The past week of San Francisco Giants baseball was like watching your dog dart out into the street in front of a speeding truck, dodge out of the way only to be hit by a car coming the other direction. This recent span has been one swift kick in the nuts after another.

First for our viewing pleasure, we were offered an epic come-from-behind attempt that turned into a heartbreaking 12-11, 12-inning fiasco loss at the hands of the Cincinnati Reds. That was followed by the Arizona D’backs going all slow-pitch softball on Tim Lincecum, who’s on a five-start losing streak, and Barry Zito

The Giants call it ‘magic’ while Duane Kuiper calls it ‘torture.’

Monday night’s 2-1 loss to the Rockies brought out a rare kind of furor, but the outcome of an MLB game can’t be assigned to one or two moves out of the hundreds that occur over the nine or more innings.

In the forefront of this, the two Giants most available to recent criticisms are waiver-wire-refugee Cody Ross and manager Bruce Bochy. Bochy has been a popular whipping boy for the Giants’ fan base the past few seasons but after Ross botched a broken-bat fly ball by the Rockies’ Carlos Gonzalez, Ross is now a familiar name, too.

The common perception is Bochy should have inserted defensive specialist — and apparent Roberto Clemente clone — Nate Schierholtz, which would have prevented the gaffe.

The San Francisco Chronicle’s Henry Schulman came to Ross’ defense in his game story:

“The first thing that must be said is that any right fielder in the majors would have charged the ball as Cody Ross did in the ninth inning Monday night, in a disastrous moment for the Giants that turned a game of beauty on the mound into a 2-1 loss to the Rockies.”

Schulman is a venerable baseball writer and someone who understands the game better than some who did; right Tim McCarver?

Then comes Bochy’s handling of the ninth.

Giants starter Jonathan Sanchez was excellent, throwing eight shut-out innings while allowing just five hits. With 102 pitches on the night, Sanchez was allowed to come to the plate to begin the bottom of the eighth and was scheduled to face the heart of the Rockies’ order in the ninth.

Sanchez ran the count to 0-2 on Dexter Fowler before losing his control and throwing four straight pitches for balls, issuing the lead-off walk. Bochy summoned closer Brian Wilson even though the next batter, Gonzales, was hitless in three trips to the plate against Sanchez and 0-for-10 against him lifetime.

There are two prevailing schools of thought here. Wilson should have been allowed to start a clean ninth inning and Sanchez should have been allowed to face Gonzales.

Clearly, no matter what Bochy elected to do, a large contingency would second guess, provided the end results turned out to be as disappointing as Thursday’s game. Bochy could have traded for Mariano Rivera and sent out three extra rovers to patrol the outfield and some would still say it was the skipper’s fault. But this one can’t be blamed on one man.

The questions the Giants’ faithful will be asking themselves is, ‘Was Thursday’s loss the direct result of one man, and who?’ and ‘Are these the type of inexplicable losses that just happen over the course of a 162-game schedule?’

Used with permission of the author.

Theo is a staff reporter and feature writer for the Marin Independent Journal where he covers local prep and college sports. As an Associate Production Manager for ESPN, he helped produce Sunday Night Baseball among other national ESPN and ABC Sports telecasts. In addition to his contributions to Sports Climax, he is a columnist for Examiner.com and is the play-by-play voice for Sonoma State University baseball and softball.

Copyright ©2010 Sports Climax, LLC

HOUSTON – At this rate Tim Lincecum will surely win his third-consecutive Cy Young award, Bengie Molina will be the most prodigious 35-year-old catcher in the game, John Bowker will win a gold glove for his outfield defense, and Mark DeRosa will shatter Barry Bonds’ single-season home run record.Oh, the excitement of an Opening Day win.

Exaggeration aside, it was an awfully fine all-around performance for the 2010 vintage of the Giants, as they picked up a crisp 5-2 win over the Astros in Houston on Monday.

Lincecum (1-0) hushed concerns after a less than Tim-like Spring, holding the Astros to four singles over seven shut-out innings. He also fanned seven, walked none, and looked cool in his second Opening Day gig as a big leaguer – he lasted just three innings against Milwaukee on the season opener last April.

“It wasn’t the kind of hyped-upped-ness where you don’t know what’s going on,” Lincecum told reporters. “Obviously Opening Day can be overwhelming, more exciting than a usual game, but I tried not to let it overwhelm me.”

Newly acquired first baseman and clean-up hitter Aubrey Huff had an excellent seat to watch his diminutive teammate.

“Just watching him tonight, I got an idea what it’s all about,” said Huff, who went 1-for-4 with a single and scored a run in the Giants’ three-run second. “He knows how to step it up.”

The Giants’ ace also improved his lifetime record to 34-2 when getting at least three runs of support. As a team in 2009, San Francisco won nearly three-quarters of its games in which they scored three or more runs – a stat that perhaps was the impetus behind the signings of Huff and DeRosa.

Both moves paid dividends Monday, as DeRosa’s first hit as a Giant was a home run off Houston reliever Tim Byrdak in the eighth inning.
But it was a walk DeRosa drew in the second, following Huff’s single, that may have been the bigger at bat. Molina, the re-minted Opening Day catcher, followed DeRosa with one of his two singles scoring Huff. THen, Bowker drilled a single off the top of the Crawford Box in left, bringing home DeRosa, and sending Molina to third. Juan Uribe’s sac-fly to deep right-center scored the slow-footed Molina, making it 3-0 Giants.

“It was nice watching the bats do their thing today,” said Lincecum, who contributed at the plate too by getting down two sac-bunts on first pitches. “… I was definitely excited for this game more than anything. This is where it matters.”

Edgar Renteria added a two-out RBI double in the seventh, and DeRosa’s blast was all the offense the Giants would need.
Sergio Romo came on and pitched a scoreless eighth, but it will likely cost him in kangaroo court, as the eager right-hander bounded off the mound thinking his strike out of Michael Bourn ended the inning. It was only out number two. Romo gave up two hits, but escaped unscathed, other than the embarrassment he’s sure to face from teammates.

“I was just excited,” Romo said. “(I got) caught in the moment on my first Opening Day.”

Brandon Medders coughed up two runs in the ninth, but closer Brian Wilson came on to pick up the final two outs, sealing the win, and earning his first save of the season.

As is the case in nearly every one of Lincecum’s starts, the ‘Franchise’ was the story. But for Giants manager Bruce Bochy, the dominance his starter flaunted isn’t anything out of the ordinary.

“The last couple times in spring training, you could see Timmy getting where he wanted to be, and he took it into tonight’s game,” Bochy said. “He was his normal self.”

Re-printed with permission of the author.

Copyright ©2010 Sports Climax™