A Great Orange Hope ?? Where?

The game between the San Francisco Giants and the Oakland A’s on Thursday was lost in the fourth inning after plate umpire Adrian Johnson was hit in the mask by a foul ball. For some reason that I will never understand, Angel Hernandez was sent to the plate in his stead. 

In case you don’t remember, Hernandez was the plate umpire in the Giants-A’s Tuesday night game in Oakland.  His skill at the plate was so doubtful that Duane Kuiper and Mike Krukow spoke about his incompetence throughout the game that night.  Somebody must have spoken to them about their comments being inappropriate for cable sports television because they were not so vocal on Thursday. 

At that point, Tim Hudson seemed to fall apart before our very eyes. Oakland was already leading by then, but it was a manageable  1-0 going into the 4^th.  In the fifth they got the second run and they found four more in the 6^th.  Lucky for the Giants, Bruce Bochy saw fit to put Hudson out of his misery and went to the bull pen.  Lopez, Machi and Petit stepped in and stopped the bleeding, but by then, nobody seemed to care. 

This kind of losing, time after time, is not fun. Sometimes a team can go down fighting, and it does not feel so bad.  But for three of the last four games, it was back to the Little League theme.  Only Mommy was nowhere to be found when it was time to find the balls lost by the boys playing bad baseball.

There were lovely moments in the game.  Two hits from Hunter Pence.  One from Michael Morse who seems have to have climbed out of his slump.  It seems the Pence Pants are holding some magic for him.  Perhaps all the G-men should switch to pants everybody laughs at.  Blanco, Sandoval and Adrianza also had hits, Sandoval’s driving in Adrianza for the lone Giant run. 

If you are one of the people thinking that the return of Marco Scutero will solve the Giant Problems, please look back to the recent return of Brandon Belt.  There were some people who thought Belt might be the Great Orange Hope.  He wasn’t.  I love Marco Scutero.  I think he brings a lot to the game.  But we will have to wait and see.

Bochy says he doesn’t know what else to do.  This is the same band of men, minus Angel Pagan, who led the NL West by 9.5 games. One man cannot change a team.  If Pagan comes back after the break and everything starts happening again,  I will gladly eat my words.  But I think there is a systemic problem with the Giants that is eating at the whole team.  I am not going to play the blame game here, but I am going to suggest that those boys get everything off their chests and start over.

Pence has been on a hitting streak. Morse is back. The Bull Pen is hot. I’m waiting for Timmy’s night.  He’s really been the best news of the Giants in some time.