Last week i wrote an article about the San Fransisco Giants’ bullpen and how dominate they are in the MLB.  Since then The Giants have lost five straight games, and every pitcher got lit up in every game. The two teams the Giants faced this last week are not good teams.  Both the Oakland A’s and the Arizona Diamondbacks just had field days against this Giants ball club. 

In game one against the Diamondbacks The Giants just could not get the sticks going and for the Diamondbacks all they were doing was putting the ball in play.  Wellemeyer pitched through 5 innings and looked ok  in the beginning only giving up one run in the 2nd, and then another in the 4th inning.  In the 5th inning Wellemeyer gave away three home runs, and from there the Diamondbacks would not stop putting up runs forcing the Giants into a huge hole into the second half of the game.

Bautistia would come in to relieve Wellemeyer, and he battled through two innings with 4 strikeouts and only one hit.  That one hit was a two run homer, but for the most part Bautistia did his job he came in and threw strikes and forced batters to choke up and crowed the plate.  After the two run blast in the 6th the Diamondbacks were up 7-1, and the Giants needed to turn to their sticks to rally back.  Arizona’s bullpen was just too much for the Giants offense to handle, they only put up 4 hits and 1 run in the entire game.  The Giants hitters struck out a total of 11 times.

After Bautistia was relieved by Medders, the Giants gave up 6 runs on 6 hits and 2 home runs.  The Giants just came off a huge win against the Padres a day earlier, but they could not transfer that win into another win in Arizona.  The Giants fell to the Diamondbacks 13-1 on a poor performance all around.

In game two against the Diamondbacks the Freak Tim Lincecume was on the mound for the start, and he looked solid till the 5th inning.  Lincecume pitched a shut out through four innings striking out a total of 6 batters, but in the 5th inning he lost it and gave up 5 runs to the home team.  Up to the 5th inning the Giants were on top 2-0 and looking solid with the sticks.  After Lincecum gave up those 5 runs, the Giants offense rallied in the 6th putting up 5 runs of their own making it a 7-5 game.

This game came out to be a bull pen game for both teams, but as for the Giants they just could not hold on to that 2 run lead.  Romo, Runzler, Mota, and Affeldt all some time at the mound, but they all did not even pitch a full inning.  All four relievers combined for a total of 4 hits and 3 runs to give the Diamondbacks the game.  All four of those guys only put up a total of 3 strike outs, you just can not let that happen.  You have to come into the game looking for strike outs.  Basically to have a good ball pen you have to have guys who can come into the game and make plays and help out the starters get the W.

Giants come up short to the Diamondbacks 8-7.  The only good news about this game is that Lincecum does not get the loss, Affeldt ended up with it.

In this two game series against Arizona the Giants just looked down and played without intensity.  The Giants were now looking to revamp themselves for the three game series in Oakland, but it did not turn out the way they wanted it to.

In game one against Oakland The Giants decided to give the starting nod to Barry Zito, who once pitched for the A’s.  But this return across the bay for Zito was not a good one.  He only had 3 strike outs, and even though Zito is not much of a strike out pitcher he should of at least had 5 with that nasty breaking ball of his.  Zito did not give up any home runs, but he gave up 9 hits with 6 earned runs.  Zito pitched till the mid of the 6th inning, and he did not look to happy about his performance.  But we can not point all our fingers at Zito, because the Giants offense was stuck in another rut.  To come away with a W you have to get production from the sticks and the Giants seem to be trying to fight out of this hole they’ve dug themselves into.

Bautista was once again the reliever and he did what he was supposed to do make plays he forced 2 strike outs and gave away only 2 hits.  This was still not enough for the Giants to make any kind of come back, and they ended up getting routed 6-1 in Oakland.

In game 2 San Fransisco had Matt Cain on the mound and were still looking for the winning light.  This game was pretty boring all the way through not much action from either ball club.  Cain took the mound looking to shake up the Oakland offense and it worked for the most part only giving up 1 run on 5 hits.  Cain looked to be the best pitcher of the last five games of this road trip, but his offense could not rally behind him and score runs.  The Giants offense only racked up 3 hits all game, and looked not ready to play at all.

The Oakland A’s put up the only run in the game in the 3rd giving them the edge over the Giants 1-0.

In Game 3 the Giants were thirst for a win, but still could not come out on top.  The Giants gave the start to Sanchez, who looks to be an up in coming star in San Fransisco.  He was the one who pitched the Giants no hitter last season.  Yet this game he was lined up across from the Oakland A’s offense, and Sanchez looked poise from the very beginning.  He pitched through 7 innings and gave up 1 run on 3 hits and came away with 4 strikeouts.  But again the Giants offense was unable to help out their pitcher, by scoring runs and putting the ball in play.  The Giants offense came away with only 3 hits and were never in scoring position.

For the most part Sanchez pitched a good game, he just could not get any help from his teammates.  The A’s squeaked by 3-0, and with the sweep of the bitter rivals from across the bay.

Through this entire 5 game losing streak the Giants were unable to score runs when needed to, and that right there can put a lot of pressure on your team’s bullpen.  The Giants still have one of the best bullpens in the Major Leagues, but they are still looking for help when it comes to the sticks.  Out of these last 5 games the Giants only had one game where they scored more then 1 run.  Tonight the Giants start game one of their nine game home stand, and they are looking to get the sticks fired up quickly