Your 2010 Giants are 24-22: Right Back at D-Backs

Ah, nothing like winning a series to cleanse the palate!  And in a nice, come from behind despite our starter having a disaster start, mode.

Still, WEAK people, WEAK:  the announcers said that the crowd was booing Lincecum.  That is the weakest thing I've ever heard.  Whoever did that should be ashamed and forced to wear a Benitez jersey to a Giants game, Lincecum is our 2 Cy Young winner, first to ever do it in his first two full seasons, and he did not deserve that!  May a D-gers fan barf on anyone who did that!

Now the Giants get the chance to pay back to the D-backs the drubbing they got in Arizona at their hands.  The D-backs are on a 4 game losing streak plus don't play well on the road (9-15 on the road), and the Giants like home cooking.

Game 1:  Edwin Jackson vs. Cain

Jackson was suppose to come in the trade and be one of the top starters with Haren and Webb.  Unfortunately for the D-backs, but good for the NL West, Webb is still rehabbing and they probably wished Jackson was rehabbing.  He has a 6.28 ERA and 7.94 ERA on the road.  Meanwhile, Cain has been masterful whether at home or on the road.  Should be a Giants win.

Game 2:  Billy Buckner vs. Sanchez

Buckner (not related to Bill Buckner it appears) was their next try at filling the 5th starter spot after Kris Benson (predictably) failed at even doing that.  Don't take a lot to hold a 5th starting spot.  Still, Buckner is even underperforming Benson, with a 9.00 ERA in two starts.  He hasn't walked much but he has been battered around, 17 hits in 9 IP.  He has pitched well, albeit in a couple of relief roles against the Giants in SF, but has been battered normally.  But he has a 4.16 ERA on the road for his career, so it could just be that he can't handle Arizona's hitter's park.

The Giants pitchers have not done as well in May as April, including Sanchez, but Jon-no-hitter Sanchez seems to have his mojo when he's pitching at home.   Should be a Giants win.

Game 3:  Ian Kennedy vs. Wellemeyer

Ian Kennedy has been the D-backs best pitcher this season, hands down, with a 3.41 ERA overall.  And he wasn't even the marquee player in the trade that netted him, Edwin Jackson was.  Amazingly, though, he has been better at home (2.57 ERA) than on the road (4.08 ERA), and in any case his BABIP is unsustainably low in both cases unless he's one of those non-DIPS pitchers like Zito and, thus far, Cain, with a .205 BABIP at home and .278 on the road.  Unlikely since he's not a lefty nor a knuckleballer, though not impossible.  Should be a lot of regression eventually and the 20-27 D-backs would be left without even their one good starter.  Still, that does not mean that he regresses in this game, there is still a lot of season to go.

Wellemeyer is bee a Jeckyll and Hyde:  3.03 ERA at home, horrible ERA on the road.   He pitched into the 7th in his last start and was reasonable good in that start.  Which gives me hope that he'll be OK in this start too.  I would call this matchup pretty even, with a lean towards Wellemeyer for home team advantage.

Giants Thoughts

The Giants look like they should win this series, perhaps could even sweep under the right circumstances.  That would be a good start to regaining the ground lost in the games played against the NL West thus far this season.  And winning series is always good.

The offense, which was frozen on the road, thawed a little against the Nats, who threw some good pitchers against us and has a pretty good bullpen.  Players are unslumping, though our main man, Pandoval, appears to be still searching for his mojo back.

Luckily, Torres has been continuing his hot streak atop our lineup, plus Sanchez appears to have figured out MLB pitching again, and had a great day yesterday.  The announcers kept on saying that yesterday was the first day that he appeared to be patient at the plate - marked by his first two walks of the season - which allowed him to watch for his pitches and he got two hits too, making it a four times on the basepath day for him out of four AB's.  Baggarly remarked on that in his blog.

It was another nice coming from behind victory yesterday.  The Giants last year had none late in the game but the team this year has a couple of them, if I got that right.  In any case, it is good that the offense can pick up the pitching sometimes.

Go Giants!