (losing at home to Cincinnati August 7th). Lincecum allowed five runs on six hits over six innings of work, striking out ONLY TWO, and walking three batters. His ERA is still a dazzling 2.37.
Monday's game at Citi Field was such a collective release of frustration! Joe Martinez (Jersey kid) had to be nervous pitching in front of family and friends, but he settled-in, and got the job done with five solid innings of work. Martinez appeared to be cruising through five, but was lifted for a pinch-hitter, which turned out to be a good move by Bruce Bochy. Nate Schierholtz came up with the bases loaded and roped a double high off the right field wall to plate two runs and give the Giants a commanding 5-1 lead. Martinez earned his third victory of the season, allowing just one earned run over the five-innings. The bullpen was solid, with four scoreless innings between Medders, Miller, Howry, and Valdez. Rowand had the big game at the plate with four hits, and made a brilliant throw home to nail a runner in the first-inning. Winn and Renteria had cluth hits as well. All three veterans need to keep the hits coming big time!
