The Giants ended their road trip with a disappointment, as they could have been 7-3 with a win and Sanchez, while wild, was effectively wild and only gave up 1 run in his 5 IP. Still, a 6-4 road trip with two series wins is always a good thing.
The Giants face the A's and, unfortunately, face their two best starters, in Mazzarro and Outman, but at least they miss the other two good starters, Braden and Cahill, and get to face Anderson too, who has been their worse starter, at least among those in the rotation now, as they have been moving a lot of starters into and out of the rotation to find one who would stick.
Game 1: Lincecum vs. Vin Mazzaro
Normally I would say that the Giants got this in the bag, but Vin Mazzaro has started his MLB career on a hot streak, with two straight impressive shutout performances. A non-heralded rookie prospect (at least I have never heard of him, though he is clearly good, he was A's #8 prospect according to Baseball America), he did very well in AAA thus far this season and carried it over into the majors. And he beat two strong offensive teams, the Chicago White Sox and the Baltimore Orioles.
I will have to say that this is a coin toss, as we have Lincecum but Mazzaro has been on a very good hot streak. The good news, relatively, is that he is not a strikeout pitcher, he's a groundball pitcher, and thus at some point the ground balls will start going through for hits, he can't keep his BABIP so low, as he has his first two games, he will soon regress to the mean; whether it is this game or in the future, though, is the question.
Game 2: Johnson vs. Josh Outman
Outman has been one of the A's nice developments this season, another not as heralded rookie prospects. He has put together a nice string of good to great starts since they put him in the rotation again, after he got knocked around his first two starts this season, and has a 3.17 ERA overall. After having 3 bad starts in 4, Outman has had 6 good starts, going 4-0 in 39 IP with 2.31 ERA, 28 K/14 BB, and only 24 hits and 2 HR. Both those latter stats are abnormally low but the Giants probably won't do anything to his HR rate.
Johnson has been up and down, so we don't really know who we will get in this start, but he had a nice string of three good starts before a relatively poor start in his latest start, which he did on only 3 days rest plus the 3 runs were flukey in that it was the result of a 3-run homer to a rookie. I would have to say that I expect the A's to win, but wouldn't be surprised if the Giants won, probably 60-40 odds, I would say. And I would give the nod to Johnson if it wasn't that Outman has been so consistently good starting for a good long stretch.
Game 3: Cain vs. Brett Anderson
Brett Anderson was one of the A's wonder prospects who were suppose to lead the pitching staff while their revamped offense kicked butt. Neither has really happened, as Anderson has been a disaapointment and the offense was crippled by injured and underperforming vets (not unlike the Giants of recent years; yet you hardly hear any complaints about the A's failures this season). Anderson, with a 5.25 ERA and recent bad starts look like a lamb going to slaughter going up against Matt Cain, who is quietly putting together a Cy Young caliber season.
Giants should win this one easily. The only good point about Anderson is that he has not been walking very many batters but, while not a strikeout pitcher, strike out enough for a nice 2.4 K/BB ratio this season, while his BABIP is a bit on the high side at .310, so it could be just a matter of time before he puts it all together and pitch well consistently. Hopefully not against us, but with Cain going strong, we should win.
Giants Thoughts
The Giants have been playing well at home, going 5-1 on their last homestand, and averaging nearly 5 runs per game in that stretch. And they averaged nearly 6 runs per game in the prior homestand, but only went 3-4 due to poor pitching. That plus our three best starters over the past month or so, should lead to a series win, 2-1, over the A's, but the A's always play the Giants tough, so I wouldn't be surprise if the Giants end up losing 1-2.
Hopefully Schierholtz can pump some needed energy into the Giants side of the equation. According to Andy Baggarly and Chris Haft, Nate Schierholtz was like me, growing up a big Giants fan living in the East Bay amongst A's fans, and this series is a big deal to him, he is looking forward to playing against the A's: "I definitely was always a Giants fan". The Giants of recent years don't appear to have that fire, so Schierholtz could get a flame going being on the team this year. Hopefully Bochy will start him in a couple of games, and give Lewis more rest, Lewis is looking horribly in recent games, like yesterday, and maybe Schierholtz can add to his MLB HR career totals (no pressure).
They will need all the help they can get, as the Giants haven't won a season series from the A's since 2001. But with the Giants three best starters going up against the A's, it is their best chance to try to break that streak. And the offense has been pretty good playing at home, of late, as noted above.
Go Giants, beat the 's sses! While a sweep is not likely, it would please me to no end if the Giants could sweep them after they clawed their way back to respectability with their recent 7 game win streak, and 8 of 10 games; a sweep would set them back pretty good mentally. And I would be happy with beating the A's anytime, as that would piss off their fans greatly, but to do that now after the only good thing that has happened to the A's this season (i.e. the win streak), would be sweet.
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