Giants Drop Final Game in Tampa

Aug 4, 2013; St. Petersburg, FL, USA; San Francisco Giants relief pitcher Guillermo Moscoso (34) throws a pitch during the first inning against the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

Guillermo Moscoso got his first start as a San Francisco Giant in Sunday’s 4-3 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays. Moscoso didn’t have the outing the Giants had hoped for, but he did pitch well enough, with a bit of run support, to keep the Giants alive in the game. He lasted 4.2 innings, giving up 3 earned runs, and walking 4 batters. He’s likely not going to be the answer to the Giants rotation problems, but with Ryan Vogelsong doing well in his rehab start and close to returning, he may be better than Barry Zito in the short-term.

Pitching wasn’t the only problem yesterday though. Stop me if you’ve heard this, but the Giants simply could not get runners in scoring position across home plate. They left 7 on base, and were only 2-for-10 with runners in scoring position.  Buster Posey contributed 1 RBI yesterday, while Brandon Crawford chipped in the other 2 RBIs.

As for hitting, I will point out that Brandon Belt struck out twice. I’m not saying anything else there, but I’d expect we’ll be seeing a lot more of Brett Pill for a while. Marco Scutaro, Hunter Pence, and Posey all had 2 hit nights. Crawford was responsible for probably the most exciting part of the game with a triple in the 3rd. Triples are always fun, even when your team loses.

I know Tampa is a good team, so winning at least 1 of these 3 games could be considered a good thing. It wasn’t a total disaster, but my biggest take away is that the Giants could have easily swept Tampa. They had the opportunity to win all 3 of those games, and just didn’t pull it out. That’s the biggest difference between playoff teams and non-playoff teams. The Giants aren’t a playoff team right now, and have about played themselves out of the possibility all together. The worst part about this season is that the talent is mostly there. The reason the Giants will not be in the playoffs this season is because of themselves. It’s not they aren’t good enough, just that they’re not playing good ball. Period.