Giants' Starting Pitching is Heating Up: 5-2

Torres' 8th inning solo HR gave the Giants the lead.

Madison Bumgarner bounced back from the worst start of his career by pitching 6 solid innings, giving up 1 ER and just 5 hits. The bullpen provided decent assistance, as Ramon Ramirez, Jeremy Affeldt, and Brian Wilson combined for 3 innings, giving up 1 ER.

The Giants had failed opportunities to put runs on the board:

• With a runner on third, Andres Torres struck out swinging to end the 5th. 
• With runners on the corners in the 7th, Pablo Sandoval struck out, Juan Uribe struck out, then Ishikawa grounded out, ending their threat to score
• With runners on second and third and one out in the 8th, the Giants failed to score. 

They ultimately executed as much as they needed to, though. Freddy Sanchez scored on a balk, Madison Bumgarner hit an RBI double, and in a tie game (2-2), Andres Torres led off the 8th with a solo shot. Buster Posey then added to the Giants' lead, crushing a fly ball to the right field brick wall for a 2-run double. Five runs is more than enough for the Giants if they pitch like they can, like they have in the past three games (Cain, Sanchez, Bumgarner). The failed opportunities might start haunting them soon, though, as they did in the first half, when the Giants' offense was much weaker. 

Tomorrow: The Giants will face Ubaldo Jimenez for the fourth time. The Giants bat a collective .239 in 155 ABs in their careers against Ubaldo. None of them have had much success, with the exception of Pablo Sandoval who is 10 for 28 against him with 1 HR. The Giants got shutout by Ubaldo last time he pitched against them at home, but their offense has changed immensely since then, and home is where they hit best. They should be able to score enough runs to support a good Tim Lincecum outing. 

Tim Lincecum: He's coming off a start in which he gave up 4 ER in 6 IP, which was actually an improvement over previous starts. He appears to be headed toward a return to form, so I wouldn't be surprised if he pitches a quality start tomorrow. We'll just have to wait and see what happens with him...Tomorrow will be a good indicator of where he is right now, in terms of how he can perform routinely. If he gets lit up once again, then he's probably far from becoming that Cy Young pitcher he was not too long ago.