With the way things are going, it's hard to imagine the Giants aren't more than five back in the West and still right near the top of the NL Wild Card race. Nevertheless, after they've failed to turnaround a miserable end to the first half, they're still very much alive in the playoff race and have plenty of baseball left.
First of all, if they're going to get things back on track, they have to start taking advantage of the soft schedule they have coming up. They wound up splitting the mini two-game set with Chicago, but now is the chance to really get going. Their next 6 games are against the sinking Phillies and rebuilding Cubs, and if they
cannot manage to muster up a winning record vs. those two, then maybe it'll be a tell of what's to come. To finish off the month, things are going to get harder as they have a
trip to Washington on tap and then a showdown with the NL Central
leading Brewers to close out August. Obviously, in order for them take advantage of these next two series, they're going to have to start hitting the ball and scoring some runs. Jake Peavy was brilliant vs. the Sox Wednesday and was finally rewarded with a bit of run support in that 7th inning to avoid yet another tough luck loss due to run support. The win was Peavy's first as a Giant but hardly his first quality outing. That overturned call at the plate really shifted some momentum, otherwise, they may have not scored that day the way the offense was looking. Look no further than Buster Posey's lead-off triple in the fifth, after which the Giants' 4-5-6 hitters all failed to get the guy in, as a testament to the failures in the clutch for this team. When they hit they win, period. That simple.
Now, it's not all bad. They did manage to win Wednesday and avoid what was starting to look like it was going to be a frustrating two-game sweep at the hands of the ChiSox up until that seventh inning and have an off-day before the Phils come to town Friday. They've gotten Angel Pagan back now for a week, and he looks healthy and has started to contribute, coming up with the big two-RBI, two-out single to give them the lead Wednesday. They also seem to have found at least a semi-decent option at second base in young Joe 
Panik. The youngster had a couple of multi-hit games last week and has hit safely in seven of his last nine ballgames. In the last 10 days, his average has spiked 60 points and his OPS has gone up over 100 points. With Matt Duffy's demotion and the Giants abandoning their search for second basemen, it looks like they're going to roll with the rookie the rest of the way, and that's not a bad thing at all. Now, if he can keep showing ability at the plate like he has been, maybe the Giants could move him up into the number two spot in the order and get Pence's bat back into the middle of the lineup. Even hitting mostly leadoff, he's led the Majors in RBI since the break. I think one of the major problems with this offense is not having Pence in the middle of the order where he can do the most damage. Of course, they need to have guys getting on ahead of him in order to do that, but Angel Pagan, and hopefully now Joe Panik, are showing the capability of doing that.
Speaking of the middle of the order, the Giants have to be concerned with what's going on with Brandon Belt, and it's something I've had a bad feeling about for a while. Something about this concussion just sounded like it may be something that hampers him the rest of the way and if that's the case, you can kiss his season goodbye. That's the big question mark at this point. They got Pagan back, they appear to have found a solution at second and now just have to get that one final link back in Brandon Belt for this team to be all systems go, but nobody knows quite when that will be. He's first eligble Friday, but there has been no indication of that or a return at all this weekend. My guess is the Giants will play it safe and give it at least two weeks this time before testing the big first basemen. They still have a big month ahead of them in September and if they need to rest Belt an extra week to insure he's ready to go full throttle next month then so be it.
First of all, if they're going to get things back on track, they have to start taking advantage of the soft schedule they have coming up. They wound up splitting the mini two-game set with Chicago, but now is the chance to really get going. Their next 6 games are against the sinking Phillies and rebuilding Cubs, and if they
cannot manage to muster up a winning record vs. those two, then maybe it'll be a tell of what's to come. To finish off the month, things are going to get harder as they have a
trip to Washington on tap and then a showdown with the NL Central
leading Brewers to close out August. Obviously, in order for them take advantage of these next two series, they're going to have to start hitting the ball and scoring some runs. Jake Peavy was brilliant vs. the Sox Wednesday and was finally rewarded with a bit of run support in that 7th inning to avoid yet another tough luck loss due to run support. The win was Peavy's first as a Giant but hardly his first quality outing. That overturned call at the plate really shifted some momentum, otherwise, they may have not scored that day the way the offense was looking. Look no further than Buster Posey's lead-off triple in the fifth, after which the Giants' 4-5-6 hitters all failed to get the guy in, as a testament to the failures in the clutch for this team. When they hit they win, period. That simple. Panik. The youngster had a couple of multi-hit games last week and has hit safely in seven of his last nine ballgames. In the last 10 days, his average has spiked 60 points and his OPS has gone up over 100 points. With Matt Duffy's demotion and the Giants abandoning their search for second basemen, it looks like they're going to roll with the rookie the rest of the way, and that's not a bad thing at all. Now, if he can keep showing ability at the plate like he has been, maybe the Giants could move him up into the number two spot in the order and get Pence's bat back into the middle of the lineup. Even hitting mostly leadoff, he's led the Majors in RBI since the break. I think one of the major problems with this offense is not having Pence in the middle of the order where he can do the most damage. Of course, they need to have guys getting on ahead of him in order to do that, but Angel Pagan, and hopefully now Joe Panik, are showing the capability of doing that. Speaking of the middle of the order, the Giants have to be concerned with what's going on with Brandon Belt, and it's something I've had a bad feeling about for a while. Something about this concussion just sounded like it may be something that hampers him the rest of the way and if that's the case, you can kiss his season goodbye. That's the big question mark at this point. They got Pagan back, they appear to have found a solution at second and now just have to get that one final link back in Brandon Belt for this team to be all systems go, but nobody knows quite when that will be. He's first eligble Friday, but there has been no indication of that or a return at all this weekend. My guess is the Giants will play it safe and give it at least two weeks this time before testing the big first basemen. They still have a big month ahead of them in September and if they need to rest Belt an extra week to insure he's ready to go full throttle next month then so be it.
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