Battle for the Bay

One thing is for sure in baseball-good pitching beats bad hitting and yesterday saw both as the Oakland Athletics defeated the San Francisco Giants 1-0 with the only run of the game being an unearned one.
Gio Gonzalez fired eight shutout innings for Oakland in improving to 5-3,while Matt Cain picks up another hard luck loss (2-4) with the complete game defeat.

Giants Steps

1) Matt Cain has to have the worst luck in the league as he has lost his last two games despite allowing three runs (2 earned) over 14 innings.
The San Francisco Chronicle offers this factoid on Cain-This was Cain's 146th major-league start and the 83rd in which he allowed two or fewer runs. Remarkably, Cain has more combined losses (14) and no-decisions (29) than wins (40) in those games.
If there was a pitcher that deserves a trade strictly on a lack of run support over the last few years-it has to be Matt Cain..

2) Looking at the Giants lineup though,it looks like short of Buster Posey being recalled from AAA that little hitting help is on the horizon.
I know that Mark DeRosa is injured right now,but he was struggling before hand.
As bad as the Pirates everyday lineup is,compare it to this and see which team you would rather have behind your pitcher-I'll take the Buccos.

3) It is too bad the Giants have such little pop because their rotation might be the leagues best with Tim Lincecum,Cain,Jonathan Sanchez and the resurgent Barry Zito.
Once Madison Bumgarner replaces mediocre journeyman Todd Wellemeyer,it should strengthen even further.

4) I have always liked Gio Gonzalez and yesterday reminded me why he has been traded three times.
Electric left handed arms with a sharp curveball aren't easy to find and Gonzalez retired the final 20 Giants that he faced.
Thanks to Jason Christensen,who sent me a Gonzalez Reading Phillies card for the collection.
Gonzalez spent just one season in the Phillies system and I had none of his cards in a Phillie uniform...

5) Want to know why the Giants offense could be struggling?
Try the 2003 and 04 drafts where the Giants signed veteran stop gap free agents to avoid paying big bonuses to first round pick.
Those players should have the chance to be helping the big league team about now,but the Giants shortsightedness killed that chance.
Cheapness is never a good idea in the draft,ask the Pirates on that.

6) Oakland wore their black alternate hats.
Yuck.

The Pirates lost to Atlanta 4-2 yesterday with Charlie Morton getting the loss and dropping to 1-8.
The Bucs will attempt to avoid a sweep today with 3-4 Zach Duke against the Braves Kris Medlen 1-1.

Photo Credits-Lance Iversen-SF Chronicle