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Giants' hot run ends against Florida
By Morris Phillips July 26, 2010 |
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The Giants’ best week in this or any of the last five seasons is over. The Marlins saw to that. Ricky Nolasco was efficient and effective in shutting down the Giants for 6 1/3 innings, and Dan Uggla and rookie Mike Stanton both homered off Barry Zito in a 4-2 win for the Florida Marlins. The Giants post All-Star break run of nine wins in 11 games came to an end, but San Francisco maintains its lead in the wild-card race, while falling 3 ½ games behind the first-place Padres in the NL West. For Zito, the 341st start of his career filled with peaks and valleys was a lot like start 340 and only slightly different than number 339. The Giants backed Zito with no offense as he has made three starts since the break with only one run scored by the Giants in support of his steady pitching. Fortunately for him, he made that run stand up in 1-0 win over the Mets on July 16. Against the Marlins, Zito pitched out of a jam in the first inning and cruised into the fourth, where he allowed a solo shot to Dan Uggla on an elevated fastball. One inning later, rookie sensation Mike Stanton took Zito deep into the left field bleachers on pitcher’s pitch on the lower half of the zone. Stanton entered Monday’s game hitting just .221, but he homered 21 times in 52 games at Double A Jacksonville before he was promoted in June. He’s homered eight times since to rank as baseball’s unofficial home run leader with 29. For Zito, his breakout season and potentially his best in his four year Giants’ career has stalled as he fell to 8-6 on the season. After allowing no homers in his first seven starts of the season, Zito has allowed 11 round trippers in his last 14 starts. Not alarming numbers, but proof enough that Zito isn’t the same pitcher that started the season so spectacularly, winning five of his first six starts. Buster Posey stepped up to the plate in the second, and beat Nolasco right up the middle with a relaxed approach, classic follow through and a clear mandate to take what the pitcher gives. The rookie catcher extended his hit streak to 19 games, all of them in July where he’s hit .459 (39 for 85) which is easily the best batting average of any major leaguer this month. But the rest of the Giants’ hitters struggled when gifted the opportunity to do damage as the team finished 0 for 5 with runners in scoring position and stranded eight base runners total. Posey struggled too, after his initial at-bat, coming to the plate three more times—all with the bases empty—and failing to get a hit. Pinch hitter Aaron Rowand made things interesting by launching a two-run homer in the seventh that got the Giants within 3-2. The homer wasn’t a sure thing as a fan snatched the ball just as left fielder Emilio Bonafacio leaped to make a catch. The umpire crew, as mandated by the new instant replay rules, retreated to a television monitor to review the play, but decided to uphold the original call. “They had only one shot to make the call and the angle that they had, they had the ball over the fence. So it was hard for them to make a call. They couldn’t assume that Boni would have made that play,” Florida manager Edwin Rodriguez said when asked what the umpires told him. “More angles would have helped.” The Marlins’ bullpen responded after Rowand’s blow. Brian Sanches struck out Edgar Renteria with two on to end the seventh, and Clay Hensley blew away Pat Burrell with a man on to end the eighth. Burrell had sent a Hensley offering home run distance, but foul, just four pitches earlier. Leo Nunez, a superior closer with 23 saves in 28 chances, allowed the first two Giants hitters to reach in the ninth. But Nunez induced Andres Torres to ground out and then struck out Renteria to end it. The Giants will attempt a bounce back on Tuesday behind Matt Cain. The Marlins will counter with their ace and All-Star game starter Josh Johnson. The Marlins flew seven hours across the country and dealt with a temperature drop of better than thirty degrees as Pac Bell offered 59 degree weather at the first pitch. But they hung on and moved over .500 for the first time this year. “Whatever we are trying to accomplish, we all know that we have to go over .500. Tonight was a big step for us,” Rodriguez said. THE YEAR OF THE NO-HITTER MAY ALSO BE REMEMBERED AS THE YEAR OF THE BOTCHED CELEBRATION: While Kendry Morales’ botched leap after a walk off home run earlier this year got all the headlines, Florida’s Chris Coghlan might be remembered only slightly less for his miscalculated leap—to pie Wes Helms, Sunday’s hero for the Marlins in a 5-4 win over the Braves—that cost him his health and forced him to offer a contrite explanation. “When Wes hit the walkoff, I went to pie him in the face. As I jumped, I landed wrong on my knee and that’s how I got injured. I had an MRI today and I tore my meniscus, and right now I’m going to see what happens in the next couple of days, but I’m going on the DL,” Coghlan explained. “It’s very humbling… It’s also unfortunate because of the circumstances that it happened. If you ever get injured, you want to do it when you’re out there competing, not when you’re celebrating. Through this experience, I hope that as players we just need to be aware, because it is a game of emotions. Emotions get the best of you, you’re excited. There’s nothing wrong with that, but just be a little bit smarter when you celebrate.” GIANTS ROLLING, BUT WATCH OUT FOR THE REDS: So many good things have happened to the Giants in the last seven days in their quest to end their playoff drought, that it’s just plain difficult to find any dark clouds on the horizon. But if there is one, this is it: Cincinnati, a team the Giants find themselves battling for a wild card berth has a significantly easier schedule than any of the National League contenders. If anything, the Reds’ remaining schedule is an unsubtle reminder to those who rue the unbalanced schedules and inequities in interleague play. Simply, the playing field isn’t level when it comes to who you play in baseball these days. Of the Reds final 69 games, which started last Monday versus the Nationals, 44 of those are against teams with losing records. What makes this finishing stretch so favorable is the fact that, as of Monday, only six of the 16 NL teams have losing records, but Cincinnati gets those six squads 44 times down the stretch. By comparison, the Giants get only 25 of their final 59 games against sub .500 competition, and the Padres, who also figure into the current NL West/Wild Card, three teams for two spots competition, have just 29 of their final 67 games against losing teams. Of course, there’s always careful what you wish for. In the Reds first nine of the 44 easy touches, they’ve gone 4-5 losing to the Astros Saturday and Sunday and the Brewers on Monday. |
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