Now the Giants face the 'Dres on the road in SD, and they have actually been decent (6-6), which they looked to be from the way they ended the 2009 season, I liked a lot of their young guys, but A-Gon is expected to be gone via trade before the trade deadline, so that should put a tombstone on their season, sooner or later.
Game 1: Matt Cain (0-0, 4.26) vs. Clayton Richard (0-2, 4.38)
Normally, I would say that this is a win for the Giants, but Richard was very good at his SD home last season (2.00 ERA) so there is that. However, he was horrible in his first start at home this year, so that is there as well. The 'Dres lineup, despite A-Gon and other good players, has been struggling this season, averaging under 4 runs scored per game, good for 10th in the NL this season.
I have to think that the Giants should win this game, Cain is now pretty good on the road as well as home, and he's facing a sub-standard offense, and Richard, while great at home last season, didn't pitch all that many games there, and he did poorly in his first start, so the edge appears to be in the Giants favor.
Game 2: Jonathan Sanchez (1-0, 2.19) vs. Mat Latos (0-1, 5.91)
Mat Latos is their young pitching phenom, but he doesn't strike out that many and hasn't had great success in the majors so far, only doing OK, and he has been as OK at home as on the road. Sanchez and the Giants should beat him easily.
Game 3: Todd Wellemeyer (0-1, 9.58) vs. Jon Garland (0-2, 5.40)
Garland has actually not pitched that well in SD when you look at his peripherals, but he has a 3.41 ERA at home. That should not continue. However, Wellemeyer has not been that great himself. So it can go either way, depending on how well Wellemeyer pitches and how well Garland pitches.
Giants Thoughts
A big factor on which the results will depend on is how achy Mark DeRosa's hamstring is: if he is out again, then the lineup will that much like the lineups we had last season - that is, not good - and we could end up losing the series instead. The lineup yesterday will look much like yesterday's, as Richard is a LHP: Velez, Renteria, Sandoval, Huff, Molina, Uribe, Torres, Schierholtz. And it could not do anything, though Kershaw finally figured out what was wrong from his prior games and pitched a heck of a game, striking out 9 in 7 IP.
The good news is that Huff, Molina, Renteria, Sandoval, Torres, and Uribe has had some, though limited (basically one game's results), success against Richard. And Sandoval has owned Garland (6-7 with homer), while Huff has done well (8-29 with 2 HR), which might make up for the other hitters not doing that well against him. Maybe with a lefty lineup (lefties have historically done well against him), the Giants can score some runs on him. Only DeRosa has faced Latos, but 0-2. Latos has NOT done well against left-handed hitters, and the Giants have a lot of lefties, so they look like they should be able to score runs off of him. The park severely hurts left-handed power, though.
So, whereas the D-gers I thought was a toss-up as to which team should win the series (so losing 1-2 is not that big a shock), the Giants look to be a clearly better team than the 'Dres, even at their pitcher's park home and should win the series. A sweep of the 'Dres does not look likely, but two wins certainly appear within reach for us, which would give us a 3-3 road trip, and .500 on road trips is the Giants goal for 2010, for that should, along with a good home record, get us to a division title (.500 in 2009 would have resulted in us tied with Colorado or taking the wild card).
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