Giants 4, Astros 2: Nice to see Matt Cain go deep and go deep into a game, 114 pitches in eight innings thanks to some early-count swinging by the Astros in the middle innings. Though, dammit, four walks is still too many, especially with one to the opposing pitcher and one to the punch-n-judy Michael Bourn. With the Astros starting Brian Moehler and Chris Sampson the next two games, the Giants have a real shot at winning this series.
PLODAG: Cain -- eight strong innings, a home run, and he should have only been charged with one earned run, not two, as John Bowker flat-out missed Lance Berkman's well-struck but catchable single in the fourth inning.
The Upside: FreddieLoo! Dang if Freddie hasn't rediscovered his gap-to-gap stroke against right-handed pitching, just like I hoped. He had two opposite field hits Monday and three hits, one to each field, last night. It's impressive that he's made adjustments and seen such dramatic results. With Lewis (.370 OBP) and Rowand (.391 OBP), it looks like the Giants have a couple guys who understand the strike zone and also have enough power to keep outfielders honest. I see why Giants brass talk about Lewis becoming a #3 hitter someday -- but only if they find someone else with an OBP in the high 300s to lead off. Until then, Fred's the man.
UPDATE: This Baseball Prospectus writer is skeptical of Rowand's numbers, which are heavily skewed by hot hitting on the road and an unsustainable .414 average on balls he puts in play. One could also argue he's benefited from seeing so many left-handed pitchers -- check out his L/R splits. Back in the NL West, with a steady diet of Peavy/Webb/C. Young/Haren/Owings/Penny/Lowe/Billingsley/Cook....well, you get the picture. Though to be fair, that run of starters is enough to put a lid on any team short of the 1934 AL All-Star squad.
BP's Will Carroll also made this note about Barry Zito's performance Monday night: "Something looked very different about Zito last night; the results were certainly different. I'll go back and watch the game today on MLB.tv and report back. What did you see?"
