Giants Back to Work

Exactly as I predicted.

The Man Hunter Pence

After 3 days of celebration which included 2 days of pitiful baseball, the Giants went back to work on Monday and had an offensive EXPLOSION!... of four runs... 3 of which were courtesy of a Hunter Pence cannon shot into the left field bleachers. 

Bumgarner was not quite as spectacular as his first start but still managed to get the win.  I try to take something from every Giants game, see if we've learned something about this team or seeing someone start to get out of a funk. 


Over the weekend there was no such learning to be had.  The Giants don't win very often when they can't score runs, and Chad Gaudin is an effective garbage inning eater.  Brandon Belt, Nick Noonan and Guillermo Quiroz got their first hits of the year, the latter two actually had the first hits of their major league careers. 

Other than actual baseball, we were able to see the 2012 World Series flag raised, Posey getting his MVP trophy and the Giants getting their World Series rings.  Did my eyes well up just slightly when Barry Zito tipped his hat to the crowd before receiving his ring?  Maybe... but it's time to turn the page on the 2012 team and start winning in 2013. 

So on the subject of learning, what did we learn yesterday?  We learned that Scutaro is still finding his way at the plate (1 for 4) he's still trying to find that stroke he had last year.  We learned that Hunter Pence is a MAN, not just a caveman who eats a lot of kale, but a MAN who smashes balls and has 3 homers in 7 games.  We also learned that Pablo, despite telling Andrew Baggarly that he's "lost" at the plate, hasn't really stopped hitting.  He went 2 for 3 yesterday and currently has a .360 average in the early goings. 

Another thing we learned that Jeremy Affeldt is your 7th, 8th inning guy regardless of lefty/righty matchups.  Bochy said after yesterday's stellar performance that he will be the set-up man in almost any situation because of his ability to get both lefty and righty hitters out.  He showed that yesterday getting Colorado's 3-4-5 hitters out in succession in only 7 pitches, Affeldt's starting to get a reputation for getting middle of the order guys out in a row like that, much like he has a reputation for weird injuries. 

Finally, we learned that Romo is human.  He gave up a double to start off the 9th yesterday and then he got angry.  Three strike outs later, and Romo now has 4 saves in all 4 of the Giants' wins. 

Today is Tim Lincecum Day.  Enjoy.

Laws of the Day

I love early season stats: Sergio Romo has pitched in only 4 innings so far, has 6 strikeouts, 4 saves and has allowed only 1 baserunner.   ERA - 0.00, WHIP - 0.25.