There is a lot of baseball left to be played in 2011. With a month of games left on the schedule, no five-game lead in any division is truly safe. That being said, though, I can’t help but wonder if time is running out on the San Francisco Giants bid to repeat as World Series champs in 2011.
Coming into last night’s action, the Giants were four games behind the Diamondbacks in the NL West, but with Tim Lincecum heading to the mound to face Randy Wells and the lowly Cubs. Wells has been brutal in 2011: before last night’s outing he had a 5.53 ERA in 17 starts, he served up 19 homers in 96 innings, he was letting hitters on base at a .341 clip with a .467 slugging percentage against him. Lincecum vs. Wells. A perfect night to either keep pace or make up ground in the standings.
Lincecum wasn’t sharp, allowing six hits, four walks, and six runs in six innings of work. The Giants’ offense was even worse, getting shut out by Wells on just two hits, striking out seven times and walking only once. Getting shut out by Randy Wells is bad enough on its own, but in reality this shutout is just a compendium of the Giants’ August struggles in one neat package. The Giants are now 10-17 on the month with just 72 runs scored. That’s an average of just 2.67 runs per game in August. In 2011, there’s no pitching staff in the world that can keep a team in contention if they can’t even score three runs a game.
While the Giants were busy being embarrassed by the Cubs, the Diamondbacks cruised to a 5-1 win over the Rockies. When faced with rookie Alex White making just his second start in a Rockie uniform, they waited out six walks to go with their seven hits, scoring all five of their runs off of White in his six innings. Daniel Hudson, meanwhile, whiffed eight Rockies in seven innings on his way to picking up his 14th win.
While Lincecum failed to deliver and the Giant lineup flailed against Wells, the Diamondbacks got a good start from one of the guys at the top of their rotation and took apart a pitcher they should’ve taken apart. Really, that’s August in a nutshell for both teams. It’s only give games right now, but nights like last night make those five games seem pretty big as August winds down.
Also last night: The Indians got a strong start from David Huff and the White Sox got a shutout from Mark Buehrle, all while the Tigers lost in Kansas City. That pulls the Sox to within five games of the Tigers and the Indians just a half game back from the Sox. Not exactly a nailbiting race at the moment, but every game helps at this time of year. Also the Angels lost while the Rangers had their off-day, which increases the Rangers division lead to 3 1/2 games. All of last night’s scores are here.
Tonight’s games: John Lackey and CC Sabathia take the mound as the latest chapter of the Red Sox/Yankees rivalry kicks off. This series is mostly only of interest to Tampa, who’s got the fourth-best record in the AL and yet sits 7 1/2 games out of a playoff spot. They’re in Texas this week and what they really need right now is a sweep of the Rangers, while the Yankees sweep the Red Sox. They’ll send Jeremy Hellickson out against Scott Feldman to try and get things started in that direction. The other aforementioned teams in playoff races (the Diamondbacks, the Giants, the Angels, the host of AL Central teams) are all in the same place they were last night (the D’Backs at home against Colorado, the Giants at home against the Cubs, the Angels in Seattle, the Indians and White Sox at home against the A’s and Twins, and the Tigers hosting the Royals). Full schedule is here.
