Can You Hear the S.O.S.?

Wow, another putrid outing by the Giants' offense and and one-run game gets away from the bullpen in the eighth. Where have I seen this before? In this case, S.O.S. means "Same Old Stuff."

Talk about a June swoon, and it's rolling over into July. Over the past week the Giants have certainly met their Waterloo. They've dropped 11 of 13 and seven in a row, and look at those seven. Two losses to the BoSox without Pedrioa, with Bucholtz getting hurt in the first inning of his start, and Martinez going down in the series finale. Three to the Dodgers who were reeling when they came in, who lost Manny to his Dancing Queen routine early in game one, only to be done in by a guy (Kemp) who was playing so badly only the injury to Captian Dreadlocks got him in the game. Oh and they lost to a rookie pitcher who hadn't won in a month. All this occurred at home. Now they get worked twice on the road by the Tulowitski-less Rockies.

Mama Mia! It's as if the baseball gods smiled upon the Giants and set up the ultimate run, and the G-men defied the gods and spit in their faces. I had a dream, and it turned into a nightmare -- the 2010 Giants are officially a disaster. Release the Cracken.

Good game for Huff, but he was the only offensive bright spot on an otherwise dismal night. We'll give Lincecum credit for pitching through struggles, but allowing the lead-off man to reach in five of six frames isn't going to cut the mustard.

The real culprits, once again, were the so-called offense and a leaky pen. The Giants supposedly aren't built for power. The Great Satan has said repeatedly they it's about hitting line drives and getting on base. Well, isn't cavernous Coors Field a hitters' paradise? The outfield is roughly the size of Golden Gate Park, yet the Giants can't find a hole? Again they made a mediocre (4-7) pitcher look like the second coming of Cy Young.

After the two-run outburst in the first, the Giants managed just three hits over the next eight frames, Huff's second bomb of the night and two more hits from Buster Posey -- who is out to prove that the Molina signing in the off-season was a waste of time, roster space, and Bengie's ample share of the post-game spread. Of course, it wouldn't be a Bochy game without the Giants playing Posey out of position...again. What exactly was the point of the Molina giveaway?

That little move meant Huff back the outfield and Scheirholtz back on the bench thinkng "take a chance on me," will ya?

Brian, does your mother know what you've been up to? Way to go, Super Trouper.

The Giants are curently sixth in the NL in team batting average but 13th in runs scored. Uh, maybe that's a clue that this way ain't working (as if seeing the sticks fail to produce at the MLB equivalent of Disneyland wasn't enough). And on Saturday they get Ubaldo Jimenez, he of the 14-1 record and 1.83 ERA, as the mound foe. What's the over and under bet for Giants runs on this one? Set the bar at "2".

But as bad as the offense is, the bullpen galls me even more. Talk about a complete waste of money, money, money.

What an eighth inning. Leadoff walk, single, failed bunt, RBI double, exit Jeremy Affeldt, the pen's biggest disappointment now that Brandon Medders is out to pasture. Ray gives up the squeeze bunt that plates the final run, but not much you can do to save your ride when Affeldt has already surrendered the keys. I'll reserve judgement on the new guy.

We've been here before. A few short years ago it was the strong pitching of Jason Schmidt and Company that was contantly sabotaged  by the likes of Jim Brower, Tim Worrell or Feliz Rodriguez. For awhile things improved with the addition of guys like Wilson and Romo, but we're back to the same old same old.

The Giants have become the Western version of the Pittsburgh Pirates. Sabean is following the same tactic that has doomed the Pirates to two decades of medocrity. He covets one phase of the game at a time, whether it be the pen, starters, whatever, to the detriment of everything else, with the idea that he'll fix the next thing next year. It's pretty sad when the man in charge can't multi-task, becasuse as Pittsburgh has proven, that doesn't work. By the time you run down the list of needs, the thing you fixed first is broken again. It's a bit like painting the Golden Gate Bridge. It never stops, they just go back to the beginning and start over, and over, and over.

There are our Giants, always a part of a team but never a whole. It's a failed and corrupt philosophy. More disppointing, the Giants aren't actually treading on new ground here. The Pittsburgh example along should be a warning to every GM with an IQ above that of plant life. Where's the learning curve?

So the Giants continue to plummet, now just one game above .500, six and a half back and looking up at everyone but the D-backs (where the "D" stands for disfunctional).  Wildcard?  The Giants currently sit sixth in that dogpile.

The Giants have forgotten that the name of the game is that the winner takes it all, and they aren't in position to take anything. Brian, knowing me, knowing you, it's not gonna change, is it? I can only hope that ownership wises up and this is our last summer together, pal.

I gotta find something else to do for three hours a night. Underwater bomb disposal seems a more enjoyable option.