Giants Give up Hope

Zambrano shut the Giants down Friday night.

9/26/09

The Giants put forth their best pitcher Friday night against the Chicago Cubs in an apparent desperate bid to make the NL Wild Card. But despite Timmy Lincecum taking the mound, the Giants had already given up on the playoffs.

Buster Posey started behind the plate for Bengie Molina, who the Giants plan on shutting down for the season. The wear and tear of the season has really Bengie recently. Before the game it was announced that SS Edgar Renteria would have season ending elbow surgery to clean up bone spurs and chips in his right arm.

I went to the game last night with my dad and some friends, confident that with Tim Lincecum pitching the Giants would get to put another win in the W column, despite not making the playoffs. The game was over though in a blink of an eye, with the Giants losing 3-0 against Carlos Zambrano's dominant effort.

It seemed like we had hardly settled into our seats along the left field near the foul pole, when it was the 5th inning with no score. The Giants had gotten only 1 hit, by Juan Uribe in the bottom of the second neither pitcher was allowing much.

I met up with some other friends and we watched the game from one of my favorite spectating places at AT&T Park, the railing right in front of the "mitt." You are above the field, get the bleachers atmosphere, can people watch the milling crowd down below, have a great chance at getting on the Jumbotron (my friend did for the first time) and can check out hot girls on the walkway.

But, alas, the vantage point from the mitt did not bode well for the Giants. The Cubs depleted line-up, without Derrek Lee, Aramis Ramirez, Alfonso Soriano or the newly suspended Milton Bradley managed to outhit the Giants and scratched across runs against Lincecum in the 6th and 7th inning.

After a dominating first half of the season and starting the all-star game for the NL, Lincecum has been just 4-5 since the break. He has still been very good in the 2nd half of the season, but just hasn't been the dominating pitcher the Giants needed him to be to have a chance at the playoffs. Tim is an ace, there's no question about that. But he needed to maintain his untouchable form, to play at an insane level, and has fallen short.

He pitched well against the Cubs, only giving up 2 runs on 6 hits with 7 Ks through 7. But you'd think that he could do better against such a weak line-up, and the Cubs squared him up for some solid hits.

My expectations are too high, and there is a ton of pressure on Tim to be lights out every start, but he just hasn't had the magic after the all-star break Giants have grown accustomed to.

Don't let any of this misguide you, however. Lincecum will probably get a few Cy Young votes, and leads the NL with 254 strikeouts and is 2nd in E.R.A at 2.47. But he only has 14 wins because of the anemic SF offense. Lincecum has pitched 8 games this year while giving up 2 ERs or less and not gotten a win.

I had forgotten about how good Zambrano can be. It was just last year that he threw a no-hitter against the Astros. I thought, he's good, but he's inconsistent and lets his emotions get the better of him. But last night, he was unhittable, only giving up 2 hits while throwing a complete game shut-out. He struck out 8 and finished the game in under 100 pitches.

Posey went 0-3 with 2 Ks.

Randy Johnson pitched the 9th and gave up a run on a Zambrano single. There were flash bulbs when Randy was pitching because this might be his last year.

Before the game Matt Cain won the Willie Mac Award, which awards the organizations most inspirational player.

The picture is from http://sanfrancisco.giants.mlb.com/index.jsp?c_id=sf in the photo gallery.