Giants Notes

The team's May struggles continued in Houston, as they once again received terrific starting pitching, but the bullpen and/or offense could not pull their weight. They managed to salvage the final game of the series, thanks to the first, real dominant performance by Tim Lincecum. He pitched well in Denver on last weekend, but he really arrived Thursday night. Lincecum out-pitched an idol of his in Roy Oswalt by going 7 innings, allowing 2 hits, 1 unearned run and striking out 10 Astros. He looked like he was right back in Fresno, throwing against AAA hitters, rather than against an offensive powerhouse, in one of the most live yards in the league. Now the Giants need to figure out what to do with Russ Ortiz, as it looks like Lincecum is here to stay, and the rest of the staff is pitching well. I think Ortiz will be a solid reliever, as long as he keeps his focus. He does walk a lot of batters, but he has one of the better cutters in the game and if you shorten him down to an inning or 2 per appearance, he could really let it fly. He certainly cannot do much worse than what 1/2 of the other relievers have done on a consistent basis. It seems like the most logical move is to send Jonathon Sanchez to Fresno and insert him back into the rotation. Sanchez has showed that he has a live arm and could become a good pitcher eventually, his outing vs. the Cardinals was the best relief appearance by any Giant all year, but his future is in the rotation.

The Giants start up a big series vs. the A's Friday, which also marks Barry Zito's first return to Oakland. This is going to be a big game for Zito in more ways than one. Obviously he is returning to the place where he won a Cy Young and pitched the first 6 years of his career. More importantly though, is that he has been scuffling a little on the mound lately, and he needs to get himself on track. Zito has been pretty good overall this year, but he has arguably been the 5th best starter on the team so far. A good start from Zito pushes the team back over .500, and they may be able to gain some momentum. A loss and the team drops back below .500, and their 126 million dollar man falls to 3-5 on the season. Hopefully the offense gives him a little bit of help, unlike they did for Lincecum and Noah Lowry (who continues to look like his '05 version) in Houston. Barry Bonds will get to DH all week and can rest his aching knees for the weekend, hopefully it puts some life back in his bat as he's gone stone cold over the last week. When Barry goes cold, the Giants offense goes from serviceable, to way below average. It would help if the guys surrounding him could give him some help as well. The only two Giants' swinging a good bat right now are Randy Winn and Freddy Lewis. The two guys hurting the most are the two guys who protect Bonds, Ray Durham and Rich Aurilia.