Thanks to the continuing exploits of their 28–year-old rookie backup catcher, the Giants take two of three to win the weekend series from the Phillies, leaving Bruce Bochy to grumble again about the blown chance to win the previous weekend’s series in Philly — or even to sweep it.
Bruce, let it go. You’re not exactly nailed to a cross, but it never hurts to whistle a few bars of “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life,” as in, hey pal, your 2008 San Francisco Giants are a couple players away from being a decent team, especially if those players can play infield defense, get on base frequently AND hit the ball out of the yard.
Easier said than done, of course, and time has a funny way of turning promise into illusion. But we’re two or three games short of the quarter post, and the whole Gamer/Bonds Who?/Young Guys/Great Pitching motif is making sense, however clumsily executed. Even though a portion of the unwashed masses isn’t convinced and threatens to send mid-weeknight attendance below 30,000, people paying attention are having more fun than any other fans of a 16–22 team in the history of baseball. (Proprietary formulae to calculate the ratio of fun-having to bitching/moaning among various segments of a fan base available upon request.)
A few notes as we head into an intriguing four-game series against the suddenly hot Astros:
* Aaron Rowand, Mr. Gamerlicious, is actually doing everything the Giants promised and more. He’s on pace for nearly 50 doubles and slugging .557 despite only four homers.
* Fred Lewis is in a 3–for-31 funk. Bochy sat him against some of the lefty starters in the past six games, but not all of them. Should Boch have let him play through the whole time? Will Freddie right himself against the Astros’ string of righties?
* Matt Cain has only three quality starts out of eight this year. His main problem has been the walks, driving up pitch counts and taking him out of games early when he’s otherwise pitching well. His last two starts were a good trend: one walk per start, although the one walk against Pittsburgh was the opposing pitcher, and it started a two-run rally.
SMALL PRINT UPDATE: Welcome Orange, Black and Blue to the Giants-related blogroll, and welcome Omar Vizquel back to the active roster. Brian Bocock is now in AAA, which is still a shocking promotion over last year.
