The Adventures of the San Francisco Giants and their Astonishing (lack of) Offense

The Giants have won 7 of their last 8 games. Excuse me as I contain my excitement...

*ahem*

During that time however, the Giants have not scored more than 4 runs a game in ANY of those games. In fact the Giants have only scored more than 4 runs once in the past 14 games.

And yet this team is sitting atop the NL West thanks in part to incredible starting pitching, a shut down bullpen and mediocre play from the rest of the division.

Today's offense managed 3 runs, 1 of them earned in the shortened 7 inning game. Two runs scored on fielding errors by the Cubs, although the first probably would've scored regardless. In case you don't sense the tone, that's pretty horrible. But we'll take it because somehow Ryan Vogelsong has found out how to pitch after playing average at best in the majors and Japan for most of his career. Yes, Vogelsong is 3-0 and the Giants are 4-0 in his 4 starts so far. He is shaping out to be one of the best stories on this 2011 team.

But it seems as if Vogelsong has been sharing his kool-aid with the rest of the starting rotation, as we saw Timmy have one of his best starts of his career against the Diamondbacks and Matt Cain getting it done against them as well. The only guy who's completely missed the boat is Bumgarner who just can't seem to catch a break despite yet another solid outing.

But lets get back to the offense which has defied all and done just enough to win games. Thanks to the stagnant offense, Brian Wilson has 3 shiny walk-off wins under his belt due to the homestand of torture. If you'd ask Wilson he'd tell you that these are not his wins, but they should belong to the starting pitchers all of whom did fantastic jobs in order to put themselves in position to get the win. As exciting and fun as a walk-off win is, you have to feel bad for the starting pitcher that day who bust their tail trying to get the win only to have their bearded friend take the credit.

Again this is the least of my worries. What I do worry about is, how long will this last? The Giants are a team built on pitching, this much is certain. But can we really rely on the staff to keep putting up zeroes on the board as the offense sputters its way to 2-3 runs a night? Eventually you get days like Friday where the Giants' bullpen arms got weary and let the Cubbies blast away while the Giants again fail to score more than 4 runs.

With Panda out for at least another 4-5 weeks, someone needs to step up. The Fontenot reign at 3rd in the lineup has already ended and Ross seems to be heating up lately. But we wont score in bunches like we could last year unless guys like Huff, Burrell and Tejada can get on the same page. In addition, its tough but DeRosa needs to start playing like he deserves an everyday role at 3rd base. He's got the opportunity right now to show us that he can still play since Panda is on the DL, but so far he's done nothing to earn it. DeRosa is hitting .214 right now on the year, and only a hair better than Tejada. Both whom went a combined 0 for 6 today at 7th and 8th in the lineup.

Vogelsong however has found success on the mound as well as the plate and has extended his hit streak to all 4 of the games he's started. Only 27 more to beat Andre Ethier...

I think I'm done questioning any moves Bochy makes with this lineup, it is no longer a question of who's hitting where or how to shake it up to get some runs on the board. The hitters on this team simply need to find a way to get it done and they have not been doing their part.

If there's a day to get it started the 3rd game of the series against Chiciago would be a great place to start. After all, its Tim Lincecum Day.

Laws of the Day

The Giants are ranked 24th in the league in Batting Average and 29th in total runs scored