MLB Team Report – San Francisco Giants – INSIDE PITCH
The plan was for Tim Lincecum to ride his postseason momentum to great heights in 2013.
So far, no dice.
Except for a couple of nice starts against the Padres — two runs, 17 K’s, 13 2/3 innings.
In his latest start, he lasted five innings and gave up five runs on 10 hits, matching his career high. He exited trailing 5-1. Manager Bruce Bochy, after the Giants came back to beat the Diamondbacks 9-6, called Lincecum’s start “erratic.”
So the two-time Cy Young Award winner, coming off his worst season in which he led the league in losses, has a 4.41 ERA in six starts. Not awful. And certainly better than last year’s 5.18.
But it’s still a concern, considering all four of Lincecum’s starts against teams that don’t play in San Diego were bad.
He didn’t make last year’s playoff rotation but contributed in a big way out of the bullpen, which was reason to believe he found his groove and would succeed in the rotation again.
The Giants still are waiting.
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MLB Team Report – San Francisco Giants – NOTES, QUOTES
RECORD: 17-12
STREAK: Won four
PAST 10 GAMES: 5-5
NEXT: Dodgers (Matt Magill, 0-0, 2.70) at Giants (Ryan Vogelsong, 1-2, 6.23)
PLAYER NOTES:
–LHP Jeremy Affeldt was activated from the DL Friday. He returns to a slightly different situation in the Giants bullpen than the one in which he thrived last season and in early April before straining his right oblique and landing on the disabled list. When Jose Mijares returns from a bereavement leave (his grandmother died this week), he’s pitched so well in Affeldt’s absence, he’s a candidate to retain the left-hander’s role in sixth- and seventh-inning situations. This figures to push Affeldt more toward the end of the game, perhaps making him more of a situation, get-one-guy-out left-hander in the eighth and ninth innings. He faced four batters in the eighth inning Friday, getting only two outs.
–RHP Ryan Vogelsong has struggled so badly this season — 37 hits in 30 1/3 innings — the Giants might be weighing other options if in fact they had other options. This will be the next in a line of let’s-see-if-he-can-turn-things-around starts for the 2011 All-Star. Maybe facing the Dodgers, against whom he surrendered only two earned runs in four starts last season, will silence the critics.
–INF Tony Abreu,, out since training camp with a sprained knee, has progressed physically to the point where he’s now a couple of solid at-bats at Triple-A Fresno away from probably rejoining the big-league squad as a much-needed utility infielder. The way Marco Scutaro and Brandon Belt struggled in April, you know Giants manager Bruce Bochy has been itching to get an opportunity to use the versatile Abreu. He began a rehab assignment in Fresno on Friday night.
–OF Francisco Peguero was recalled from Fresno. He has been lighting it up at Triple-A (.415 in 65 at-bats), especially against right-handed pitching (.431). That was deemed not only good enough for a promotion, but probably a spot as the club’s chief pinch-hitter against righties. His time could be limited, however. If the Giants need a roster spot for Abreu sometime soon, a fifth outfielder (Peguero) likely would be the first to go.
–C Hector Sanchez ranked third on the list of Giant disappointments in April, trailing the club’s starting staff and 2B Marco Scutaro. The Giants weren’t about to give up on either of the top two on the list, so they opted to make a move with Sanchez, demoting their third-string catcher to Triple-A. The goal: Get him enough bats to enable him to get back into the type of groove that made him a significant contributor to last year’s World Series run.
QUOTE TO NOTE: “It’s a good feeling. It was already a long game.” — C Buster Posey, who led off the bottom of the ninth inning with a homer — the first game-ending home run of his big-league career — breaking a tie and lifting the Giants to a 2-1 victory over the Dodgers Friday night.
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MLB Team Report – San Francisco Giants – ROSTER REPORT
MEDICAL WATCH:
–LHP Jeremy Affeldt (strained right oblique) went on the 15-day disabled list retroactive to April 15. He threw a bullpen session April 27, and he pitched in an extended spring training game May 1. He was activated May 3.
–INF Tony Abreu (left knee strain) went on the 15-day disabled list retroactive to March 22. He was playing in extended spring training as of mid-April. Abreu began a rehab assignment in Fresno on May 3.
–RHP Eric Surkamp (Tommy John surgery in July 2012) went on the 15-day disabled list retroactive to March 22. He is unlikely to return before midseason.
ROTATION:
RHP Matt Cain
LHP Madison Bumgarner
RHP Tim Lincecum
LHP Barry Zito
RHP Ryan Vogelsong
BULLPEN:
RHP Sergio Romo (closer)
LHP Javier Lopez
RHP Santiago Casilla
RHP George Kontos
RHP Chad Gaudin
RHP Jean Machi
RHP Sandy Rosario
LHP Jeremy Affeldt
CATCHERS:
Buster Posey
Guillermo Quiroz
INFIELDERS:
1B Brandon Belt
2B Marco Scutaro
SS Brandon Crawford
3B Pablo Sandoval
INF Joaquin Arias
INF Nick Noonan
OUTFIELDERS:
LF Gregor Blanco
CF Angel Pagan
RF Hunter Pence
OF Andres Torres
OF Francisco Peguero
