Tim is not that guy any more

Tim Lincecum gave up 4 runs last night and everyone says that it was a pretty good outing.

That says to me that he's in a serious decline. He's not the same pitcher any longer.

Here's what Steve Kroner said in his game story -- 
Manager Bruce Bochy called Lincecum's Friday performance "an improved outing."
"He got better as he went," Bochy said of Lincecum. "He did give us seven innings. Overall, I said he was OK. Was he great? It's hard to say that when you do give up four, but there was bad luck mixed in that."

Lefty Malo wrote a few weeks ago that the time had come to put Tim in the bullpen but that was before Ryan Vogelsong got hurt. It's obvious that whatever he had that made him so special in 2007-11 has gone.

Dodgers in last place

Man that feels good to write. They have won only 19 games; despite their 1-5 road trip, the Giants have won 26 games. 

There are only seven of the 30 MLB teams with less than 20 wins and the dodgers are on that list. So this season is a success in that way. 

Also -- my buddy the Mets fan sent me a link to this............

Surprise - Nats don't blow game

After last year's mega-choke in the NLDS to the Cards, I expect the Nats to lose tight games like Tuesday night. They managed to avoid that today even though they blew an 8th inning lead. 

Best part of today's game was Bumgarner pitching like an All Star 

If anyone is wondering about the specifics of the NLDS, it was an epic choke with 4 runs in the top of the 9th to give away a 2-run lead -- just like the dodgers in game 165 of 1962 

As is so often the case, Buster Posey delivered in the clutch, per the SF Chronicle's blog post --

The Giants tied the game, and got Bumgarner a no-decision, after Angel Pagan and Marco Scutaro walked with one out in the eighth. Gonzalez walked Pagan. Scutaro took a walk from from Drew Storen knowing his 19-game hit streak might be doomed.
Buster Posey then grounded a single through the hole to scoring Pagan and tie the game 1-1.

Pandamonium again

As Giants fans, we are fortunate to have the kind of guy that can blast walkoff homers in the 10th. My my my.

The Nats pitcher -- a Cuban exile named Yunesky Maya -- had been scheduled to start a game in Toledo as part of the Syracuse team. Instead, the big club summoned him to fly to SF so he could give up a line drive out to Pagan, a single to Scutaro and a 435-foot homer to Sandoval.

Giants Win was at Sandoval's first walkoff, which I believe also was against the Nats. Per Chris Haft of mlb.com, the one tonight was his second.  

Rosario, Pill back in the Orange and Black

Sandy Rosario and Brett Pill are back on the Giants roster with Vogelsong and Casilla going on to the DL. It strikes me as impressive how much of the Giants' success in 2012 was due to a relative lack of these kinds of injuries. The only one I recall off the top of my head was Sandoval's hamate injury around this time last year.

Andrew Baggarly of CSNBay Area says Chad Gaudin will be the new starter for now.

Kickham in the Orange and Black?

It looks like we'll find out pretty soon how legit Michael Kickham is as a big leaguer.

Ryan Vogelsong finally pitched like his All-Star self with 5 innings of shutout ball and got his hand broken in the bottom of the inning. It looks like he'll be back around late July. 

Susan Slusser of the SF Chron reports that Chad Gaudin and Kickham are the two most likely rotation candidates

The 1-5 trip

Well, a loss is a loss. It doesn't count more if you lose by 5 runs or 1 run. However, it's hard to disagree with the Chronicle's assessment of this being one of the worst road trips of the Bochy tenure -- given that Zito probably turned in the best pitching performance today of any of the starters.

Rotation lousiness continues

Man, I can't stand the Rox. Coors Dump has turned out to be the worst possible place for a shaky starting rotation. Here's what Andrew Baggarly of CSNBay Area just tweeted --

Andrew Baggarly ‏@CSNBaggs 14m

Update time. After Tim Lincecum's 6 ERs in 5 IP, the #SFGiants rotation has ... a 4.81 ERA this season.

Well, it's another Lincecum start where you say, "Well, he really wasn't THAT bad -- except for mishandling a bunt, balking and leaving a fattie belt high for Wilin Rosario..." 

Best thing so far tonight -- The dodgers lost again.

UPDATE -- Henry Schulman's game story for the SF Chronicle contains quotes from Tim and Buster about how the Giants are trying to do too much--

Lincecum was not the same pitcher after the throwing error and admitted he lost it mentally, which Giants players have been so good at not doing through their championship era.
"After that, I didn't collect myself and concentrate," Lincecum said. "I kind of unraveled. It's really frustrating."
Lincecum sees a lot of Giants trying to play Superman and save this team from a burning building of a trip.
"Everyone wants to make the big play," he said. "That's just the way we are. We're just going to take it personally when we don't do well. We've just got to learn not to dig ourselves into bigger holes. That's what I did today. I put us in a big hole."

I blame Bochy

The Giants have just lost a heartbreaker, 10-9, at the Coors Dump. Bruce Bochy decided to press his lucky in the 5th with the bases loaded and keep Bumgarner in after he loaded the bases -- when he was obviously no longer effective -- and then give a grand slam.

Bochy obviously knows what he's doing with 2 World Series crowns but it drives me crazy when this happens. What the hell are the 11 guys in the pen for?

UPDATE -- A well-thought out comment about how there really isn't that much difference at that point using Bumgarner or Kontos, who came in after the slam. I'd only say that there are 29 MLB parks at which that thinking is applicable; and then there's Coors Dump, which requires a super-quick hook.