Sunday’s Lineups and Pre-Gamer: A win would be nice

The Giants are 9-17 in June. At the beginning of the month, they were four games over .500 and one game out of first. They were also 5-5 in their last ten games when the month started. Oh, how .500 baseball sounds like fun. Their poor stretch of baseball goes back further than that, but their woes recently have been well documented, including the very recent eight of their last nine lost. All this happening in a stretch where you initially thought coming into the season this should be a time when the Champs would do well, not crumble and throw themselves up and down the stairs (yes, it’s that bad that they can fall up stairs).

In case you missed the twitter freak out, the beat writers have relayed to us that Buster Posey is feeling a little tightness in his legs so he gets priority to start over Brandon Belt, and I’m thinking that management is taking a “no-outfield” policy for Belt, but I may be misinterpreting what the beat writers are saying. Bruce Bochy has talked to Belt that it’s not him, it’s Posey as to why he’s out of the lineup, and Buster is planning on starting Monday’s game in Cincinnati. Marco Scutaro is having trouble locking his pelvis on the right side, which is contributing to soreness or tightness in his back, hence the reason for Tony Abreu playing. Not really sure why he’s batting second, but this lineup isn’t exactly one piece away from being menacing, it’s a lot of pieces away. Madison Bumgarner should attempt to allow one less run than Matt Cain does to ensure he gives himself a chance to win. Giants still undefeated when allowing zero runs. On to the Rockies, who look to sweep the Giants out of Denver:

Drew Pomeranz was just recalled today, with Rob Scahill being the victim to get optioned so that Pomeranz could make the start today against the Giants. Pomeranz hasn’t pitched at the MLB level this year, but his last two starts in the minors have been a little more promising, including a 6.2 IP shutout outing with 11 K’s in the middle of June. His fastballs came in around 91-92, changeup at 85, and curve around 80 in 2012.

Madison Bumgarner is making his sixth start of the month, and has gone seven innings in each of his last three outings, averaging one baserunner or less in each of those games, including 23 K’s, as he has worked to continue to be the best pitcher on the staff this year. However, with the work that Matt Cain twirled yesterday, Bumgarner has a great outing to play off of, and the pitchers say that that plays into how they do, so maybe that helps just a little bit. He throws his slider the most of all his pitches, followed by his fastball, which you’ll see around 92. His changeup comes in around 84 while his curveball will peak at about 77. He also has a two-seamer he’ll throw every now and then, and that comes in at about 91 MPH.

Other notes coming into today, first about Santiago Casilla:

Unfortunately, there have been server issues across Fansided, and this is as far as I can go with this pre-gamer. The final game of this series begins at 1:10PM PST.