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Jason who? And will the Giants be content with lackluster offense come July 31st?
July 28th, 2008
Giants (44-62) @ Dodgers (53-53)
Jason Johnson (1-0, 1.38 ERA) pitched wonderfully for the Dodgers Tuesday night during their 2-0 victory over their arch rivals, the San Francisco Giants. It was Johnson's first Major League start since pitching for the Cleveland Indians in 2006. He spent all of the 2007 season with the Saibu Lions from Japan. The Dodger bullpen once again served as the unsung heroes of this three game series to date, protecting Johnson's gem while retiring all of the 25 batters they've faced over the past two nights against the Giants. Jonathan Broxton notched his fifth save with 1 1/3 innings of work.
The Giants' Matt Cain (6-9, 3.70 ERA), despite a well pitched game on his behalf, was worn out by Dodgers hitters. They ran Cain's pitch count up to 118 and finally made him pay in the bottom of the sixth when he served up a tired breaking ball to James Loney who singled home Matt Kemp. Tonight's loss extended his record to 0-5 lifetime against the Dodgers despite his empty efforts to strike out eight, walk none, and allow eight hits on one earned run.
The Giants offense consisted of a mere five singles tonight, and General Manager Brian Sabean shows every indication that the club will not be looking for a bat, or a "rent-a-player" before the deadline. It seems team is giving the impression that it will concede the NL West race for the remaining of the season. If anything, Sabean would like for the young players on the team to get more playing time to prove their worth to both the club, and increase their value to opposing teams in case of an offseason trade. If Sabean acquires anything before the deadline for elder statesmen, Randy Winn, Dave Roberts, and Rich Aurilia, it will most likely be in the form of prospects to deepen the Giants' farm system.
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Points of Interest
A controversial play collected the Dodgers their final run of the game in the bottom of the sixth when Fred Lewis failed to field a ball in left field foul territory cleanly. The ball bounced on top of the baseline wall and was not interfered with by the crowd once Lewis was able to grasp and relay it to shortstop Omar Vizquel who came home with his throw to gun down Loney for the final out of the inning. However, the third base umpire ruled the play to be dead because Lewis had to reach over the wall as the ball began to trickle over, thus resulting in a dead ball due to it leaving the field of play. As a consequence, the inning continued and Loney was awarded home plate for the second run of the inning on what was scored as a fielding error on Lewis.
Up next for the 2008 San Francisco Giants:
Giants - Jonathan Sanchez (8-6, 4.46 ERA) is coming off what most would call his worst start of the season.
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Dodgers - Chad Billingsley (10-9, 3.26 ERA) surrendered two runs in 7 2/3 innings in his last start over the Nationals
By Gavin Stuart
San Francisco Giants Correspondent
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