Through the first week of the season, the Giants pitching was on point and it had to be, cause their lineup wasn't giving them much support. However, they've picked things up in week 2, and head in to Sunday's game in Chicago with a chance to take 3 of 4 from the Cubbies.
The two wins in this series have come behind the arms of Ryan Vogelsong and Madison Bumgarner, who each earned victories in opposite fashion. Vogelsong gave up five runs early on in the series opener on
Thursday, but buckled down after that, and ended up pitching well enough to allow the Giants to come back from the early 5-run deficit. Then on Saturday, Madison Bumgarner had the Cubs hitters absolutely stuck until the 7th inning, when they finally broke through for 2 runs against him. Still, the start was good enough to earn MadBum his 3rd consecutive victory to start the season, and he'll carry a 1.77 ERA and 0.94 WHIP into his next start. The starting pitching, particularly Bumgarner and Zito, has really been excellent through the first couple weeks of the season, but there is still one guy the Giants really need to get going, and he'll be taking the ball in Sunday's series finale. That is of course Tim Lincecum, who did manage to earn a victory in his first start of the year in LA, but has been ridiculously wild in each of his first two starts in 2013. After last seasons major drop-off, coupled with the rough spring he had, the concerns about Lincecum are legitimate, and I'm very curious to see what he does his third time out there.
While the pitching has been really solid throughout, the offense has been a step behind, but they're starting to catch up a bit. The key to me, as it was last year, is the top of that order. When Pagan and Scutaro are each hitting and getting on consistently, it just seems to make this lineup go. Scutaro was off to a really slow start
that first week, but he's busted out of his slump this week, going 9 for 15 since the start of the Rockies series. Also, Pablo Sandoval has continued to come up with the clutch hit time and time again, and the Giants really dodged a bullet Saturday when he went tumbling into the stands making a play a foul pop up. With his weight issues, and his nagging elbow injury, it almost feels like a DL-stint at some point will be inevitable, but somehow he made it out of that play in one piece and managed to finish the game. Without the Giants getting much in the middle from Buster Posey and Brandon Belt yet, it's been key that Sandoval and Pence have each had pretty good starts, and they can't afford to have Panda missing any time right now. Brandon Crawford and Andres Torres have each picked things up a bit as well lately. Crawford is looking as good at the plate now as I've seen him since coming up in 2011, hitting safely in all but two games in this 2013 season and even starting to show some extra-base power. Torres (despite striking out 3 times Saturday) has 5 hits in his last 11 at-bats, including 3 doubles, and could start to grab reigns of that left field job if he keeps up that kind of production.
The two wins in this series have come behind the arms of Ryan Vogelsong and Madison Bumgarner, who each earned victories in opposite fashion. Vogelsong gave up five runs early on in the series opener on
Thursday, but buckled down after that, and ended up pitching well enough to allow the Giants to come back from the early 5-run deficit. Then on Saturday, Madison Bumgarner had the Cubs hitters absolutely stuck until the 7th inning, when they finally broke through for 2 runs against him. Still, the start was good enough to earn MadBum his 3rd consecutive victory to start the season, and he'll carry a 1.77 ERA and 0.94 WHIP into his next start. The starting pitching, particularly Bumgarner and Zito, has really been excellent through the first couple weeks of the season, but there is still one guy the Giants really need to get going, and he'll be taking the ball in Sunday's series finale. That is of course Tim Lincecum, who did manage to earn a victory in his first start of the year in LA, but has been ridiculously wild in each of his first two starts in 2013. After last seasons major drop-off, coupled with the rough spring he had, the concerns about Lincecum are legitimate, and I'm very curious to see what he does his third time out there.While the pitching has been really solid throughout, the offense has been a step behind, but they're starting to catch up a bit. The key to me, as it was last year, is the top of that order. When Pagan and Scutaro are each hitting and getting on consistently, it just seems to make this lineup go. Scutaro was off to a really slow start
that first week, but he's busted out of his slump this week, going 9 for 15 since the start of the Rockies series. Also, Pablo Sandoval has continued to come up with the clutch hit time and time again, and the Giants really dodged a bullet Saturday when he went tumbling into the stands making a play a foul pop up. With his weight issues, and his nagging elbow injury, it almost feels like a DL-stint at some point will be inevitable, but somehow he made it out of that play in one piece and managed to finish the game. Without the Giants getting much in the middle from Buster Posey and Brandon Belt yet, it's been key that Sandoval and Pence have each had pretty good starts, and they can't afford to have Panda missing any time right now. Brandon Crawford and Andres Torres have each picked things up a bit as well lately. Crawford is looking as good at the plate now as I've seen him since coming up in 2011, hitting safely in all but two games in this 2013 season and even starting to show some extra-base power. Torres (despite striking out 3 times Saturday) has 5 hits in his last 11 at-bats, including 3 doubles, and could start to grab reigns of that left field job if he keeps up that kind of production.
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