Your 2010 Giants are 28-24: Capturing the Pirates

Not a great series, but at least we had a 4-2 homestand ultimately.  We knew it was going to be tough to win the series going in with Ubaldo pitching the way he has been this season.  Now, on to the Pirates, who has been scuffling.  They are 22-31 but 13-12 at home.

The Pirates just took two from Chicago, but had a 5 game losing streak before that, and losers of 9 of 11 before that.  They are still re-building, but their rotation from last season looked pretty good heading into this season.  However, it has imploded this season, only Maholm and Ohlendorfer have done well.  Unfortunately, the rainout of their game Wednesday pushed Duke into our series, followed by Maholm and Ohlendorfer.  Originally it was those two followed by TBA (to be announced) so we most probably would have won that start (plus that's Lincecum's start) as they were probably going to pull some scrub from the minors to start.

Game 1:  Zach Duke vs. Sanchez

Duke has had an up and down career, though mostly down.  Prospect with potential but now looking like he's just a middle of the road guy.  The problem is that he don't strike out too many batters, but at least he kept his walks low as well before.  However, this season, he has been walking way too many batters.

But, he is much better at home:  3.57 ERA vs. 6.99 ERA on the road this season;  4.07 ERA for career vs. 4.66 ERA on the road for career.  So Sanchez will have his hands full.

Sanchez also pitches better at home but will be on the road.  Still, 3.67 ERA on the road is pretty good, in any case.  It is pretty close but I would lean towards Sanchez as he has the stuff to shut down teams when he is on.

Game 2:  Paul Maholm vs. Wellemeyer

Maholm started poorly but he's been very good the past three seasons.  I would call him their ace of the staff, he has an ERA around 4 for the past 2 plus seasons and at age 28, should continue to shine for a few more seasons.  He has also pitched much better at home (3.64 ERA) as well.

Wellemeyer is no ace nor has he pitched like one on the road.  Pirates should win.

Game 3:  Ross Ohlendorfer vs. Lincecum

Ohlendorfer also pitches much better at home (3.56 vs. 5.58 ERA career).  He has pitched well as a Pirate and look like a great pickup in their trade away of Nady and Marte.  Normally, I would say that the Giants should still win with Lincecum starting, but given his recent struggles, I would have to call this even.

Giants Thoughts

Had Duke not been pushed into this series, I would think that the Giants had a good chance to win the series. Now it looks like a coin toss at best.  Which does not appear to be what the Giants should do based on the Pirates record overall, but which makes sense once you see that they play OK at home, horribly on the road. Still, dang rain, we would have avoided Duke and faced TBA instead, which probably would have been one of their poorer pitchers.

Still, I think the offense appears to be in better shape now.  Sandoval appears to be heading out of his slump in May.  I would declare his mojo is back once he starts homering with regularity.  Torres has been doing OK in the leadoff spot since he took over and Sanchez has paired up nicely with him.  Huff has been great since he was moved back to the cleanup spot.  Uribe has been his steady goodness in the 5th spot, and been good since Posey became his wingman in the 6th spot.

And, of course, Posey has been good since he came up, for the most part, though it is too early to say whether he will continue or not.  The good news is that he only has one strikeout with all the ABs he has had already, but the semi-bad news is that he hasn't drawn a walk yet and he has been very impatient, drawing only 3.63 pitches per PA.

Now, if either Molina or Rowand can join this conga line and start hitting like they can - I still think Molina can do it, but is losing hope that Rowand can - then we should be winning a lot of series going forward in June.

Plus, with Pat the Bat Burrell joining the team, the bench will be that much better, plus with spot starts, maybe he can power the ball out still.  But he didn't hit that well in AAA, so don't expect miracles from him.  Hopefully he will start out with spot starts vs. LHP for Huff plus provide right-handed HR power off the bench.  If he starts hitting, then can think about more of a role in the lineup.

We still don't know what's happening on the 40 man to bring up Burrell (25 man move was to option Bowker to AAA).  My best guess, which I tweeted, is that Medders gets moved to the 60-day DL list.  He didn't do that well in his last rehab appearance, and since Santiago Casilla and Denny Bautista have done well, they could just leave him down there until he gets it all back together again.

Otherwise, they are out of easy moves, so the only other options would be DFAing someone.   Many have said Ishikawa, but I still don't think that is happening, at least not yet.  But the clock is ticking on that one, I think, particularly if Emmanuel Burriss does come off the DL in the second half, as speculated by Hank Schulman.