Giants Fail To Capitalize On Padres Losing

Remember a couple weeks ago when I said the only chance the Giants had at winning the NL West was if the Padres started to shit the bed?! Well, somebody needs to get housekeeping on the phone ASAP – the Padres are losers of eight straight. Eight. Eight.

Of course, the Giants aren’t doing that much better, but they have reduced the one time 7 game loss column lead to 4 and now sit officially three games out of the NL West crown. Either way, with the stretch of stench from the Padres – it’s making it pretty clear this will become a battle of who wants it more, or as it appears, who wants it less.

With seven games still remaining on the schedule between the Pad’s and G-Men (including the final 3 games of the season), it’s going to be a wild ride.

The Giants still have a large hill to climb, despite the seven remaining games between the squads – four games back in the loss column with 27 to play (28 for the Padres) isn’t a small feat – but it is manageable.

As to last night’s game, well, very typical. For whatever reason, Chad Billingsley has the Giants number. He just owns them – last night was no different. The Giants were two hit in 8 innings and looked downright awful at the plate all evening. Frankly though, with Zito on the mound for the orange and black – did it really matter?

Zito again struggled (though he wasn’t awful) as he yet again couldn’t avoid the crushing hits. First, a two run homer to the 8th place hitter. Then two innings later, after intentionally walking that 8th place hitter to load the bases with two outs, Zito gave up a screaming two run single to the pitcher Billingsley. The ball dropped about a foot shy of right fielder Jose Guillen who said prior to the pitch, he looked into the Giants dugout to see if he should come forward a bit but received no word from the coaching staff so he stayed put. Wrong move.

Would an above average outfielder have caught that ball? Eh, tough decision. It wasn’t very far from Guillen but it was on his shoe top and had he or another dived for it and missed it, it’s a bases clearing hit. It’s possible a Cody Ross could have caught it – but far from a sure thing.

Either way, Zito again struggled to avoid the big hit and only lasted four innings. His last road win was in early May. Yeah…