Giants Continue to Roll

Ok I know I promised an AL All-Star post, but right now the Giants are on a winning streak and it might be a while before they go on a win streak like this again. The Giant's emergency starter Kevin Correia looked good after his 35 pitch first inning. In that first inning he struck out the leadoff hitter, and then proceeded to give up a 2 strike home run to utility-man extraordinaire, Mark Sweeney. From there it went downhill, although Kevin managed to limit the damage to only one more run after the solo shot. After that inning Correia didn't surrender any more runs going 5 innings and surrendering 6 hits. Late in the game, we were able to capitalize bigtime on a throwing error by Khalil Greene and score he go ahead run.


After 5 innings from Correia, the Giants then turned it over to Scott Munter, who loaded the bases. The thing about Munter is although he allows tons of baserunners, he still manages to keep his ERA at in the low 2's, namely due to his electric sinker and ability to induce the double play. So how does he get out of a bases loaded jam? Double play, inning over. Ever since he's been brought up he's had me pulling my hair out and then in an instant have me heaving a sigh of relief. His groundball out to flyball out ratio (51:9) jumps off the page. Percentage-wise, thats 6.33 groundballs to ever one flyball. In 26 outtings, he's only been scored upon in 6 of them. He's been our best reliever since he's been brought up from the minors and finally he's been getting trusted in high pressure situations. The bullpen as a whole has been rock solid during this 4 game winning streak. In the midst of the sweep against the D-Backs, the bullpen's ERA was 0.95. Today they tossed 4 scoreless innings, surrendering 3 hits, 4 K's, and 1 walk. The bullpen hasn't totally been the reason for the recent winning habits of the Giants; the starting pitchers deserve some credit here too. All it took for the bullpen to be effective was quality outtings by starters. In the 4 wins, the starters have given up 3, 1, 1, and 2 earned runs respectively. None of them have gone fewer than 5 innings. The offense has been timely and scrappy. Which brings me to the main factor of the Giant's winning: they've learned to win without Barry. The Giants have learned how win without the home run. In the last 4 games, they have hit only 2 home runs, and they both hit in one game.

Tomorrow the Giants send 100 year old Jeff Fassero to the mound. Let's hope he can go 5 innings without San Francisco down by more than 5 runs. Cross your fingers, knock on wood, and go Giants. 8 games out and hopefully counting down. I'll get that American League All-Star post up as soon as I can. It's a time consuming process so I'll do it when i have a good amount of spare time.