Misch Struggles In Zito's Place

Pat Misch took Barry Zito's turn in the rotation Friday night in Philadelphia but didn't fair much better than Zito has over the first month of the season. Misch gave up 4 runs on 5 hits and 2 walks over 4 innings and put the Giants in a hole early. A couple clear mistakes were made by him facing former Giant Pedro Feliz. The Giants know better than anyone Feliz's love for first pitch strikes and in both of his at-bats vs. Misch he got them. His second at-bat is was the big blow as he hit a first pitch, hanging changeup into the left-field seats at Citizens Bank Park. Even with early deficit, the Giants came back and forced extra-innings but Brian Wilson blew the save in the bottom of the thirteenth to cost the Giants what would have been an impressive come back win. Misch has now had 1 solid outing and one bad outing so far this year but what has really stuck out is his knack for giving up the long ball. In only 10 innings this season he has already given up 4 home runs. You don't really like to see a pitcher giving up anymore than 1.5 home runs per 9 innings so Misch has to work on that. Misch is in line to get at least 2 more starts as Kevin Corriea will not be back until mid-May at the earliest and Zito will likely be in the pen for at least a week in order to get a couple of outings in. The Giants have said that Barry Zito will be available for relief use starting Saturday so it should be very interesting to see how he does as he's trying to get his rotation spot back as soon as possible.

It was good to see Aaron Rowand have success in his return to Phily as well. While he probably isn't going to make the all-star team again this year, he is still performing up to expectations in my opinion. He has played through cracked ribs early on and other than the grimaces he'd have after diving of sliding, you couldn't tell he was even hurt. He has had his average up over .300 all season long (currently at .330) and he hasn't been a huge power source but his three home runs on the year have come in clutch situations. It seems like every time he has come up with a chance to drive in a run, he does it. Sure the Giants still overpaid by about 2 million per season and gave him 2 years longer than everyone would have proffered, but after one month, Rowand looks like a he's going to work out. Him and Bengie Molina are becoming very consistent in the middle of the Giants order but I would like to see Bengie hitting behind Rowand in the fifth spot rather than in front of him. Hitting behind Bengie is costing Rowand RBI's and the Giants need to have someone in front of him who can score from first when he hits one to the gap.