The San Francisco Giants put together a strong first half of the 2011 season in spite of a flurry of injuries to key players and a destructively weak offense.
The Giants are holding onto a slim lead over the surprising Arizona Diamondbacks with a few games remaining before next week”s All-Star break and appear poised for another postseason run.
The defending World Series champions have hovered steadily above .500 for the past two months mostly because of their dominating pitching staff. The team”s earned run average is the third best in the National League, as of Wednesday afternoon.
The relievers have been, for the most part, consistent, highlighted by the performances of the end-of-game facial duo, Sergio Romo and Brian Wilson.
Wilson, one of the most intimidating closers in all of Major League Baseball, was one of four Giants pitchers named to the All-Star team and will be joined by starters Matt Cain, Tim Lincecum and Ryan Vogelsong.
Cain (7-5 with a 3.22 ERA) has been brilliant all year and Vogelsong capitalized on his early-season call-up after Barry Zito”s foot injury, earning a 6-1 record with a 2.13 ERA in his first 13 starts.
The Giants have depended on the consistency of Cain and Vogelsong because of Lincecum”s struggles in recent weeks, Madison Bumgarner”s disastrous first half and disabled list stints by Zito and Jonathan Sanchez.
Luckily for San Francisco, Zito looked rejuvenated in his first two starts off of the DL, giving up just two earned runs in 13 innings. As a result, the starting staff continues to look stable overall, even while Jonathan Sanchez recovers from bicep tendinitis.
Though the Giants” pitching has been strong so far, their hitting has been downright atrocious for most of the season.
San Francisco currently sits second-to-last in the NL in runs scored, and many of the team”s first-half losses were winnable games in which the offense couldn”t produce enough runs.
Opposing teams have little reason to fear Giants” hitters, none of whom are in the top 60 in batting average in the NL — though to be fair, the individual rankings of the team”s better hitters (Buster Posey, Freddy Sanchez and Pablo Sandoval) have been affected by early-season injuries.
Because of the slew of injuries to the offense and manager Bruce Bochy”s constant adjustments to the lineup, only two Giants hitters have enough plate appearance to qualify for the individual rankings (Aubrey Huff and Miguel Tejada).
All of those factors have helped the Giants earn the distinction of least productive offense among MLB division leaders. So if team officials want to make sure the Giants capture the NL West title, they will have be active buyers heading toward the trade deadline.
With Posey gone for the season and Freddy Sanchez out until at least August, management will have to look at acquiring an experienced catcher and an offensive-minded infielder.
Teams with championship aspirations are often helped by midseason acquisitions and the right addition(s) could help jumpstart San Francisco”s offensive battery.
The Giants succeeded in 2010 because their batters managed to get timely hits; the offense wasn”t great, but often produced when the team needed it to. The fact the timely hitting hasn”t occurred so far in 2011 has to be a concern looking beyond the All-Star break.
Still, San Francisco has one big advantage over its closest NL West competitors: experience.
Most of the Giants were there last year when the team won a championship whereas the Diamondbacks are mostly young players not accustomed to participating in pennant races.
So as the Giants look to head into the break on a high note by winning the weekend series against the New York Mets, they should feel confident about their first-half performance.
San Francisco seems positioned to make the postseason. Whether the team will make another deep playoff run remains to be seen and depends mainly on continuing the strong pitching and finding some sort of offensive consistency.
Then again, staying healthy wouldn”t hurt either.
Jeremy Walsh is a staff reporter for Lake County Publishing. He can be reached at 263-5636 ext. 37 or jwalsh@record-bee.com.
