Pinch hitter Rich Aurilia singled home catcher Steve Holm in the bottom of the tenth, giving the Giants a 1-0 extra innings victory over the Colorado Rockies.  The win showcased another outstanding effort by starter Barry Zito who, in spite of another no-decision, turned in his third consecutive quality appearance, throwing seven shutout innings while surrendering only two hits.  With the outcome, the Giants won their fifth consecutive series, taking two of three at home against the division rivals. 

In the opener, Randy Johnson struck out nine in seven shutout innings, stingily allowing only four hits and walking none as the Giants rode and RBI double by Travis Ishikawa and sacrifice flies by Randy Winn and Bengie Molina to a 3-2 victory.  Brian Wilson tallied his sixth save of the season, closing out the Rockies in the ninth after quelling an eighth inning uprising against Bob Howry and Jeremy Affeldt with a bases loaded strikeout of Ryan Spilborghs.  

In the middle game, Spilborghs got a measure of revenge, homering twice off Matt Cain, as the Rockies topped the tally, 5-1.  Starter Jason Marquis threw a complete game five-hitter, surrendering only a ninth inning homerun to Pablo Sandoval.  Brad Hawpe also homered to back Marquis. 

I was impressed by the Giants starting pitching (again) this series.  Zito and Johnson were dominant.  For Zito, he did it with Steve Holm behind the dish, showing that perhaps his recent success was more than just Sandoval catching.  Hopefully he can continue it with Molina as his backstop.  Also, though it was the first time in five starts this season that Cain wasn’t dominant, aside from the homers, he only allowed four other hits and four walks.  An off day, but for a three, such an off day is acceptable every now and again.  Finally, it’s nice to see Fred Lewis and Ishikawa making some solid contact.  Ditto Nate Schierholtz.  On an injury note, Winn sat out the final game of the series with a sore side.   We’ll watch that one and keep you posted. 

The Giants will next travel to Chicago for a two game set against the Cubs.   The Rockies will go down the shore to San Diego for a two game series against the Padres. 

Pinch Hitter Benjie Molina drove in Andres Torres with a deep single to provide for the only run in a 1-0, ten inning win for the San Francisco Giants over the San Diego Padres.  The win, the third in a row and fourth in a five game home stand for the Giants, completed a sweep of the two game series with the Padres.  Much maligned starter Barry Zito threw seven dominating innings and Brian Wilson tossed two innings for the victory in relief. 

In the first game of the series, Edgar Renteria smacked a grand slam off Jake Peavy and Matt Cain turned in his third consecutive quality start as the Giants drubbed San Diego, 8-3.  

Zito’s outing is the fifth straight quality start turned in by the Giants staff.  With an off day on Thursday, the Giants will skip Jonathan Sanchez’s spot in the rotation for the series opener against the Arizona Diamondbacks in Phoenix on Friday.  Instead, ace Tim Lincecum will seek out his first win of 2009, facing Doug Davis for the second time in a week.  The two exchanged zeros for eight innings last Saturday before Arizona broke through against the Giant bullpen, prevailing 2-0 and giving Lincecum a no-decision. 

In other news, the Giants optioned left-handed reliever Alex Hinshaw to AAA Fresno and recalled catcher Steve Holm.  Hinshaw walked 5 batters in 7 appearances this year while compiling an ERA of 8.44.  In my opinion, he’ll be back soon, should he get his control back in the minors.  Holm will serve as a backup catcher to Molina.  He has yet to play a game in the major leagues this season.  For today’s game, Pablo Sandoval donned the mask behind the plate, his first such appearance this season. 

The San Francisco Giants made their final roster moves, with some surprises, heading in to Tuesday’s opener against the Milwaukee Brewers. 

In trimming back to the final 25, the team decided to go with a 12 man pitching staff, designating Luis Perdomo for assignment while purchasing the contract of Brandon Medders from AAA Fresno.  As Perdomo is a Rule 5 pickup, they will have to offer him back to the St. Louis Cardinals since he’s not remaining on the 25 man roster.  More on that as it develops. 

In other moves, the Giants optioned catcher Steve Holm to Fresno, leaving them with just one full time catcher in Benjie Molina.  Third baseman Pablo Sandoval will moonlight as a backup backstop until later in the season (probably right after the first month, which is laden with off days, and at which time the Giants will have a little better idea of the type of team that they are fielding), when Holm is expected to be recalled.  Relief pitcher Justin Miller was reassigned to minor league camp.  Expect him back some time this season.  Also, the contracts of Juan Uribe and Rich Aurilia were purchased from Fresno.  Both veterans will start the season on the Giants roster.  Finally, pitcher Noah Lowry and reliever Sergio Romo will both open the season on the 15 day disabled list. 

The 2009 San Francisco Giants opening day roster is as follows:

Starting Rotation: Matt Cain, Jonathan Sanchez, Randy Johnson, Tim Lincecum, Barry Zito.

Bullpen: Alex Hinshaw, Bob Howry,  Joseph Martinez, Brandon Medders,  Merkin Valdez, Brian Wilson, Jeremy Affeldt,

Starters:

C: Benjie Molina.

1B:  Travis Ishikawa

2B:  Emmanuel Burriss

SS:  Edgar Renteria

3B:  Pablo Sandoval

RF:  Randy Winn

CF:  Aaron Rowand

LF:  Fred Lewis

Bench: Rich Aurilia (IF), Juan Uribe (IF), Eugenio Velez (UT), Nate Schierholtz (OF), Andres Torres (OF)

Hours after acquiring catcher Ronny Paulino from the Philadelphia Phillies for Jack Taschner, the San Francisco Giants traded him to the Florida Marlins in exchange for right-handed minor leaguer Hector Correa.  Correa, who has worked primarily as a starter over parts of three seasons, has compiled a record of 7-8 in that time with an equally unimpressive ERA of 4.52 in that time.  Rumor from the Giants front office is that Correa has potential upside.  Didn’t we hear that same thing about Vinnie Chulk and Randy Messenger (and myriad others)?   That and a dollar will buy you a cup of coffee.  We’ll see how this plays out.

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). 

The San Francisco Giants pulled the trigger on a long rumored deal by sending inconsistent left-handed reliever Jack Taschner to the Philadelphia Phillies in exchange for catcher Ronny Paulino. 

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. 

Lurking behind the plate (and the mask) for the 2009 Giants is a stalwart presence with youth echoing on the horizon.   Both should serve to excite this season. 

In charge of the Giants pitching staff will be the veteran hitting machine Bengie Molina.  In addition to handling the pitching staff well, Molina improved his defense in 2008, lowering his passed balls from 16 to 5 while throwing out 35% of potential base stealers (a respectable amount).  Molina is one of the key team leaders for 2009.  His seeming immobility, while an asset for blocking the plate, tends to be a detriment on the basepaths.  For this reason, perhaps batting cleanup is a bit high for Molina and he should be dropped in the order to either 6 or 7. 

When Molina needs a rest, Steve Holm will serve as backup, for now.  It’s no secret that, as a rookie, he didn’t exactly dazzle (21 of 23 base stealers got away with their crimes on his watch).  However, if that’s what they have, then that’s what they have.

Perhaps the Giants would be better suited to give third baseman Pablo Sandoval a few repetitions behind the plate.  He is naturally a catcher and nailed 3 of 10 stealers in 2008.   However, if he continues to excel at third base, perhaps it’s best to save his knees and leave him there.

The elephant in the room which we have yet to discuss is the youngster, Buster Posey.  He’s having a noteworthy spring and perhaps could get a call up later in the season if he is effective in his first minor league season.  However, it would probably do him a disservice to start the year in the bay area to sit on a major league bench while minor league starts are given to others.  Again, repetition is the key here.  2010 will probably be his year to blossom, but don’t be surprised to see him in the orange and black in 2009, if only for a cup of coffee. 

Some rumors have the Giants looking to trade or sign for a veteran backup backstop this season.  I think that could very well be a mistake (barring injury to Molina).  However, ya’ never know what you are going to find when you go bargain hunting.  We’ll see how it plays itself out.

For the second straight game the San Francisco Giants lost to the Detroit Tigers.  On Wednesday, the Giants suffered a 7-2 loss to the Tigers.  The Giants pitchers had problems as the Tigers kept pressure on them the first five innings of the game by scoring runs four out of the first five innings.

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.

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The San Francisco Giants were more less dead until the ninth inning when they scored two runs against the Colorado Rockies on Wednesday afternoon.  After the Giants tied the game at two and forced the game into extra innings, they scored another run in the tenth inning and went onto beat the Rockies 3-2.

The Giants got on the board with a rbi single by Bengie Molina in the ninth inning and then scored another run in the inning when Steve Holm hit a rbi double to tie the game.  In the tenth inning, Omar Vizquel hit a sacrafice fly to score Ray Durham for the winning run.

Tyler Walker picked up the win to improve his record to 2-2 on the season.  Brian Wilson didn’t have trouble closing out the game like last night notched the save which was his 14th of the season.

Starting pitcher Jonathan Sanchez lasted 6 1/3 innings while he gave up eight hits and two runs to get the no decision.   Billy Sadler and Alex Hinshaw both pitched in relief and did not allow a hit.

Great come from behind win for the Giants.  That is exactly what the needed!  Giants Blog

The San Francisco Giants were swept in a three game series by the Pittsburgh Pirates as they lost 5-4 on Thursday afternoon.  Right now the Giants are just playing terrible baseball and their record shows that as they are 14-21 on the season.

Matt Cain took the loss for the Giants as he pitched 6 1/3 innings and gave up five runs.  Cain was not his usual self against the Pirates as he gave up the five runs and nine hits.

Steve Holm had two rbi to lead the Giants at the plate.  Emmanuel Burriss and Cain had one rbi each as well in the game.

I don’t see things getting better for the Giants after this series.  They are going to continue to struggle as they just don’t have the caliber of players that other teams in the league do to win two our of three games all the time in a series.

What do you think Giants fans?  Is the Giants season over before it really even got started?

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