Giants Offense: A Model Of Inconsistency

The Giants pitching staff is doing all they can in order to push this team into the playoffs, but the offense just can't seem to keep up their end of the bargain, at least on a consistent basis.

In September, the Giants have lost 4 games, and in 3 of those games, they've scored 1 run or less. Whenever this team scores more than 2 runs, they generally win the game, and again, that is a huge tribute to their pitching staff. Last night's game in LA was a prime example of the Giants "Jekyl and Hyde" offense, as they were shutout 1-0 by the Dodgers and Clayton Kershaw. Once again, had the Giants been able to scrape out just 2 measly runs, they would have taken the game. Instead, they were held scoreless, and fell a full game behind San Diego in the west. It's a shame too, because they wasted another solid outing by Barry Zito, and ran his losing streak to 7 games. Now, for the first 5 of those last 7 starts, Zito did look pretty bad, and did deserve to lose the game, but in his last 2 starts, Zito has gotten himself back on track, he just hasn't gotten any help from the Giants offense. The situation kinda reminds me of the lack of run support Matt Cain was suffering through during the '07-'08 seasons, when his loss total doubled his win total, despite carrying a 3.69 era over that span. Zito's a veteran though, and I don't think he's going to let that get to him, especially with so much on the line in these last 2 weeks of the season.

The one thing I did like to see in Tuesday's game was using Cody Ross in the leadoff spot instead of Aaron Rowand. Now, Rowand has gotten plenty of bashing here lately, so I'm not going to keep beating a dead horse, but there's no way this lineup is at it's best with Aaron Rowand in the leadoff spot. With Andres Torres now out for the regular season, they need an answer there over the next few weeks, and Bochy turned to Cody Ross on Tuesday, and I think he should stick with Ross for the rest of the year. Ross hasn't been overly impressive since his arrival in San Francisco, but he's been used sparingly. However, Aaron Rowand is hitting .229 and has an OBP of .282. That's truely pathetic in terms of a leadoff hitter, and pretty horrible for any positional players standards. Ross' OBP isn't too much higher (.319) but a big improvement over Rowand. Ross also brings more pop and speed to the lineup. If Ross doesn't get going in the next couple of games, I would hope Bochy would try somebody else though, and my next choice would be Freddy Sanchez. The Giants' second basemen has gotten himself back on track over the last 6 weeks, and is one of the teams hottest hitters. Not an ideal leadoff hitter of course, but without Torres, the Giants don't really have one on their roster.