The Giants had a guest public-address announcer Saturday night. What they really needed was former NFL coach Jim Mora to commandeer the microphone and scream, "Playoffs?!!! Playoffs?!!!"
In the standings, the Giants are well within striking distance of cheap nfl jerseys
the postseason. On the field, the story is completely different.
How can anyone utter the word "playoffs" when the Giants drop a late-August home series to a last-place team? That was assured with their 11-3 loss to Arizona.
How can a pitching-oriented team even think of the postseason when the starters become an albatross? In a losing streak that has reached three games, Madison Bumgarner, Tim Lincecum and Barry Zito have surrendered four, three and six runs in the first inning, respectively, dropping the Giants into deep pits before they bat one time.
The rotation has five wins in an 11-14 August. That has to change, and pronto, a message that manager Bruce Bochy relayed in a postgame meeting with Zito, Lincecum, Bumgarner and Jonathan Sanchez. Matt Cain was not present, having gone home early because he pitches today. He is the one starter consistently doing his job anyway.
Bochy was still steaming after he let the starters have it.
"We deserve it," Zito said after he allowed nine runs two unearned in 3 2/3 innings, the eighth time in 125 Giants starts he has surrendered at least seven earned but first time in 2010.
Zito is 0-6 with a 5.51 ERA in eight starts plus one inning of Steelers jersey
relief since he last won July 16.
In a first inning that can only be described as hideous, Zito threw 38 pitches, faced 11 hitters and allowed six runs on three hits, three walks, a hit batter pitcher Daniel Hudson and a flyball that Jose Guillen dropped to allow the final two runs to score. Miguel Montero hit a three-run double.
"We're better than this. We know it," Bochy told reporters. "They all need to step it up. It's tough when you go through a streak like this. The last thing you can do is accept it. You have to do something about it, individually, as a staff, as a team. We have to fix it."
There is no cavalry coming. In Bochy's mind, the starters who are here must throw more strikes and better strikes, not nitpick with two strikes and two outs, and they must do whatever it takes between starts to be readier.
Zito said his pitches are not "crisp" and declined to blame the inning of relief he threw Wednesday.
As a staff, Zito said, "There's an ebb and flow. This is just not a good time to have a little lull right now. We're in a playoff race. It's still August, but we can't take anything lightly. It's up to us to make a statement in the first and second inning, telling them we're going to hold them down, and we're not doing it."
Arizona won behind a rookie for the second consecutive night. Hudson allowed two runs in seven innings, the only big hits an Andres Torres triple and Pablo Sandoval home run.
The Giants got a scare during batting practice when closer Brian Wilson was Vikings jersey
clocked in the throat with a baseball. He was playing long toss in the outfield with Santiago Casilla and missed the ball, which he might not have seen.
Wilson went down but later walked off the field. The area was sore, but in the clubhouse afterward he said, "I'm fine."
The team as a whole could not say the same.
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