The San Francisco Giants rode three straight strong starts to two victories against the offensive juggernaut of the St. Louis Cardinals.
In the opener, Tim Lincecum (4-0) baffled Cardinal hitters for seven innings, striking out eight and scattering six hits, leading the Giants to a 4-1 victory and halting a four game slide. Lincecum, who didn’t have his A game stuff, worked around trouble all night as the Giants played small ball, taking advantage of Cardinal mistakes, staking the ace to a 4-0 lead over losing pitcher, Jaime Garcia (1-1). Brian Wilson pitched the ninth for his third save.
In the middle game, Barry Zito (3-0) tossed eight shutout innings, striking out ten, and outdueling Adam Wainwright (3-1), 2-0. The two pitchers matched zeroes for 7 1/2 innings until Nate Schierholtz led off the bottom of the eighth with a double and scored on a pinch single by Andres Torres. The Giants tacked on one more run, via Aubrey Huff’s sacrifice fly, for the final tally. Brian Wilson pitched the ninth for his fourth save of the season.
In the closer, Albert Pujols blasted a first inning homerun (7) off Matt Cain (0-1), leading the Cardinals to a 2-0 victory. Brad Penny (3-0)dominated in his return to San Francisco, scattering eight hits over 7 2/3 shutout innings. Ryan Franklin pitched the ninth for his sixth save of the season. Pablo Sandoval collected three hits in a losing effort.
Okay. A series win is nice. The pitching was great. Even Cain pitched well in a losing effort. Brian Wilson was nails (as usual). However, the hitting was atrocious. Only two real bright spots. Those would be Panda and Schierholtz. Each was great all series. However, they need to be moved closer in the lineup. Perhaps Nate up to five and Sandoval in cleanup. Just a thought. This is the second straight series where the bats were flacid (and you could make an argument that it has been for three straight series). You can’t win without offense. The team is setting the table, but nobody’s driving them in. That’s the way it was in San Diego and that’s the way this series was. Sloppy. Andres Torres is starting to come around. I liked the start for Travis Ishikawa (though I wasn’t too wild about the results). Bottom line, they need to move the hot hitters closer in the lineup. I’m really excited to see what Schierholtz can do for the team if moved up.
The Giants will next host the Philadelphia Phillies on Monday evening. The Cardinals will go home and host the Atlanta Braves on that same night.
