Giants blowout Cubs 13-0, back in first place for the time being

And their back in first place....for the time being.

The Giants do it again, for the fourth consecutive series the San Francisco Giants turn the last game of the series into a blowout.  The last time the Giants lost the final game of a series was in Arizona on September 8th in a 3-1 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Since that time the Giants have won 8 out of their last 13 games and only lost a series to the Milwaukee Brewers.  If the Giants could some how figure out how to save those runs on the final game and spread them out over a series then they would be set the rest of the way.

The Giants pitching staff has been nails in the month of September, posting a 1.54 ERA in 19 games.  In those 19 games, the Giants have a record of 12-7 and in the games they lost the differential has been an average of 1.71.  That's where the large issue has been.

The offense has been hit or miss and when I say miss I mean all misses.  I have never seen a team that could blowout a team one night and then get shutout the next and make the starting pitcher look like the second coming of Cy Young.

This team's major problem is that they went from being a small ball team back to a Barry Bond's era team where they live and die with the homerun.  In the games where they typically blowout opponents is games where the team hits a lot of homeruns.

That strategy only leads to trouble and explains the huge differential between the Giants ability to win when they score at least 3 runs and their propensity to lose when they don't.  During this season, when they score the magic "3" runs they are 74-22 and when they don't, they are a whopping 11-45.

Now the Giants take off to Colorado where scoring less than three runs is not an option.  They have their one-two-three pitchers on the mound and they have to put up some rounds for those guys.

49ers are not NFC West champs yet

The 49ers were expected to run away with the NFC West, possibly the worse division in the NFL this year. Apparently, someone forgot to tell the Seahawks about this.

The Seahawks showed up and embarrassed the 49ers. It sure did not look like the 49ers had 11 defensive starters that were in their fourth year of playing together and that Alex Smith was in his second year of the same offensive system. In fact, it looked like Alex Smith was a rookie quarterback and that he was in a new offensive system. Not a system that he was supposed to be comfortable with.

Lately, we all have been told that Smith was finally maturing as a quarterback and felt comfortable with the playbook. Also, we were being told how he had built rapport with his wide receivers in the offseason.

Yesterday's game sure didn't look like that.

Smith was obviously not on the same page with star wideout Michael Crabtree. Twice Smith threw to Crabtree and the results were two interceptions, one for a touchdown. Whether it was Crabtree's or Smith's fault is anybody's guess and the answer depends on who you ask.

Smith threw for 225 yards with a passer rating of 52.5 but just like last year he seems to be only to put up yards when offensive coordinator Jimmy Raye gives up on the run game and puts Alex in the spread offense.

That plan is not going to work if you want to be a smash mouth team like Singletary suggests. Smith is going to have to be under center for Frank Gore to be the runner that they need.

The coaching still seems to be the issue and the question now for 49ers fans is if Mike Singletary is the right guy. It seems he has said all the right things to have the players and the fans believe but can he get the results.

Could Singletary be in over his head?

Successful NFL head coaches do not have to worry about the play 49erscall getting to the quarterback on time.

It is week 1 and even the best teams have trouble and that is why the Monday night game against the Saints is so huge. It is unlikely that the 49ers win but if they can put up a good showing then the fans will likely be back in Singletary and Smith's corner.

If they don't have a good showing it will be hard to see how they can beat what looks like a good Chiefs team on the road. After the Chiefs, then they play the Falcons on the road, the Eagles and Raiders at home. We could be talking about a 1-6 team if Singletary doesn't get this turned around.

That would likely be the end of his tenure as the 49ers head coach and the end of Alex Smith's chances as a starting quarterback.

Raiders could win the NFC West? Not likely.....

I was perusing the ESPN NFL Blog and happened to run upon a debate between blogger's Mike Sando and Bill Williamson.  The debate was on whether if in the NFC West that the Raiders could win that division.  I found it to be a rather interesting debate but there is no way that I could agree with Williamson's stance that the Raiders are better than the 49ers and I am not really sure the Raiders are better than the NFC West's number two team, the Seahawks.

The Raiders have done well to improve their team in the past off-season with the addition of Jason Campbell, the drafting of Rolando McClain and Lamarr Houston, as well as getting rid of JaMarcus Russell but that does not put them in a winning the division status.  As a matter of fact, I don't even see how they win more than 8 games.  After looking at their schedule, my guess is they finish the season 7-9.

Although they have improved the run defense with the additions of McClain and Houston they still cannot seem to stop the run.  In the past two preseason games (I know its preseason) both the 49ers (165 rushing yards) and the Bears (174 rushing yards) have rushed for over 150 yards and the majority of those yards came against the Raiders first team defense.

July is over, Giants back with no offense

Here we go again. After fooling everyone into thinking they actually had an offense in the month of July, the Giants roll out the month of August by basically get swept.

If it wasn’t for the fact that Billy Wagner is still a piece of crap they would have went 1-5 on this road trip.  The Giants offense was completely awful in the series against the Braves and subpar against the Rockies. They were 1 for 32 with runners in scoring position.

What makes it worse is that this series was suppose to tell Giants fans if the Giants were actually playoff contenders. If the season ended today the Giants would win the wild card and would be facing the Braves in the first round.  Not good for the Giants about what they just did there in the past four days.

After watching that series I have very little faith the Giants could get past the first round if they have to face the Braves.

Let’s be positive and think about if the Giants did actually make the playoffs and face the Braves.  How does Bochy set up the pitching rotation?  Personally I would consider a rotation of Cain, Zito, and Lincecum in that order if the weather is hot like it has been in Atlanta. That would give Timmy the first game at home in more conducive weather for his success.

Hottest team in the Majors

Heating up in July
Is there a hotter team is baseball than the San Francisco Giants right now?
If you answered no, then you are correct.  In their last 20 games the Giants are 16-4 and since July 3^rd are posting a .789 winning percentage since that date.

The reason?  Well the Giants offense has brought their bats and used them.  As we all said if the Giants could score 4 or more runs a game then they could make it to the playoffs.  Well they have done one better.
The Giants lead the Majors with 119 runs in July, which is about 5.7 per game.



Trivia of the day
When was the last time the Giants led the Majors in run scored for a single month? (Answer after the jump)


Road warriors
Now a pessimist could argue they have played the likes of Arizona, Milwaukee, and Washington but they also beat the Mets and the hated Dodgers.  But all the other teams in the National League play them on the road and yet there are only three teams with a winning record on the road.  One of those three is the Giants and the other two are the Reds and Padres.
The Giants road record is 28-25.