The Colorado Rockies are 9-1 in their last 10 games and prior to last night’s game they had won 10 in a row. They are now in process of making their annual push to the playoffs.
What a bunch of jerks for not just laying down like the lowly Dodgers.
The San Diego Padres meanwhile are imploding; they should have run away with this division but in the interest of making things interesting for the month of September they decided to lose 10 games in a row. The Padres are now 5-5 in their last 10 games and could be in the process of losing their chance to make the playoffs.
Meanwhile, the Giants are 7-3 in their last 10 games and just took 3 out of 4 from the Padres in San Diego and now sits a half a game behind the Padres. While the Rockies and the Padres are beating each other the Giants will need to walk all over the Dodgers and hopefully take sole control of first place.
But, that is easier said than done.
The first game starts tonight and the Giants most inconsistent pitcher, Barry Zito (8-12), is on the mound against the Dodgers best pitcher, Clayton Kershaw (11-10).
Barry Zito has not won a game since August 11th and has taken a loss in six consecutive games. The good news is his last start, against the Arizona Diamondbacks, was his best during that time and maybe he has finally come out of his major slump.
If the Giants hope to run away with this division and make it far into the playoffs they will need their entire pitching staff including the bullpen to be on top of their game. Tim Lincecum was the first of the two to get his groove back and Barry Zito will need to find his groove soon.
Another issue the Giants have to contend with for this series and possibly the rest of the season is the loss of their leadoff hitter and starting center fielder, Andres Torres, who is out due to his recent appendectomy surgery. The Giants have nobody that can replace his production and it will take an excellent job of managing for Bruce Bochy to get this team to the playoffs.
The player that manager Bruce Bochy will likely go with the veteran outfielder Aaron Rowand to replace Torres but with the current situation he cannot afford to stay with him long if he continues to not hit.
Bochy’s other options are former Dodger outfielder Cody Ross and September callup Darren Ford. Although Ross is an improvement over Rowand it is not by much. In 15 games with the Giants (27 at-bats) he has 5 hits and has an OBP of .303. The player that most fans would like to see if Darren Ford who has not had an at-bat since he was called up on September 1st. Ford has appeared in 4 games as a pinch-runner and has 2 stolen bases; one of which happened on the day he was called up and helped win the game for the Giants.
The Dodgers meanwhile are completely out of the race. They are 3-7 in the past 10 games and 11.5 behind the Padres. That doesn’t mean they would not love to ruin the Giants chances of making it to the playoffs.
In this final series with the Dodgers, the Giants face their three best arms in the rotation with Clayton Kershaw kicking it off tonight.
Tuesday: Barry Zito(8-12, 4.14 ERA) vs. Clayton Kershaw (11-10, 2.99 ERA)
Wednesday: Matt Cain (11-10, 3.19 ERA) vs. Chad Billingsley (11-9, 3.65 ERA)
Thursday: Jonathan Sanchez (10-8, 3.29 ERA) vs. Ted Lilly (5-2, 3.33 ERA)
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