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We've had some bad losses this season, but I don't think we had anything quite as disastrous as the one suffered by the Giants last night. Their game against the Rockies went into extra innings and San Francisco took a three-run lead in the 14th. However, a bases-loaded walk to the opposing pitcher - who'd been told not to swing - and a grand-slam gave the Rockies a stunning victory.
Definitely a good time to be facing them, though only Brandon Medders and Brian Wilson - who combined for five innings of work and 83 pitches - will be completely unavailable out of their bullpen [which also includes Golden Baseball League alumni, Sergio Romo]. We also don't have to face Timmeh, though Matt Cain has been even better of late, with a 2.53 ERA since the All-Star break. Dan Haren... Not so much. We thought he'd got it sorted with his win over the Dodgers, his Philadelphia start proved otherwise. He's allowed nine homers in his last 36 innings: to put that into context, Yusmeiro Petit has allowed only five in his past 38.1 IP.
Still, it's facing the Giants, whose team OPS+ is 82 this year. For comparison, Craig Counsell's career number is 80. Yep: the entire San Francisco roster, overall, has basically been hitting like Craig this year. Pablo Sandoval is their only hitter with 100 ABs and an OPS+ above 102. Deal with him, and the rest of the line-up should fall into place. Perhaps the bigger question is, how will our line-up handle Matt Cain? We did break out of our slump on Sunday against the Astros, so we'll see if that can carry forwards this evening.
Line-up
- Stephen Drew SS
- Ryan Roberts LF
- Chad Tracy 3B
- Miguel Montero C
- Brandon Allen 1B
- Gerardo Parra CF
- Alex Romero RF
- Augie Ojeda 2B
- Dan Haren P
'charmer Week continues on AZ SnakePit today - after her excellent work recently, doing Sunday's recap, plus the fantasy report and her minor-league report yesterday, she'll be in attendance at YourMessageHere Park tonight, and so is doing the game recap again. I'll be at wrestling as usual, though this time it's not IZW at The Sets, but the slightly-larger show which is WWE Smackdown at US Airways Center. Still, a few of our guys will be taking part in one way or another, so looking forward to seeing them. And then, hopefully heading home to find out about a Diamondbacks victory. Ideally, on a 14th-inning grand-slam...