Personally, I can’t imagine that this move will have a significant impact on the Giants.  However, it does improve the chances of Steve Holm of making the opening day roster (barring either a free agent pick up or the front office deciding that Buster Posey is ready to play at the major league level). 

Paulino, who was traded by the Pittsburgh Pirates to the Phillies in December 2008, is expected to compete with Steve Holm to be the Giants backup catcher. 

Taschner had spent all ten seasons of his professional career with the Giants organization. 

This move will free up some of the logjam in the bullpen as Taschner, who signed a new contract in the offseason, was expected to be a lock as a left handed reliever.  Basically, this means that the Jeremy Affeldt signing equals a straight replacement of Taschner in the bullpen. 

Zito threw six innings while giving up seven hits and three runs.  He did walk three batters but also struckout five others.  It was a decent start for Zito as it was enough to pick up the victory.  Four different relief pitchers combined to throw the final four innings of the game and did not allow a run.  Jack Taschner and Sergio Romo combined to throw the 7th inning while Tyler Walker threw the 8th inning and Brian Wilson notched his 26th save in the 9th inning.

At the plate for the Giants, Bengie Molina hit a two run home run and a solo home run to finish the game with three rbi.  Both of Molina’s home runs came against Nationals starting pitcher Jason Bergmann.  Fred Lewis also hit a solo home run off of Bergmann in the 1st inning.  Omar Vizquel had a rbi double in the 4th inning and Aaron Rowand tacked on a rbi single in the 8th inning.  That was enough offense for the Giants as they doubled up the Nationals.

Giants Baseball Blog

 The Giants were held scoreless for 21 innings, and had been outscored 18-0 before finally scoring one run in the top of the fourth.  John Bowker doubled to left field and advanced to third on a ground out by Eliezer Alfonzo.  Bowker would score on a wild pitch by John Maine.  The Giants tacked on two more in the top of the fifth to tie the game at three.  Barry Zito had a good at bat and worked a walk and would advance to second when Maine walked Fred Lewis.  Randy Winn would drive in both runs with his 23 double of the season.  However, the Mets bullpen kept the Giants in check and they failed to score from then on.  The Giants left six guys on base, so there were some opportunities for them to score runs and failed to take advantage of the six walks allowed by Mets pitching.

Barry Zito did not figure in the decision.  In his five innings of work he allowed three runs, 2 earned, on four hits while walking six and striking out two.  Three of those six walks came in the same inning when Zito walked three Mets hitters but was able to work out of the bases loaded jam.  The Giants’ bullpen was unable to keep San Francisco in the game.  Sergio Romo came into a 3-3 game and worked just one and two thirds innings giving up three runs, two earned on three hits, Romo was charged with the loss.  Jack Taschner also allowed one run in his one third inning of work.

Ok, so here is my thing on the umps-they have done a terrible job this year.  I think it shows you that something is terribly wrong when both starting pitchers in a game throw a ton of pitches (both Zito and Maine threw over 100 pitches and neither made it past the 5^th).  Not only did both starters throw a ton of pitches, they also had ball to strike ratios that were nearly 50/50.  And while you can say that neither one of the guys had the great stuff, and certainly both of these guys have had their issues this season, if you watched the game you would have seen that much of what happened to Maine and Zito today had a lot to do with the miniscule strike zone.  It isn’t just that the strike zones are largely inconsistent or sometime just way too small, but it bas been some other things as well.  The call in Tuesday night’s game (and I forget which ump was at second base and which Giants’ runner was on), but, the runner was clearly out of the base path, not just a little out of the base path, he was on the grass and the ump was standing right there and did not bother to call it.  And how many blown calls have we seen on homeruns this year, calling homeruns on balls that clearly aren’t, and calling back homeruns that clearly are.  What are these guys doing out there?  I have watched a lot of baseball, and I have to say this is about one of the worst years of all around umpiring that we’ve seen.  I guess the umps really do want instant replay and at this rate, maybe the players association should demand it.    

The Giants continue their road trip with a visit to Wrigley Field.  Matt Cain will be on the hill for the Giants and Jason Marquis will pitch for the cubs.  Game time is scheduled for 1:20 p.m.

Giants Blog

If you watched the game last night, you know in fact that the Mets offense did indeed take care of Lincecum.  In the first inning, Carlos Beltran hit a three run homer to give the Mets a 3-0 lead, a lead they would not relinquish.  In his six innings of work, Lincecum allowed four earned runs on 9 hits (two of which were homers), while walking two and striking out four.  The bull pen didn’t fare much better.  In 2/3 of an inning Jack Taschner gave up runs and Kevin Corrieia also gave up a run. 

The Giants’ offense was nonexistant against the Mets’ Mike Pelfrey last night.  The Giants did load the bases in the top of the first inning, but failed to score and really didn’t do much after that.  San Francisco had just three hits all evening and I think at one point Pelfrey had retired something like 17 or 18 straight. 

Jonathan Sanchez will be on the hill for the Giants this evening.  He will be opposed by Johan Santana.  First pitch is scheduled for 7:10 p.m. 

Giants Blog

Barry Zito actually got a win and improved to 3-11 on the season.  Yeah, you read that right, Barry Zito won a game!  Zito tossed 6 2/3 innings and allowed four hits and one run while striking out four batters.  The key for Zito was zero walks in his five plus innings of action!

Keiichi Yabu was called on to get the final out of the seventh inning but he was unable to as he gave up a hit and then was pulled from the game.  Jack Taschner got the final out in the inning and then got the first out in the eighth inning before he was pulled from the game and Tyler Walker came in to the game to finish up the inning.  Brian Wilson pitched the ninth inning to pick up his 21st save of the season.

Aaron Rowand led the Giants at the plate with a two run single in the first inning.  Jose Castillo and John Bowker both hit solo home runs in the game as both players finished the game with one rbi each.

The Giants will go for the sweep on Thursday against the Indians.  Do you think they will get the job done once again on the road?  Leave us a comment and let us know your thoughts!

Would you be interested in blogging about the Giants here on sfgiantshomeplate?  Leave us a comment or click the contact us link on the main page and let us know.  We are looking for game recap writers as well as writers that want to just blog about Giants Baseball!

Barry Zito struggled once again and only lasted two innings.  Zito gave up five hits and five runs while walking four to take the loss.  Zito is now a very dissapointing 2-11 on the season and it doesn’t look like he is going to turn it around any time soon.

Billy Sadler gave up one run while pitching the third and fourth innings.  Alex Hinshaw pitched the next two innings and gave up one run as well.  Finally Jack Taschner, Keiichi Yabu, and Vinnie Chulk threw scoreless innings in the seventh, eighth, and ninth innings.

It was pretty funny how the Giants scored their first run in the game.  In the second inning, Armando Galarraga threw wild pitch that struckout Brian Horwitz.  However, Travis Denker was on third and scored on the wild pitch.  The second run of the game in the sixth inning Emmanuel Burriss reached on an infield single and Steve Holm scored on a throwing error by Tigers third basemen Carlos Guillen.

Yeah the Giants scored two runs and didn’t even have a rbi.  That is not the correct way to score runs lol.  No wonder why the lost.

Giants Blog

Fred Lewis hit the only home run in the game when he went deep in the second inning with a three run shot.  Other then that, it was a bunch of rbi singles pretty much for the Giants.  Rich Aurilia also had three rbi in the game to tie Lewis for the game lead.  Ray Durham finished the game with two rbi while Emmanuel Burriss and Jonathan Sanchez both had one rbi.

Sanchez got the win on the mound for the Giants and is now 6-3 on the season. Sanchez threw five innings and gave up nine hits and seven runs.  Usually Sanchez would have got a loss in the game as he gave up seven runs, but thankfully for him and the Giants, the offense was on top of their game and put ten runs on the board.

Billy Sadler, Jack Taschner, Keiichi Yabu, Tyler Walker, and Brian Wilson should all be congratulated because they held off the Rockies over the final four innings of the game.  They were the real game winners if you ask me.  Wilson notched his 19th save of the season in the game as well.

The Giants will now play the Oakland A’s in a interleague Bay Area matchup.  Hopefully a lot of you will be able to attend the games and root on the Giants!

Giants Blog

Tim Lincecum pitched seven innings and gave up six hits but no runs.  It’s too bad he came out of the game after seven innings the way he was throwing the ball.  Lincecum struckout nine Rockies batters and walked three through his seven innings of action.

Tyler Walker pitched a scoreless eighth inning but in the ninth inning, Keiichi Yabu gave up two walks and one hit.  With the bases loaded the Giants brought in Jack Taschner who recorded one out but then had a sacrafice fly hit off of him to end the game.  The run was charged to Yabu who took the loss and dropped to 2-3 on the season.

As for the Giants offense, they only had six hits on the game.  The offense left 17 runners on base while only take two walks and striking out six times.  Very bad game for the Giants at the plate and it really sucks because the pitchers did a good job and kept them in the game.

Giants Blog

Matt Cain took the loss after throwing five innings and giving up five hits and five runs.  One of those five hits was a two run home run by Jose Reyes in the fourth inning.  Cain dropped to 2-4 on the season with the loss.

Jack Taschner, Keiichi Yabu, and Tyler Walker pitched the final four innings of the game and did pretty good.  Yabu gave up three hits over 2 1/3 innings but the other relief pitchers didn’t now allow one hit.

The Giants a rbi in the game from the following players.  Jose Castillo, Bengie Molina, and Omar Vizquel.  The Giants struck out five times and left 15 runners on base in the game.

Giants Blog