Giants need this home stand to stay competitive By Ken Gimblin and Joe Cronin June 26, 2010     SAN FRANCISCO--The Giants who won on Friday and lost on Saturday at home felt like on the road trip that they should have won a couple of their games for example they hit into a lot of double plays. They're just not producing the runs and those are things you work on. With the Houston series the two pitchers Barry Zito and Matt Cain did not pitch the games they normally pitch so this makes a difference too. This is unusual for Cain to have a tough game like he did, you’re going to get one of those days, you can't be perfect every time you go out there. The Giants are more concerned at this stage about hitting into double plays and not taking advantage of scoring opportunities. In order to win you definitely need to do that. Manager Bruce Bochy works on trying to improve the pitching and he's a very fine manager and he works on it and it's like losing weight it's easier to talk about it than actually doing it. You work on it, you hope to correct it, but that doesn't mean your going to get the results that you want. Juan Uribe has carried the team and his bat has been very important, Giants general manager Brian Sabean said it best "where would we be without him?" You talk about over paying a player Uribe is the opposite. The salary they're paying him, they're paying him way far in advance of that. The Giants are fortunate that they signed him his season because he's been a very important part for the Giants and without him the Giants record would not be what it is today. Rowland and Renteria: On Aaron Rowland he comes to play hard and he's playing hurt and you got to respect him and he's driving the ball in practice and he's working hard at it, he's a very hard worker and hopefully he'll bounce back. The problem with Renteria and he's a very fine shortstop he's brittle, just injury prone, he's having a good year but he gets injured. If he can keep healthy he's going to be fine. Problem is he going to be healthy for the season? Home cooking important for G's: After losing four out of six on the road in Toronto and Houston the Giants play better at home and there is doubt about it and the record indicates that and the Giants are used to their ball park. On the other hand in the Houston series again the Giants have taken advantage of their scoring opportunities they might have won the series and may have come out on top in one of them. Dodgers coming up and the park was packed for the Sox series and it will be the same for the Dodgers coming up. The Giants have a long road trip in July and they spend more games away and the first couple of weeks they're on the road and they come back briefly to face Mets and they're back out on the road again until the end of the month. So July can be a very important part if the Giants are going to win it the division or win the pennant they're going to have to have a winning record in July. Ken Gimblin and Joe Cronin cover Giants baseball each week for Sportstalk Radio

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