Some Positives Despite Sloppy Loss

I know I should be really frustrated about last night's 5-3 loss to the Dodgers. The Giants committed two costly errors, threw three wild pitches, walked nine hitters, made mistakes on the bases, and struggled to get clutch hits despite numerous opportunities. However, I will admit that I thoroughly enjoyed last night's game before the Dodgers finally pulled away with two runs off Bob Howry in the ninth. Perhaps that's because I wasn't really expecting to win this game, with Dodger ace and Giant-killer Chad Billingsley on the mound. I feel like the fact that the Giants were able to at least get Billingsley, as well as Jonathan Broxton, on the ropes several times is a positive. Here are some other observations:

- Jonathan Sanchez worked harder than he needed to because of a dropped fly ball by Fred Lewis and a throwing error by Juan Uribe, which led to two Dodger runs. As a result, Sanchez was close to 100 pitches after five innings.
- Lewis strikes out a lot. He leads the National League with 26, and it seems like they have all come in the last week.
- For all the talk about what a clutch hitter Bengie Molina is, it seems like he's popped up a lot of first pitches in big situations.
- Pablo Sandoval is hitting the ball with authority, and Travis Ishikawa is taking better at-bats as well.

Lincecum Isn't Broken, Just the Offense

After a pair of starts that did not rank amongst his best, folks jumped the gun trying to figure out what the issue might be with Tim Lincecum. "We've all seen it this week," wrote Ranier Reglos in Bleacher Report. "Tim Lincecum is not the same Giant he was last year." Is a 24-year old kid with a lifetime 25-11 record not allowed to have a couple of bad days? There is no curse surrounding Lincecum - no Sports Illustrated curse, no video game curse, and no Cy Young curse! Lincecum does not wear his emotions on his sleeve the way some pitchers do, and handles the pressure and the spotlight as well as anyone.

Those critics were silenced on Saturday afternoon, as Lincecum was absolutely money. Eight innings, thirteen strikeouts, zero runs, and zero walks. He has regained his natural form and dropped his ERA down to a respectable 3.86. Unfortunately, Lincecum has to rely on the San Francisco Giants for run support, and frankly he fell victim to a bit of Matt Cain syndrome at AT&T park. While Lincecum baffled the Diamondbacks for eight innings, Giants hitters appeared equally baffled. Emmanuel Burris and Fred Lewis each had two hits, and Edgar Renteria did walk, however the Giants could not get runners into scoring position and did not appear to know what to do with the ones they had. Oh, and Burris got caught stealing home. This is the kind of 2-0 loss that really hurts.

A quick note on the Arizona Diamondbacks: When they came to town in April of last year, I was genuinely threatened. I thought they had the best lineup in the West, and were the team to beat in the NL. As the Giants shut them out for 16 straight innings, I wondered, "When did this lineup become so unimpressive?"