There have been 3 very good things about the Giants this season:

1) Barry Bonds hitting at a level very close to his 2001-2004 peak. (.348/.466/.804)

2) Rich Aurilia hitting well above his career average. (.323/.357/.462)

3) The Giants starting pitching dominating.

The Giants won today because of #1 and #3 (Aurilia went 0 for 3 today to snap a 14 game hitting streak.)

Barry Bonds hit his 6th home run of the year and Matt Cain pitched a complete game 3 hit, 1 run masterpiece to lower his season ERA to 1.55, although Cain has pitched excellently in every game this year this was his first victory due horrible run support by the Giants.

While Cain has been the hottest Giants pitcher in the rotation, the other Giants pitchers are doing great too. Matt Morris is 2-0 with a 2.00 ERA. Noah Lowry has a 2.70 ERA. Barry Zito has recovered from a poor beginning to his Giants career, and now has a 3.70 ERA for the season after not allowing a run in either of his last two starts. Russ Ortiz is coming off of a solid start as well in which he allowed only 2 runs in 7 innings.

The Giants 2-1 victory today means that the Giants swept the Arizona Diamondbacks to go over .500 for the first time this year with a 9-8 record. The Giants have now won 5 games in a row.

The Giants have allowed only 7 runs in their last 4 games. To give a good example of how dominant their starting pitching has been this year: They have allowed 2 or less runs in 10 of their 17 games this year.

The problem with the Giants is that other than Bonds, Aurilia, and Ray Durham they've been struggling at the plate. The Giants cannot expect Bonds to continue to hit at this pace at his age (although I'm certainly hoping...) and they cannot expect their starting pitching to stay this dominant. They need to get more runs from their offense. Looking at their lineup it's hard to see where those extra runs are going to come from.

Bonds Bombs Counter: 740.

Labels: Barry Bonds