All I can say is WOW – is it possible that my poisonous analysis about the Giants’ bullpen was way off?

Yesterday after the Big Unit went only three and a third, Miller, Sanchez, Howry, Affeldt and Wilson gave up only 1 run on 5 hits and no walks through five and two thirds innings.

The biggest hit of the game was Renteria’s two out, two run CLUTCH hit in the top of the fifth.  Scherzer throws really hard for the D’Backs, and it was looking like the Giants were going to strand some baserunners.  But instead Renteria absolutely pounded the ball to dead center.  It was a Barroid 2 iron type of line drive off the wall.  Then Randy Winn came up and hit a 2-run HR to put the Giants up 4-2.

I love these multi-run innings we’re seeing from the Giants offense.  This team is still one big bat away – but there sure are signs of life that weren’t there last year.

The only criticism that I had of yesterday’s game is that Rowand needs to figure out a way to make contact when the situation calls for it.  He went down on three straight pitches yesterday when there were runners on.  I don’t know what his plan of attack was, but he was way late on fastballs from a pitcher that had been throwing heat all game.  Rowand’s had a couple of big homeruns in the young season – but he can’t be that easy of an out when he’s batting fifth.

Today’s win was HUGE for the Giants … for almost too many reasons to list.  But let’s give it a shot:

* TEAM MOMENTUM – winning 4 out of 5 home games

* BARRY ZITO – goes into the game with a 10.00+ ERA, leaves with it nearly 5 pts lower.

* BULLPEN GETS THE JOB DONE – Howry, Affeldt and Wilson put together three scoreless innings.

* ONLY 2 GAMES BELOW .500 – After a horrible start, this little win streak brings .500 back within sight.

* THIS OFFICIALLY QUALIFIES AS A ‘HOT STREAK’ – And we haven’t seen many hot streaks from the Giants over the last few years.

* TAKES PRESSURE OFF THIS WEEKEND’S ROAD TRIP TO ARIZONA – Obviously you want to see the Giants take two out of three against the D’Backs this weekend, and with Timmy, Randy and Sanchez going, that seems like a reasonable expectation.  But after rattling off four out of five, these guys can just loosen up (which makes a huge difference).  All the pressure in the next series is on the D’Backs, who themselves are in big trouble right now.

* LOSS WOULD HAVE BEEN CRUSHING – These are the kinds of games that are super painful to lose.  Thankfully we don’t even have to go there…

* SOLE POSSESSION OF THIRD PLACE IN THE NL WEST – The Giants get a little separation from Colorado and the D’Backs.  And they SHOULD consider themselves one of the top three teams in this division, and a contender.

Still hating on Brian Sabean … but great to see the Giants getting things back on track. Would love to see them ride this hot streak for a few weeks!

With an upcoming trip to Arizona over the weekend, the Giants (4-8) have a lot riding on this odd little mid-week, two game home series against the Padres.

When the Dodgers roll into town for a three game series on Monday, May 27, if the Giants don’t have at least a 7-10 record, their young season will already be hanging on by a thread.

It’s critical that the Giants win one or both of these next two games against the Padres, and I think it’s a reasonable task.  I think Cain / Peavy is a pretty even matchup at this point in the season (Peavy’s had a relatively slow start).  And I also think that Zito has an outside shot at beating Young, who gave up some big numbers in his last start (when he only went three innings against the Phillies).

Either split or win both of these two games against the Padres, and then we can start talking about taking two out of three in Arizona.  Lose both to San Diego, drop to 4-10, and the panic will start to set in.  C’mon, Cain.  Make it rain.

Sabean – trade Brian Wilson.  The guy is a headcase.  He’s not a competitor.

His ERA is too high.  He walks leadoff hitters.  His trade value will never be this high again.

Learn from the past (Felix Rodriguez) and dump the guy while he has value.  Trade him for a big bat.

This team is going nowhere anyway. Use the rest of the season to try to find a closer from within the organization.  There aren’t going to be that many save opportunities anyway.

Unload this flake and pick up some value that will help this team next season.

Let Wilson be someone else’s mess.

Man, I’m staring at this stack of Giants tickets I’ve got, and they’re looking like a big box of snake oil.  I feel like the thing I had in mind when I purchased them (hope) is a lot different than what they ended up being.  And I’m sure that a lot of other Giants ticketholders feel the same.

It was probably irrational exuberance to think this team was going to do anything this year.  I mean, *everybody* (except Sabean, apparently) knew there was going to be little offense, and that the bullpen was not going to get the job done.

But 3-8?

Sabean is getting more efficient at driving this team into the ground earlier and earlier into the season.

And it seems perfectly reasonable to be angry, and to ask questions.  Why, for example, have the Giants continuously been among the very worst in the entire league in offseasons moves for the last ten years?  Why were the Giants not able to get Orlando Hudson?  Why did Sabean think that two relievers that had relatively high ERAs and WHIPs (Howry and Affeldt) would somehow be the right fits in an already weak bullpen?  Why is a team that has such high ticket sales content to field mediocre teams and then pay lip service to fans about how they’re going to be competitive?  Why – as the most popular team in this huge Bay Area market – do Giants fans have to watch Oakland pick up TWO big bats (Holliday, Giambi) in the offseason when we get none?

Why are the Kansas freaking city Royals looking like a team that has more upside than the Giants?

Sabean needs to go.  This isn’t on Bochy.  It’s Sabean’s mess.  And it needs to stop.

You hear about these execs taking $1- dollar salaries b/c their companies are floundering financially.  I don’t know what Sabean makes, but it’s too much whatever it is.  This guy couldn’t judge a pie eating contest at a county fair – let alone judge talent at the big league level.  How he still has a job is unfathomable.

Speaking of county fairs and freak tents, going to today’s game to watch the Big Unit.  At least this year there’s a side show.

Now this was the type of losing that I expected to see a lot of from the Giants this year.  Great starting pitching and then bullpen meltdowns.  Get used to it, Giants fans.

After a truly honorable showing by Matt Cain – who struggled mightily in a 38 pitch first inning, but showed a lot of spine hanging around for six innings – the bullpen fell to pieces in the eigth and ninth innings.

Dodgers starter Kershaw was just nasty for seven innings.  13 strikeouts!  And only one hit (a home run by Molina).

Then the Giants get a miraculous three-run homerun from Aaron Rowand in the top of the eighth to pull out a 4-2 lead.  By the way, Rowand’s still in the doghouse, but after meaningful homeruns on opening day and in this game, I’m open minded that perhaps this year he’ll earn his keep.

So in comes one of Sabean’s two offseason bullpen “acquisitions” – Bob Howry.  In one inning of work (that spanned the eighth and ninth innings), Howry proceeds to give up five hits, a walk and two runs.  Why Bochy brought him back out in the ninth after his incredibly shaky eighth is lost on me.

And then the icing on the cake?  A bases loaded walk from “closer” Brian Wilson.  Too bad being a great closer isn’t about how many tattoos you have, how freaky your hair is, or how “intense” you act out there.  Ok – I get that you inherited the bases loaded with none out.  But to walk the winning run in?  If you’re really a “closer,” you never give in like that.

A crushing loss.  The season is already having that “15 games below .500 before the All-Star break” feel.  In other words, the “Sabean effect.”  Nice offseason moves, buddy.  Renteria’s 0-4 and .138 overall average are really helping too.

The Giants have only scored 16 runs over their last 5 games, and seven of those game in one game (agains the Brewers) last week.  That this team has averaged 3.2 runs per game over that stretch is no great surprise.

But what is surprising – and very concerning – is how bad the starting pitching has been.

Lincecum’s now gotten roughed up twice, most recently against light-hitting San Diego.  That was just a crushing blow to get swept by what is sure to be the worst team in the National League this year.  Tough to pick up the pieces and go into L.A. and have a good series – but that’s just what the Giants must do.  We’ll see how much gas Randy Johnson has left in the tank today.

Btw:  the Giants have already given up quite a few big homeruns in this first stretch of games.  Brewer pitcher Gallardo’s three run jack off of The Big Unit last Wednesday was the first truly demoralizing homerun surrendered of the season.  Then Velez came in on relief on Friday @ San Diego and gave up a game-sealing bomb.  Sanchez gave up two on Saturday and Medders gave up one as well (@ San Diego’s unfriendly hitting park, and to a really weak offensive club).  Then Lincecum surrendered another devastating homerun that barely cleared the right field wall.

A pretty disappointing stretch of games after an opening day win.  Hopefully Randy can stop the bleeding today.

What’s the deal with opposing pitchers getting big hits in the first two Giants games?  Yesterday it was Lincecum giving up a two-out, run-scoring double to Jeff Suppan.  Tonight – on Randy Johnson’s [Giants] debut – he surrendered an absolute bomb to opposing pitcher Gallardo.  The three-run shot was a no-doubter that came with two outs in the top of the fourth, and that’s how shortly the Big Unit lasted.

Otherwise his line looked fine.  Seven strikeouts in four innings of work, with four hits and one walk.  But a disappointing outing.  And I would imagine sort of embarrassing to a competitor like Johnson.

All I know is that if I were in the dugout I’d try to get as far away from Johnson as possible when he exits the field after a bad outing.  I don’t think you want to be the guy that offers any “it’s ok man – next time” type of feedback or make any observations about his mechanics on the pitch he hung to the pitcher.  Or ask him if that was the two seamer or the straight fastball.  Or say anything about how the wind is blowing out.  You just want to sit there, look at the field, and avoid contact at all costs.

It’s hard to imagine that the Giants are going to be able to hang around in this game tonight, going to the bullpen this early again.

For starters, I didn’t think the weather was going to allow for baseball today.

The forecast was calling for 100% chance of rain during the game, and it was looking bleak.  But magically, the weather held up for what was actually a really long game today … some four-plus hours.  At the end of the game the skies opened up and it was sunny and perfect.  Really freaky weather.

And if you’d told me that in a game that saw Lincecum only pitch three innings, the Giants would somehow prevail behind strong bullpen work and power at the plate, I would’ve told you that you were crazy.  But that’s how it went down today.  And I gotta say – I like Bochy’s decision to pull him.  He just didn’t have it today, was racking up a huge pitch count.  Why not spare him a big inning and psychological trauma?  The fact that the Giants pulled out the win was a major score that HAS to be great for team morale.  It was really a great managerial move.

Lincecum started out very wild.  He walked the first  batter.  He hit another batter in the first inning.  He got off the hook with a big strikeout to leave a couple of runners stranded.  But eventually it caught up with him.  Jeff freaking Suppan hit a two out, run-scoring double in the second inning.  And Rickie Weeks hit another double behind that.  Lincecum threw a ton of pitches in the first and second innings, then got pulled after the third inning (when he had 80 pitches already).

When Joe Martinez (who?) entered the game in the fourth in long relief, there was a sense of doom.  But the bullpen was great today.  A few too many walks and high drama for my liking, but giving up only three more runs in six innings of work is pretty darn good for this group when the ace only puts in three innings of work.

But the story of the day today was the Giants power at the plate!  Ishikawa got things off to a great start with a bases loaded triple in the first inning that got the crowd amped up.  Molina hit one out to left field, then had another that hit the top of the wall later in the game.  Rowand cranked one out to left (it would be *great* to see him have a turnaround year).  And Randy Winn hit one out to dead center in the late innings when the game was already put away (dead center at AT&T park is a poke).

A great start to the season.  I’m not expecting the bullpen to be able to win too many games this year if they’re brought in at only the fourth inning.  But you really can’t ask for more for an opening day.  We got to see a ton of pitchers, a ton of power, and just a wild game with a lot of scoring.

And one of those old ball dudes tossed my 7 month old son a ball towards the end of the game.  It really was a perfect day.

Man, this sucks.  I’m looking forward to writing about Giants baseball… but it’s not looking good for today.

When I threw down big bucks for good seats at opening day and Tim Lincecum, I certainly wasn’t thinking a postponed game that would be made up later in the year.  What makes it even worse is that yesterday was a beautiful day here in SF.  So why were the Giants one of two teams that decided to have their opening day today?

This game gets cancelled and my tickets’ value drops by about 75%.  Plus- with my luck, Zito will pitch in the make-up game.  Oh well, at least we’ll see a lot of home runs.