Giants Close But Not Quiet Good Enough

Today the San Francisco Giants fell victim to the New York Mets' impressive offensive depth, in a 9-6 loss.

Randy Johnson's unsuccessful bid for victory number 299 got off to a rather ignominious start in the top of the first, with back to back singles followed by stolen bases (Numbers 12 and 13 on the series). This put runners on second and third for Carlos Beltran, who cleared the bases with a double. Clean up hitter Gary Sheffield singled in Beltran to put the Mets up 3-0.

The Big Unit seemed to settle down after his rocky first inning, and the Giants lineup responded. Pablo Sandoval brought the Giants to within two with an RBI double in the third and Aaron Rowand hit a two run single in the fourth to tie the game 3-3.

Unfortunately Johnson completely unraveled in the top of the fifth. The apparently aging lefty gave up three doubles, a single, and a balk before being removed from the game. He would eventually be charged with seven earned runs, bringing his ERA in his last three starts to 11.05. After Saturday's performance, is overall ERA is a dismal 6.86.

Johnson has been inconsistent at best and downright miserable at worst so far this season. While it's not clear what exactly is ailing the future hall of famer, he believes he needs to improve on his pitch location. Randy gave credit to the Mets lineup saying, "It's the best lineup that I've seen so far this year."

Despite the Big Unit's poor start, the Giants were able to come back and make a game of it. Aaron Rowand hit his third home run of the year in the sixth, a solo shot to left field off of Mets starter Johan Santana. Rich Aurillia and Randy Winn also had RBI's to get the Giants back to within one before New York iced the game with two more runs in the ninth.

So far this season the strength of the Giants roster has been their pitching staff, but they have stumbled in the last two series against Washington and New York, two of the premier offenses in the National League. San Francisco has given up a combined 44 runs in the last six games, and they will need to reverse that trend to avoid a sweep.