Arizona @ San Francisco preview
Oracle Park
Last Meeting ( May 29, 2010 ) Arizona 1, San Francisco 12
The San Francisco Giants are surviving without two of their best offensive players.
Oh, Pablo Sandoval and Benjie Molina are healthy and in the lineup, but the tandem has not produced much in the month of May.
Sandoval, who had a tremendous first full year in the big leagues in 2009, has show signs of life of late – homering Friday for the first time since April 21 and getting three hits on Saturday. He entered this final series of the month against the Arizona Diamondbacks hitting .191 in May.
It’s not exactly the follow-up campaign expected to last season’s .330 average, 25 home runs and 90 RBIs.
The overall numbers for the 23-year-old (.291, 4 HR, 20RBIs) are not as terrible as in May, but he still has plenty of catching up to do if he is going to come close to mirroring preseason projections.
Molina, the longtime catcher, is in a major drought when it comes to driving in runs. He had seven RBIs through the first eight games but just three since then and his batting average has dropped 74 points (.345 to 271 entering Saturday’s action) since May 12.
It’s a big drop-off for a guy who is coming off a career-best 20-homer season and drove in at least 80 runs in his three years in a Giants uniform.
Top prospect Buster Posey, who is a catcher by trade but played first base Saturday, is now with the big league club. Is that an indication that the Giants are getting frustrated with Molina?
Most teams can’t absorb two middle-of-the-order hitters going into a monthlong funk and remain in contention, but the Giants have managed it.
San Francisco is 26-22 overall and sits 2 1/2 games behind the San Diego Padres in the National League West.
The Giants will close out the Arizona series today at AT&T Park with Todd Wellemeyer (3-4, 5.36) starting against the Diamondbacks, who have lost six straight including all five on their nine-game road trip.
One of the bright spots this season for Arizona has been young right-hander Ian Kennedy, who takes the mound today in hopes of ending the skid.
Kennedy had made six straight quality starts – with an ERA of 2.45 – before struggling against Colorado in the first game of the road trip. He walked a season-high four in five innings while allowing three earned runs in the 3-2 defeat.
He entered the season as bit of an unknown since he had made only 14 major league appearances in three seasons with the New York Yankees before being acquired in the offseason.
Scouts have been in love with his stuff ever since he was taken in the first round out of Southern California, but there wasn’t enough of a track record (59 2/3 innings over three seasons) to know how he’d do taking the ball every five days.