I can sorta-kinda-maybe deal with losing 2 of 3 games to the Reds. But, losing to the Dodgers just stinks. Once again, the Giants offense looked pretty flat. Freddy Sanchez went 0-4 and had a couple of at-bats that looked like he was swinging with his eyes closed. The Giants did score their two runs on two separate solo home runs. A rare feat for the team that’s 2nd-to-last in the majors for homers*.

*It was just the 18th time this year that the Giants hit 2 or more HR’s in the same game. In fact, in 112 games played this year, the Giants have had 59 games in which they didn’t homer at all. 53% of the time on the season the Giants have failed to hit the little white ball over the wall.

On the pitching side of things, Sanchez’s control was his downfall in the 4th inning. He started the inning by getting Andre Ethier to ground out but then a Manny Ramirez single and back-to-back walks loaded the bases for Matt Kemp, who promptly hit a bases-clearing double. Sanchez ended up throwing 5 innings with 3 walks, 6 strikeouts, and 4 earned runs. Sanchez will probably get some flak for his game, but I can’t hate on him too much. The Giants need Sanchez too much at the moment and his stuff is still as good as ever. He’s punching out 9.48 hitters per 9 innings and his walks have started to move closer to his career averages. Check out his BB/9 FanGraph’s chart and you can see that he’s been better lately. Ultimately, he’s frustrating to watch at times but he’s posting a very good 4.12 FIP after a hellish start to his season.

Quick Blurbs

This isn’t the first basemen you were looking for. Ryan Garko has not started his Giants career with a bang. The big lug is hitting: .222/.349/.278 over his first 43 PA’s with the team. Decent OBP, but the power hasn’t materialized. He’s been an HBP magnet, getting hit 3 times already. The best thing for the Giants would be to start Ishikawa against all RHP and start Garko against all LHP. I wasn’t a fan of trading for Garko then, and I’m still not loving the deal. On the bright side at least the Giants haven’t been delusional enough to try him in the OF.

Buster Posey has now played 23 games in AAA Fresno. His steady trek  through the minor leagues hasn’t slowed down his bat. He’s hitting: .289/.375/.542 over 96 PA’s. The most delicious stat of them all? He’s posting a 12.6 BB% in Fresno. A hitter than knows how to take a walk? I like the idea.

Has Rich Aurilia played his last game in a Giants uni? Henry Schulman thinks it’s a possibility:

Here is an educated guess: The Giants need to clear a roster spot for Nate Schierholtz, who is due to come off the disabled list tonight. Aurilia is the logical candidate to go and has been given some sort of indication of that. But the team is still not sure whether Juan Uribe who is battling a leg injury, is ready to play and are waiting to see how he feels tomorrow or the next day before the Giants make a move.

With the new additions of Sanchez and Garko, Aurilia doesn’t have a place on the team anymore. If Uribe is healthy he really, really, doesn’t have a place on the team anymore. If this is it for the goatee’d one, then he’ll end his Giants career with a batting line of: .276/.327/.432 with 143 HR’s and an OPS+ of 99.