From the Porch: Beer and present danger

May 4


Brewers 6, Giants 4


MIL (12-14) 300 001 200 671
 SF (12-14) 000 013 000 490


WP: Loe (2-0)
LP: Hensley (1-3)
SV: Axford (6)


Lincecum: 5.0ip 2h 3r 3er 4bb 4k 5.68 era
Greinke: 5.1ip 7 h 4r 3er 1bb 5k 4.11 era


In the division: Colorado lost to Atlanta, San Diego beat Miami (even
PADRES can beat Marlins), Dodgers lost to Cubs (what?), Arizona beat
Mets. Giants still 5 games back of LA. Only 2.5 games from being dead
last in division with by far the largest payroll.


The horror, the horror, the horror. Fourth loss in a row, and another
game in which the Giants posted the opponent a lead, fired up the
crowd by catching up, then gave the game away. Remarkable.


Pitching: Lincecum started out just awful, plonking the first batter,
walking the next and allowing the first Milwaukee run on a wild pitch.
Sharp! Somehow he went five innings, walking four, giving up only two
hits and yielding three earned runs. 84 pitches and only 47 strikes.
The short outing necessitated SF using five more pitchers from the
bullpen, not a great idea. At least Timmy this year is saving the
Giants millions upon millions of dollars; there's no way they're going
to work on an extension with him pitching like this, and fine by me.
Let him go to the Red Sox or Yankees or Cubs or Dodgers, people with
money to burn. Madison Bumgarner is worth 10x what Timmy's worth this
year.


Offense: Only little blip of partial offense came in the sixth inning,
beginning off starter Zach Greinke (assignment: google Zach Greinke
wife -- Emily Kuchar is worth the search). Angel Pagan and Melky
Cabrera looked OK at the plate with two hits apiece, but overall the
anemic offense continues and is likely to continue for a while with
Panda out 4-6 weeks. Apparently they think his surgery to remove his
fractured hamate bone (again) went OK. Whatever. Giants fielded a
largely AAA team tonight and have no choice but to continue that for a
while. I have no illusions about staying remotely in touch with the
Dodgers at this point; season looks likely to get out of reach unless
something really amazing happens. All these teams punishing the Giants
lately frankly suck and will have no role in the postseason.


Next game: Milwaukee at San Francisco,  1:05 p.m. PT Saturday, May 5
at AT&T Park. Wolf (2-2, 6.84) vs. Bumgarner (4-1, 2.53). On the big FOX.