Giants season wrap: Aces still deemed "untouchable

Andrew Baggarly - MercuryNews

The dust hasn't settled on the post-Barry Bonds era. The scaffolding remains visible as General Manager Brian Sabean enters the second winter of his rebuilding project.

But at least the task list is a little shorter this time, and some design elements are in place.

The Giants improved by one game from 2007, when they finished 71-91. But anyone who watched the youth infusion in 2008 could recognize a striking difference from one year to the next.

Another one-game improvement probably won't be enough to save Sabean's job, though. He is entering the final year of his contract, as is Manager Bruce Bochy, and they have a new superior officer to impress. Bill Neukom officially takes over the managing partner's office from Peter Magowan on Wednesday.

Are the Giants a power hitter and a few dependable relief pitchers away from making a 15-game leap in the standings, which should be enough to contend in a Downy-soft National League West? Sabean isn't sure. But he doesn't plan to sacrifice a pitcher like Matt Cain to make a go-for-broke effort.

Sabean said that Cain and Tim Lincecum remain untouchable, which might have been the biggest bullet point from his post-mortem session with reporters Monday.

"I'm not going to trade the Cy Young winner, whether he is or not," Sabean said of Lincecum. "And Matty, at 23, pitched like a Cy Young at times. ... I don't think it'll take trading Matt Cain to get something done."

Other notable developments:

Omar Vizquel has "zero chance" of returning; Sabean already told the 11-time Gold Glove winner that the club would buy out the option year on his contract.

Rich Aurilia could return, but it's a back-burner issue while the club addresses other needs.

Pablo Sandoval is "penciled in" as the starting first baseman and Emmanuel Burriss is the shortstop, though the Giants will be fluid positionally as they look to trade for a heavy hitter.

Fred Lewis will start in left field as long as he's healthy.

The free-agent priority will be relief pitching to address an evident talent gap in the bullpen.

The Giants will look at free-agent starters and ask CC Sabathia what his concept of a hometown discount might be, but they don't plan to spend "exorbitant" dollars.

Eugenio Velez and Nate Schierholtz will be on the team, though their roles are unclear. Velez could start at second base, though Sabean is "pulling for" Kevin Frandsen.

The coaching staff will return intact. Yes, Dave Righetti, too.

Sabean acknowledged the need for one or two hitters who can break open a tight game with a three-run homer. But that 30-homer, 100-RBI cleanup man? He might not exist.

"I'm not going to hang our hopes on getting that type of player," Sabean said. "It may be a combination of players."

Sabean has had preliminary meetings with Neukom about setting the payroll, which he expects to remain in the $90 million range. While Sabean was told there is flexibility to go higher, it's not likely that Neukom's first action would be to approve a pricey addition (such as spending $200 million on Mark Teixeira) that would draw the ire of his fellow investors — especially at a time when club revenue is trending downward.

Instead, Sabean said the Giants would focus on the trade market, targeting clubs that can't afford to keep their arbitration-eligible hitters. They'd also seek trade matches with teams desperate for pitching.

The Brewers are losing Sabathia and Ben Sheets to free agency while strapped with three high-profile arbitration cases: Prince Fielder, J.J. Hardy and Rickie Weeks. The Rockies will shop Garrett Atkins and Clint Barmes, who has admirers within the Giants organization. The Marlins will explore trading power-hitting second baseman Dan Uggla. And the Texas Rangers are in perpetual need of arms.

"We're not going to be trading for somebody with one year remaining on the contract," Sabean said.

Top pitching prospects Madison Bumgarner and Tim Alderson are practically untouchable, club sources said. Sabean is likely to shop left-hander Jonathan Sanchez, though his terrible second half figures to depress his value.

The Giants are hopeful about Noah Lowry making a full recovery but consider him "off to the side" for now.

Ideally, Sabean would acquire a cleanup presence so Bochy could move Bengie Molina and Aaron Rowand down in the lineup. Rowand, who had an abysmal second half, is "ideally a six-hole or maybe even a seven-hole hitter," Bochy said.

"If we can get more than a run a game from a different combination in the lineup, and we can finish the job after the starter, getting to the closer, I think a lot of good things can happen," Sabean said. "I think we can play winning baseball."

The Case Is Made

Henry Schulman - San Francisco Chronicle (SFGate)

Ninety-loss seasons are not created equally.

When the Giants finished 71-91 last year they seemed like a dying tree, its browned leaves cracking in the autumn wind. When they beat the Dodgers 3-1 on Sunday to finish 2008 at 72-90, the players scattered for the winter on the wings of hope that they at least laid the foundation for a winning future.

How could they feel otherwise when Tim Lincecum, age 24, struck out 13 to complete one of the most dominating seasons by a Giants pitcher? Or when Pablo Sandoval (22) and Nate Schierholtz (24) singled home the tying and go-ahead runs in the seventh inning to ensure Lincecum would finish 18-6? Or when Brian Wilson (26) saved it with help of a diving catch by Ryan Rohlinger (24)?

"I know we can be contenders," Wilson said after finishing his first full year as closer with 41 saves. "I don't know how long it will take for us to click, but the Giants are going to be tougher in this division for years to come."

They certainly promise to be as long as Lincecum leads their rotation.

In front of 39,167 fans, with Peter Magowan attending his final game as managing general partner, Lincecum matched his career high with 13 strikeouts. He became the first major-league pitcher since Sid Fernandez in 1986 to record his first nine outs on strikeouts and, with 265 for the season, became the first Giant ever to lead the majors since the American League was born in 1901.

Lincecum's reaction?

"That's cool," he said, as if he were told J.K. Rowling was going to write another "Harry Potter" book.

"That's all I can really say. It was a lot of hard work, trying to work on my pitches and throw them for strikes. All I can say is, cool."

Now, with the Cy Young Award in the hands of 32 baseball writers and his league-high 3,688 pitches in the books, Lincecum can exhale.

"I'm looking to put the ball down and maybe pick up a video-game controller," he said.

Yes, the Dodgers treated Game 162 like a joke. Joe Torre let Nomar Garciaparra manage the team, Mark Sweeney was the bench coach and reliever Tanyon Sturtze made a mound visit in the sixth inning. Manny Ramirez and Jeff Kent did not play.

Still, the Giants were down 1-0 until Travis Ishikawa and pinch-hitter Dave Roberts singled with one out in the seventh. Sandoval came off the bench and whacked the first pitch - what else? - into left field to tie the game. With two outs and lefty Joe Beimel pitching, Schierholtz singled in the go-ahead run. Randy Winn delivered an insurance RBI in the eighth.

"To come back and get Timmy a win, you couldn't ask for more," manager Bruce Bochy said. "What a year he had. We owed him this one. It wouldn't have been a lot of fun if we didn't win that game."

That seemed a real possibility when the first two Dodgers reached in the ninth. Wilson said he then looked into the dugout and felt a "surge of energy to finish the game. I knew how important it was because it was Magowan's last game and more than that Lincecum was still going for Cy Young. I didn't want this win (disappearing) being the reason he finished in second place."

So Rohlinger dived to catch James Loney's liner, Wilson struck out Blake DeWitt and Angel Berroa grounded to third to end the win, the game and the first of what might be two or even three rebuilding seasons.

Sunday's feel-good ending cannot mask the deficiencies the Giants need to fix, particularly at the plate. They scored 640 runs, their fewest since the 100-loss 1985 team scored 556. Also, with 94 home runs they were the first major-league team not to reach 100 since the expansion Florida Marlins hit 94 in 1993.

Addressing that is for tomorrow. Sunday was about placing the crown on Lincecum's season. The Hall of Fame must believe it was special. It asked the Giants to send Lincecum's jersey from the game to Cooperstown.

"I think when fans think back to this year they'll think back to the year Timmy had," said Rich Aurilia, who might have played his final game with the Giants. "People forget this was his first full season. I don't know if it's fair or not, but expectations for him will always be high."

To which Lincecum probably would say, "Cool."

L.A. pins loss on Giants

Maddux tops Cain for 355th career win, tempers flare near end

Henry Schulman - San Francisco Chronicle (SFGate)

"Meaningless game" and "Dodgers-Giants" are two concepts very much at odds.

One team goes home after today's game and the other is marking time until the playoffs, yet there was a vibrancy to their game Saturday night. The evidence was everywhere, from the din of 38,673 fans, to a brief benches-clearing ruckus in the eighth inning to all the pitching changes made by manager Bruce Bochy in an ultimately futile bid to win.

The Giants fell 2-1 for their 90th loss of the year, with Greg Maddux getting his 355th career win. If the Giants can beat the Dodgers behind Tim Lincecum today, they will finish 72-90. If not, they will match last year's 71-91 record.

Maddux apparently has a saying about the Giants: Beat me once, shame on me. Beat me twice, no freakin' chance.

Eight nights after the Giants blasted Maddux for seven runs and defeated him for the first time in 5 1/2 seasons, he returned viewers to their regularly scheduled programming and filleted Giants hitters over six innings. He threw 47 pitches, 38 for strikes, and held them to Randy Winn's leadoff homer in the fourth inning.

"He's caused me a lot of stress - a lot," Cain said of Maddux. "Every time it seems he and I are matched up, it's 1-0, 2-1. Obviously it's a tough ballgame," with Cain usually on the sorry end. In seven career meetings, Cain is 0-4, Maddux 6-1.

Cain allowed two runs in seven innings and will have to wait until 2009 for another chance to rack up his first career win against the Dodgers. Blake DeWitt drove in both runs with a homer and a single.

The loss dropped Cain to 8-14 for the season and 15-30 over the past two seasons, with a combined ERA of 3.69. Those numbers make sense only when viewed against the Giants' consistent inability to score runs for Cain.

With the Giants likely to dangle pitching for a bat this winter, Cain's name surely will arise. Some Cain fans actually are rooting for a deal to get him on a team that can win for him. In other words, if you love something, set it free.

"I hope not," Cain said. "I like it here. I like all the guys here and the staff. These guys have treated me well. I kind of fell into being a big Giants fan once I was drafted."

The game might have been meaningless, but the emotions were raw. For the first time this season, the Giants were involved in a bench-clearing skirmish when Billy Sadler struck out Casey Blake to strand Matt Kemp at third base in the eighth inning.

Sadler pumped his fist and screamed his way off the mound. Blake and Kemp did not like it. Each started jawing at Sadler, who hollered back toward Kemp. The benches emptied when pitching coach Dave Righetti ran out to intervene. There was much tongue-wagging, but nothing more.

Blake said Sadler's celebration was "uncalled for." Kemp called the whole thing "dumb," adding, "If I hit a home run off him, I'm not going to pump my first and yell, especially if we're out of it. But that's him. It's not me. In this game, it was barely a big strikeout. Maybe he needs to pick his places."

Those within earshot said Righetti was telling the Dodgers that the Giants would handle Sadler themselves.

Sadler's celebration actually was subdued compared with the Aug. 9 incident that actually started this thing. In that game, also in San Francisco, Sadler pumped his fist and shot it into the air after catching Manny Ramirez on a called third strike. The Dodgers stored that in their memory banks. Sadler was unapologetic then and now.

"I'm so focused in a zone," he said. "It has nothing to do with disrespecting the hitter. To me, emotionally I'm excited because I did my job. I helped put my team in a situation to win. There's nothing wrong with showing emotion at that."

Catcher Bengie Molina lectured Sadler after the first incident, reminding the young pitcher he could get a teammate drilled at the plate with his antics. On Saturday, manager Bruce Bochy said there is a line between being excited and showing up a hitter, "and I don't think he realizes what he's doing."

Larry Baer, Giants' next president, is built for the role

Tom Fitzgerald - San Francisco Chronicle (SFGate)

Larry Baer is a master at working a room. Especially his own room.

It's another sun-drenched afternoon at AT&T Park, and he's on the concourse. Every few steps he pauses to shake hands with a hot-dog vendor, a security guard or a paying customer. He could pass for a veteran politician.

In fact, a former club employee said the Giants "have resembled more of a political machine than a baseball team." Baer has been the No. 2 person in the organization since 1992. No. 2 or not, it's been his machine.

Baer, 51, admits having dreamed of being mayor of San Francisco but says he got over it. "He's got a better job," said retiring president Peter Magowan, whom Baer will officially replace Wednesday when Bill Neukom takes over as managing general partner.

Baer is considered the driving force in the organization, but the former employee, who asked not to be named, thinks his ex-boss at times is a little too full of himself. He quipped that Baer's epitaph should read: "Nothing important ever happened without me."

When it comes to the last 16 years of Giants history, however, that's undoubtedly true. And it is likely to continue that way for the foreseeable future. Every major decision the club has made - from Barry Bonds to the price of garlic fries - has his fingerprints all over it.

While Neukom will handle the broad organization decisions, the lanky, garrulous guy with the frizzy hair will increase his authority over baseball issues, such as player payroll and the front office.

As always, Baer will be both the Giants' hatchet man and their No. 1 cheerleader. Part of his job is to yell at KNBR boss Tony Salvadore or local TV executives if the team isn't feeling the love.

"If you cut him open, the blood would be black and orange," said Jeff Krolik, executive vice president of Fox Sports Regional Networks.

General manager Brian Sabean describes his relationship with Baer as "brutally open. I think that's one of the reasons I've survived in the long term. He'll vent to me and vice versa."

Baer promised he wouldn't "for a minute pretend to be a judge of baseball talent." He said his role would be to determine the level of resources at the major- and minor-league levels. "Are we organized right? Are the spring-training complexes set up right? Do we have enough going on in Latin America? In Japan?"

He said the player payroll for next year, excluding deferred money to former players, will approach $90 million. "The question is: How do we take this up a significant notch, knowing that dollars doesn't equal success? The Yankees have a $200 million payroll and they didn't make the playoffs, while the Rays, with $45 million, did."

Buoyed by a bevy of prospects, Baer paints a rosy picture of the future despite the reality of a fourth straight losing season. On the other hand, give Baer a few minutes to think about it, and he could make a leaky dinghy sound like an America's Cup favorite.

Wired for sports business

Baer is a perfect fit for his job, given his enormous energy and his credentials as a longtime fan of his hometown team, a former broadcast executive and a political junkie. A deft networker, he harnessed a team of financial heavy hitters to buy the Giants in 1992. Magowan was enlisted as managing partner of the organization. He agreed, on the condition that Baer, then working for CBS, become No. 2.

Baer's father, Monroe, now 85, was an antitrust attorney who often took the youngster on the bus to Candlestick Park, where they sat in section 19 by the Giants' bullpen. "It was heaven," Baer said.

His sister, Leslie Carrington, said he was a regular caller to Giants boss Chub Feeney's radio show. "Once he even said, 'Here's my sister,' and put me on," she said.

At Lowell High, he headed the student newspaper, The Lowell, which inveighed against the school's admissions policies, criticized a booster club's financing of a trip for teachers and students to Hawaii, and endorsed school board candidates.

Bennett Freeman, now an executive for the Calvert investment group, succeeded him as editor-in-chief. "The principal was not unhappy when we graduated," he said. "We were energetic, nice Jewish boys who knew how to be s- disturbers.

"If there's anybody I've known who was destined to do what they do, it's Larry Baer. His passions - going back to when he was a kid - were baseball, the Giants, San Francisco, politics and the media."

While at Cal, Baer and pal Andy Coblentz cooked up a scheme to ride every Muni line in San Francisco in one day. "Being the consummate marketing guy, Larry got hold of KRON, and it became a complete media experience," Coblentz said.

By the time he graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Cal, Baer had done radio play-by-play on A's games, sold advertising and produced game broadcasts for KNEW, and served as marketing director of the San Francisco Pioneers, a fledgling women's pro basketball team.

Brazen deal-maker

As sports director at the campus station, he called up irascible A's owner Charles Finley in 1978 and offered to do the team's radio broadcasts. Finley was considering selling the team to Marvin Davis in Denver.

"Mr. Baer, b- walks; money talks," Finley told him. "How much are you going to pay me?"

Nothing, Baer said.

It's a deal, Finley replied.

Finley didn't have a radio deal at the time and - what the heck - the team was going to be moving to Denver in a few weeks anyway.

"He said to send a dollar in the mail," Baer said. "Somebody said it was the first one-figure contract in the history of broadcasting."

The A's didn't go to Denver, but after 23 games on the campus station, Finley landed a deal on KNEW, and Baer was invited to produce the broadcasts by Bud Foster and Curt Flood.

The lure of the business world supplanted not only his broadcasting aspirations but his intentions of following his dad into law.

He became the Giants' marketing director for three years, attended Harvard Business School and spent the next decade with Westinghouse Broadcasting and CBS, the latter as special assistant to chairman Lawrence Tisch. One of Baer's tasks was to explain to Dan Rather why CBS would no longer cover the political conventions wall-to-wall.

The broadcast experience prepared him for life as a baseball executive and no doubt taught him the importance of star power. He personally negotiated the deal for free agent Barry Bonds even before the Giants' new ownership group had Major League Baseball's seal of approval.

One former club employee said the decision years later to retain Bonds in the face of steroid allegations "came from Larry. I'll bet you that it wore on Peter (Magowan) that he was getting blamed."

The ex-employee said, "There's a lot of people even within the organization who feel his style wears you out a little bit. People who worked with him wonder how genuine he is."

Another former Giants hand said Baer's zeal for the team frequently crosses into self-promotion, saying he has on occasion alerted the TV crew so that the cameras can capture him "spontaneously" giving a Giants cap to a celebrity sitting next to him.

But his supporters inside and outside the organization stress his bulldog loyalty to the team.

"I think his first thought when he gets up in the morning is about the Giants, and his last thought before he goes to bed is about the Giants," said Ted Griggs, general manager of Comcast SportsNet Bay Area, which the Giants partially own. "He's as competitive as they come and he's relentless, and that's a great trait to have."

About Baer

-- Fourth-generation San Franciscan

-- Lowell High graduate

-- Cal graduate

-- Giants executive vice president since 1992

-- Responsible for organization's day-to-day functioning

-- Key figure in getting AT&T Park built

Giants come back to take down Dodgers in 10th inning

Andrew Baggarly - MercuryNews

The Chicago Cubs, World Series champions? Heck, why not?

Nothing in baseball is impossible anymore. Not after what Bengie Molina did in the sixth inning Friday night.

For the first time in the grand history of this game, a player hit a home run — without actually scoring a run.

It doesn't take a degree in astrophysics to understand how that happened in the Giants' 6-5, 10-inning victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers. But it definitely requires a sense of humor.

There was plenty of that, and good cheer, after Omar Vizquel hit a two-out double and Dave Roberts snuck a ground ball into right field for a game-winning single at AT&T Park.

The comeback victory ensured the Commissioner's office won't have to hear the Giants' protest over one of the strangest plays in baseball history.

Molina's home run trot never began. He stopped at first base with an apparent single after his deep drive off right-hander Scott Proctor hit where the bricks intersect with the green, metal roof of the right field arcade.

As pinch runner Emmanuel Burriss ran onto the field to replace Molina, Vizquel, who was sitting in the dugout, told Bochy that he heard the ball strike metal.

''Omar and his bionic ears,'' Bochy said."I don't know how he heard it.''

According to the AT&T Park ground rules, a ball that strikes the roof is a home run. Bochy immediately requested an instant replay challenge and told crew chief Bill Welke that he didn't want Burriss in the game.

"I told Bill, `I don't want to make this move. We want to review this,' '' Bochy said.

Umpires emerged from the tunnel after a brief delay, Welke signaled a two-run home run, and Burriss laughed uproariously as first base coach Roberto Kelly gave him a push to round the bases. Molina watched from the dugout with look of disbelief, perhaps unsure if he should come out to circle the bases himself or congratulate Burriss for a homer that the rookie didn't hit.

"Good swing,'' Molina told Burriss.

"It was hilarious,'' Burriss said."I asked Roberto, `Do I run? Does Bengie come back out? I was like, `All right, all right, I'll take it.' I'm not a home run hitter, so I'll take the slowest trot in history.''

Molina's shot tied the score two innings after former Giant Jeff Kent blew a farewell kiss with his own two-run homer. Official scorer Michael Duca consulted with the Elias Sports Bureau and confirmed that Molina would be credited with a home run but Burriss would be credited with the run scored. And Molina got credit for driving in two runs, even though they scored when he technically wasn't in the game.

Bochy said the home run call should have nullified the pinch-running move; he filed a protest when Welke wouldn't let him reinsert Molina.

"He doesn't get another bite at that,'' Welke said."We know the rules. Once a pinch runner touches a base, he's in the game whether he's put in or not. "... All we have is the rules. This was a learning experience.''

Major League Baseball began using instant replay Aug. 27 to review boundary calls on home runs. The system has been used seven times and led to two reversals; the other came Sept. 19, when Tampa Bay's Carlos Pena was awarded a home run instead of a double.

The Giants forced extra innings when catcher Steve Holm's sacrifice fly scored Eugenio Velez in the ninth.

Comment: Prior to Friday's game, the Giants announce Bengie Molina as the winner of the Willie Mac Award...the most inspirational Giant for the second consecutive year.

Zito (10-17) takes loss in final start of season

Barry Zito's final inning of the season was subdued. He dropped in a third-strike curveball, got a routine grounder to shortstop and induced one more easy play to first base.

Then he walked off the mound and into the winter, head down, to a scattered ovation that would be modest by Little League standards.

Perhaps someday thunderous applause will return for Zito at AT&T Park, the Giants will bathe him in runs and he will get another chance to pitch in the postseason. If anything, he has time on his side. His $126 million contract is guaranteed through 2013. Heck, we might be filling our cars with hydrogen by then.

But for Thursday night, there was only a 3-1 loss to the Colorado Rockies, and no cause to take a bow after a season that proceeded like a Shakespearean play.

Zito pitched eight respectable innings, and one of his three runs was unearned, but he couldn't avoid becoming the first Giants pitcher in 22 years to lose 17 games in a season.

Zito (10-17) matched Dave LaPoint, who was 7-17 in 1985. At least Zito avoided tying Ray Sadecki's San Francisco record of 18 losses in a season.

Zito failed in a bid to win consecutive starts; he won back-to-back starts only once. But it was an acceptable ending for a season that began with an 0-8 record after nine starts, a crisis of confidence and a midseason reinvention as a pitcher.

"He should feel good about where he is as we go into spring training next year," Manager Bruce Bochy said. "He has been a different guy. Not only has his stuff picked up, but also his command and his confidence."

Zito is planning an intense off-season regimen that includes plyometrics, dynamic stability exercises and Brian Wilson yelling in his ear. The Giants' tattooed closer, a noted workout fiend, is staying at Zito's house in Los Angeles. He won't need a coxswain's bullhorn to get Zito out of bed.

"He'll definitely motivate me," Zito said. "I'll get after it. It's time to make some strides, physically. I'll work harder than I've ever worked. It's all going to come together."

He will need one more ingredient, though: run support. The Giants scored one run or fewer for Zito in 14 of his 32 outings.

Perhaps it will be easier for Zito next season, when the Giants won't rely on him to shoulder a young rotation. Tim Lincecum almost certainly will start on opening day.

Because the Giants open the season with three games against the Milwaukee Brewers, a team that has pounded Zito like veal Parmigiana, he might be the club's No. 4 starter out of the gate.

Wherever he starts, Zito is confident he will finish strong. He felt the same way last spring but insists this time will be different.

"Because I pretty much got to rock bottom this year," he said. "I know what it's like. I won't worry about getting there again."

The Giants put the tying runs on base against closer Brian Fuentes in the ninth, but Aaron Rowand struck out while chasing a high fastball, and pinch hitter Pablo Sandoval lined out.

Now the Giants are girding for a season-ending three-game series with the Los Angeles Dodgers, and at least the attendants won't have to line the visiting clubhouse with plastic sheeting. The Dodgers already spilled champagne when they clinched the N.L. West with Arizona's loss Thursday afternoon.

"I'm not going to be concerned with how they work it or who they play," said Bochy, chapped at being swept by Colorado. "We want to win some games."

Pride for 3rd in NL West

Rockies show Giants who's boss with 2nd blowout

Henry Schulman - San Francisco Chronicle (SFGate)
Just cry "uncle," Giants. If Colorado wants third place that badly, just hand it over.

Wait a sec. The Giants are doing that.

The Rockies have rolled into China Basin like a pride of lions hunting one-legged zebras and all but secured third place in the National League West with two lopsided victories. In the second on Wednesday night, they won 15-6 with Jonathan Sanchez and Kevin Correia each surrendering seven runs.

Only once in nine seasons have the Giants allowed more runs in their bayside park, a 16-4 loss to Florida in 2005.

"I didn't want to finish the season like that," said Sanchez (9-12). "I wanted to get double-digit wins and it turned the other way."

The Giants fell to 70-88, making a 90-loss season that much tougher to avoid, and assured they will lose the season series against Colorado.

After the 15th Rockies run scored, manager Bruce Bochy pulled all tenured players from the game. In the seventh inning, he had nine rookies on the field.

Some of them had good games. Nate Schierholtz hit three doubles. Eugenio Velez doubled twice, singled and scored twice on singles by Bengie Molina and Pablo Sandoval. John Bowker doubled and also hit his first big-league home run since July 2, his 10th of the year. Bochy even mined his missing-persons list and got Steve Holm into the game. The third-string catcher doubled and scored.

Bochy said he did not notice he had nine rookies on the field. Bowker did not either.

"It's almost like looking toward the future, a sense of camaraderie," said Billy Sadler, who was on the mound. "All of us have played together for a long time. To be in the big leagues playing together, all nine of us, was pretty cool."

The Rockies revved their engines with seven runs in 31/3 innings against Sanchez in what might have been his final start with the Giants.

The organization realizes it might have to dip into its pitching stock to trade for offense this winter and no doubt will try to keep Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain while offering pitching prospects and secondary arms such as Sanchez. Then again, Sanchez's second half might scare potential suitors. In 10 starts after the break he went 1-7 with a 7.47 ERA, compared with 8-5, 3.97 in the first half.

Sanchez pitched 158 innings this year after working mostly in relief the past two seasons. Bochy said he did not believe fatigue became a factor, saying Sanchez simply was not locating his pitches.

"I don't think innings had anything to do with it," Bochy said. "He just wasn't good tonight."

Asked the fatigue question, Sanchez said he was not sure and pledged to work harder this winter to gain strength for a long year in the rotation.

The Rockies feasted on Sanchez in three of the four innings in which he appeared. Clint Barmes was ruthless, with a single to start the game, a solo homer in the second inning and a two-run double in the fourth.

Barmes could have had a cycle by the fifth but settled for an RBI single and his fourth RBI in a six-run inning against Correia. It was hard to say what was worse, Garrett Atkins' three-run homer or a bunt single by the big-boy pitcher Livan Hernandez.

Chris Iannetta had a two-run single in a three-run first against Sanchez. Even before that hit, the catcher had a .391 lifetime average against the Giants, including .486 at China Basin. The Giants either need to solve this guy or acquire him.

Giants' Lincecum makes early exit in defeat

Laurence Miedema - MercuryNews

Tim Lincecum stumbled in his pursuit of elusive win No. 18 on Tuesday night, but the right-hander still blazed his way into the Giants' record book.

Lincecum, making the second-to-last start in what might be a Cy Young Award season, had nine strikeouts to boost his major-league-leading total to 252 and pass Jason Schmidt for the San Francisco season record.

That was one of the few bright spots in a 9-4 loss to the Colorado Rockies that took some of the luster off Lincecum's Cy Young push.

"To be honest, I felt that was a pretty garbage start for me," said Lincecum, who has lost consecutive decisions for the first time this season. "I feel I should have given my team a better chance to win."

The rare off-night by Lincecum, who failed to protect a 3-1 second-inning lead, wasn't the way he or the Giants wanted to start their final homestand. After winning two of three in Los Angeles last weekend, the Giants must win three of their final five games to avoid 90 losses for the second straight season.

"You want to end on a good note, and I think we've been playing pretty good the past two months or so," third baseman Rich Aurilia said. "You find certain goals to play for, and now it's to stay away from 90 losses or trying to keep the Dodgers from making the playoffs."

Another goal is to keep Lincecum at the front of the Cy Young conversation, and Tuesday's start didn't help. Making matters worse, a scoring change after the game turned Aurilia's fourth-inning error into a two-run single for Troy Tulowitzki, costing Lincecum two unearned runs. The six earned runs in 41/3 innings spiked his ERA from 2.46 to 2.66, dropping Lincecum in the N.L. ERA race to second behind the New York Mets' Johan Santana (2.64).

Lincecum (17-5) had plenty of zip on his fastball despite coming off successive complete games (the first of his career). But he labored just to get into the fifth inning because of command issues and matched his second-shortest appearance this season.

Manager Bruce Bochy said Lincecum wasn't going to pitch more than five innings anyway and added that Lincecum can start Sunday's season finale against the Dodgers if he wants.

"He's been throwing great and he came out with good stuff; just look at the strikeouts," Bochy said. "This kid has had a tremendous year and I didn't want to overwork him tonight."

Lincecum got into trouble right away, allowing a one-out single to Tulowitzki, then walking the bases loaded. But he allowed just one run after he struck out Ian Stewart looking.

The Giants rallied to take a 3-1 lead in the second on run-scoring hits by Aaron Rowand and Randy Winn and a sacrifice fly by Omar Vizquel, but Lincecum allowed a leadoff home run to Seth Smith in the third inning, and the Rockies took a 4-3 lead in the fourth on Tulowitzki's single off Aurilia's glove.

Lincecum recorded his record-tying and record-breaking strikeouts in the inning, passing Schmidt's 2004 total of 251 by blowing a 96 mph fastball past Matt Holliday for the final out of the fourth.

Lincecum has one more shot at win No. 18 on Sunday against the Dodgers, but even with a huge game he won't catch Mickey Welch, whose 345 strikeouts for the 1884 New York Gothams are the franchise record. Lincecum could challenge Christy Mathewson (267 in 1903) for most by a Giants pitcher since the start of the 20th century.

Giants take 11 innings to help D'backs cut into Dodgers' lead, 1-0

Henry Schulman - San Francisco Chronicle (SFGate)
Manager Bruce Bochy has made it clear he hates to be a spoiler because it means the Giants are not going into the playoffs. He is a minority of one.

You had to feel the energy within the clubhouse after Sunday's 1-0, 11-inning victory to understand what a charge the players got from taking two of three from the white-hot Dodgers and preventing them from running away with the National League West.

Los Angeles still has the upper hand with a 2 1/2-game lead over Arizona but will have to scrap this week, with the entire bag of marbles possibly coming down to next weekend's Dodgers-Giants series in San Francisco.

That makes Rich Aurilia very happy. His two-out, two-strike single against Takashi Saito in the 11th inning drove in base-thief extraordinaire Brad Hennessey with the game's only run, and Aurilia was stoked about the consequences for L.A.

"I don't know what next year holds for me, my future with the Giants," Aurilia said. "But if this is how I can go out in my last game at Dodger Stadium, with a hit like that, it would be pretty cool."

To say Aurilia won the game would be a disservice to the panoply of Giants who did things ranging from good to "are you kidding me?" in what catcher Bengie Molina called "probably our best game of the year."

Where do you start?

Perhaps with Matt Cain, who struck out Casey Blake and Matt Kemp with the bases loaded to dodge a first-inning disaster en route to six shutout innings.

To do so, Cain required five outstanding defensive plays, starting with Ivan Ochoa's leaping catch of a floater to short left field in the first inning with the bags full, Nate Schierholtz's long run and diving catch to save a run in the third and Randy Winn's lunging catch with the bases loaded and two outs in the fifth. All were hit by James Loney, who must have stepped on a leprechaun on his way to the ballpark.

Even before Winn's catch in the fifth, Aaron Rowand fielded Andre Ethier's single and heaved a fantastic throw home to nail Angel Berroa, with Molina applying a quick tag.

Travis Ishikawa also made a diving stop and Schierholtz a second diving catch.

"Holy cow," Cain said. "I think everybody got a Gold Glove today."

What was next? How about Sergio Romo's three perfect innings, starting with a three-pitch strikeout of Manny Ramirez? Romo got slower as he went - fastball, slider, slurve.

"I was definitely, like, wow," Romo said. "I ain't going to lie. Manny Ramirez is arguably the best hitter in the game, but as dangerous as he is my approach doesn't change. You have to throw strikes. I definitely credited that to the first time he's seen me. I look forward to the next time. I'm sure he does, too."

Has Hennessey's stolen base been mentioned yet? It was huge and came in an 11th inning entitled "How to do all the little things right."

Rowand started the winning rally with a one-out single. Pinch-hitter Pablo Sandoval grounded into a force, but even with a bum left leg hustled up the line to beat the relay and keep the inning alive.

Hennessey ran for Sandoval, and with runs scarce, manager Bruce Bochy ordered Hennessey to steal second with Eugenio Velez at bat (after ensuring that Hennessey knew the sign). Hennessey took off a tad after Saito threw the pitch, an accidental delayed steal that stunned catcher Russell Martin, who did not throw the ball.

When Aurilia was told that Hennessey caught him with one steal for the season, Aurilia protested, "Wasn't that indifference? That should be defensive indifference."

The steal was huge because it removed the force. When Velez tapped slowly to short, Chin-lung Hu had to charge the ball and throw to first. Velez beat the throw for an infield hit and Aurilia followed with his single. After Hennessey scored from third and returned to the dugout, "the guys asked me why I didn't pick the base up over my head."

Brian Wilson struck out Ramirez to start the 11th then fanned Blake on a 100-mph fastball to end the Giants' 70th win and force the Dodgers into a week they surely did not want. The Giants, though, definitely want to see L.A. without a division title in hand next weekend.

"I'm kind of excited for it," Wilson said. "Being the reason one team doesn't go is always fun, especially if you don't get to go."

Giants lose to Dodgers 10-7

Andrew Baggarly - MercuryNews

The Giants paraded eight pitchers in a 10-7 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers on Saturday night, none of whom is a lock for next season's bullpen.

In fact, some of them probably hastened their exit.

Jack Taschner issued two bases-loaded walks to snap a tie in the seventh inning, Manny Ramirez took curtain calls to chants of "MVP" after each of his two home runs, and the N.L. West-leading Dodgers won in front of a sellout crowd to reduce their magic number to five.

With the Arizona Diamondbacks winning and the N.L. West at stake, the 4-hour, 3-minute game was anything but a spring-training affair. But even split-squad games in Tucson aren't this ugly. The Giants issued 11 walks and they were 2 for 17 with runners in scoring position before pinch hitter Pablo Sandoval hit a bases-loaded double in the ninth.

Giants Manager Bruce Bochy hopes for more timely hitting in 2009. But more than anything, he wants his pitchers to fix a bloated walks total that is one behind the Pittsburgh Pirates for the most in the league.

"Oh, no question,'' Bochy said forcefully. "We've got to pound the zone with quality strikes.''

The game might have been a preview of February for the Giants' bullpen, where only closer Brian Wilson and probably right-hander Sergio Romo can claim chairs.

Can the Giants find a dependable strike thrower among the rest?

"We've got a fine system here and we're trying to get them to throw strikes,'' Bochy said. "That's what we've got to work on the rest of the year and talk about in the winter and spring. You're going to get beat, but when you beat yourself, that's when it hurts.''

Sandoval didn't start because of a sore left quadriceps, and lacking his spark, the Giants' lineup returned to its dull and disposable ways. Yet the Giants rallied for a 5-5 tie without the benefit of an RBI hit. The Dodgers issued two bases-loaded walks; other runs scored on an error, a wild pitch and a groundout.

The Dodgers squandered a lead built on Ramirez's three-run home run and Matt Kemp's two-run shot. Both deep drives came off Brad Hennessey in the third inning, and they might have impacted more than the score.

The Giants' arbitration caseload has been light in recent years, but they'll have decisions to make on several players in a few months. Hennessey, Taschner, Kevin Correia and Tyler Walker are eligible for arbitration and the club could decide to cut them loose rather than tender contracts.

Hennessey gave himself a chance when he made consecutive solid starts, including a career-high eight innings last week at Arizona. But he sacrificed some snap on his slider while trying to improve his fastball command, and his stuff was too straight and tame to get past Ramirez and Kemp.

With the Giants in an early hole, Bochy pinch hit for Hennessey in the fourth.

After that, it became an open audition for 2009. Correia pitched a scoreless inning, but only because shortstop Omar Vizquel speared Ramirez's hard liner to strand two runners.

Keiichi Yabu tossed two scoreless innings, with third baseman Rich Aurilia making a diving stop behind him.

But Eugenio Velez couldn't make the play to support Walker in the seventh. With one out, the erratic second baseman let Kemp's grounder bounce off his chest, spoiling a chance at what would have been an inning-ending double play.

Velez flipped to second base for one out, the inning continued and Taschner entered to face left-handed hitter Blake DeWitt. The Dodgers sent up pinch hitter Nomar Garciaparra, who walked to load the bases. Taschner followed by missing on four pitches to Angel Berroa, the last one nearly wild, to force in the tiebreaking run.

Then Taschner battled Delwyn Young to a full count before the pinch hitter drew another walk.

Molina's 4 RBIs cure Giants' case of Greg Maddux blues

Henry Schulman - San Francisco Chronicle (SFGate)
There is no need to call your newspaper repairman. Do not adjust your boxscore. It is correct, strangely correct, and for the Giants, beautifully correct.

They indeed defeated Greg Maddux for the first time in more than five years Friday night. They throttled him for seven runs in five innings, the most Maddux has allowed in any of his 54 regular-season games against the Giants.

Bengie Molina homered and drove in four runs to raise his RBI count to 92, and Pablo Sandoval doubled twice and drove in a pair in the Giants' 7-1 victory before a sellout crowd of 55,589 at Dodger Stadium. Hoping to inch closer to the National League West title, Los Angeles instead remained 3 1/2 games ahead of Arizona.

"He has had his way with us," manager Bruce Bochy said of Maddux, using "us" loosely. The last time Maddux had lost to the Giants, Felipe Alou was their first-year manager. "We had some good at-bats. The guys really played very well offensively and they ran the bases well. It was a well-played game."

Not to be forgotten was Barry Zito (10-16), who carried a shutout into the eighth inning and reached double-digit wins for the eighth consecutive season. He lasted 72/3 innings, allowed a run, walked one and struck out six in the kind of performance that idealizes what the Giants want to see consistently from the $126 million left-hander.

Maddux was a sprite 37-year-old when he last lost to the Giants, in Atlanta, on May 9, 2003. To place that date in context, one day earlier a San Francisco scout had gotten a 16-year-old third baseman from Venezuela to sign a contract.

It was Sandoval.

Ending the Maddux stranglehold was not that big a deal for the Giants, most of whom have been around only a year or two.

"I don't think we were thinking about Maddux for what he's done to us," Molina said. "We got beat four times in Arizona. They were very, very tough losses. I think we just came out to try to win a game."

Maddux shrugged off the whole Giants angle and was more concerned with the effect his beating had on the division race.

"You hate to tip your cap this time of year," he said, "but they hit some decent pitches and a few mistakes."

Sandoval's first-inning double fell into the "decent pitches" category. It was a foot off the plate and with Randy Winn running from first, Sandoval extended his bat and rolled it past third base, setting up Molina's two-run single. Molina's swing produced more runs against Maddux than the Giants scored in five of his previous seven starts against them.

Winn scored easily, but Sandoval had to dance around catcher Danny Ardoin's tag. Sandoval hurt his left quadriceps in the maneuver and left the game after eight innings. His status for tonight is questionable.

Sandoval's second hit, with two outs in the fifth, was a catchable flyball that became a double when Manny Ramirez twisted and turned like an insomniac in bed as he went back to chase it. It landed over his head and two runs scored.

With the inning extended, Molina skied his 15th homer into the seats in left-center to give the Giants a four-run inning and an almost unthinkable 7-0 lead against Maddux.

Sandoval has not been cowed by good pitchers, including a 354-game winner.

"I'm just going to keep doing what I do," he said, "see the ball and swing. I've hit tough guys in the big leagues like Brandon Webb and Greg Maddux. I feel comfortable against them."

Zito was exceptionally sharp and rarely tested until Pablo Ozuna homered with one out in the eighth to end the shutout. Achieving 10 wins, particularly after his 0-8 start, is an accomplishment.

"It's actually been a great season for all the things that I've learned, things in my personal life that affected me that I've changed," he said, without elaborating. "Those things are valuable. You don't learn from success. You learn from pain and failure. If I can come back a stronger man and have more resiliency in the years to come, I'd definitely cherish this season."

LINCECUM'S NO-FAULT 'L'

Velez's misplay in left costs 2 runs and perhaps the game

Henry Schulman - San Francisco Chronicle (SFGiants)
One swing, one moment, one egregious mistake by a third party is not supposed to decide an award as haughty as the Cy Young. But you have to wonder. Will the East Coast voters see a tape of what happened here Thursday night?

Will they understand that Tim Lincecum pitched a whale of a game Thursday night and easily could have won his 18th game? That his fourth loss of the season, and first since July 20, happened largely because a rookie infielder who was playing left field for the Giants played the third out of an inning into a two-run triple?

Or will they see the final score - 3-2 Diamondbacks - and note that Lincecum lost at Chase Field one night after Brandon Webb earned his 21st win? Time will tell.

Arizona completed a four-game sweep when Adam Dunn lined an RBI single against Lincecum in the eighth inning to break a 2-2 tie after Conor Jackson's two-out single and stolen base. But 34,323 fans and anyone who watched on television knew that was not the story.

With two outs in the sixth, runners on the corners and the Giants leading 1-0, Justin Upton hit a hard liner to left field for what should have been the final out. Eugenio Velez took one step in before he realized the ball was smoked and leaped for it. But the ball sailed over his head for a triple. Both runners scored, the first runs against Lincecum in 15 innings.

Manager Bruce Bochy often sticks his best defense behind Lincecum but used Velez in left field as part of an all-right-handed assault on Johnson. It was Velez's eighth outfield start of the year, his fourth in left.

Bengie Molina responded with a huge hit, an opposite-field home run in the eighth inning against reliever Juan Cruz that tied the game 2-2. The joy was fleeting. Lincecum finished eight innings for his second straight complete game, but lost.

Adding injury to insult, Lincecum was hit in the fingers of his glove hand while trying to bunt a Johnson fastball in the fifth inning. The 0-2 pitch was high, but not tight. As Lincecum tried to bunt it, the ball hit the fingers on his left hand, which were clutching the bat.

Lincecum fell on his back and winced. No doubt the entire Lincecum-loving Giants nation gasped.

He looked dazed as he spoke to head trainer Dave Groeschner and Bochy, who visited the plate. The Big Unit walked over to check on Lincecum, who then was escorted into the dugout.

Before the game, Bochy said that management decided to alter the rotation to get Lincecum one extra start. Instead of pitching for the final time against the Rockies on Wednesday night, Lincecum will open the final homestand on Tuesday then close the season against the Dodgers a week from Sunday.

Now it appeared the issue might be moot. But Lincecum's hand was checked in the dugout and he was fine. He ran to the mound for the bottom of the fifth and threw strike one to Miguel Montero.

Coming off his 12-strikeout, 138-pitch shutout at San Diego, Lincecum was a different pitcher against the free-swinging Diamondbacks. Actually, he was more Greg Maddux than anything else as he got Arizona to hit into lots of early outs. He struck out six and has 243 for the season, eight short of Jason Schmidt's San Francisco record.

The decision to get Lincecum an extra start was made after discussions among manager Bochy, pitching coach Dave Righetti and general manager Brian Sabean.

"We added it up," Bochy said. "We think three starts is the way to go. He'll pitch the last home game. We sat down and talked, Brian, myself and Dave. He's throwing the ball great and he's feeling great. Why not get him three more starts?"

Lincecum already leads the National League in pitches thrown, the Giants are well out of the race and odds are the Dodgers will have clinched the West before the season's final day. The risk-reward ledger tilts heavily toward treading cautiously with that franchise-changing right arm.

On the other hand, an extra win could heighten Lincecum's Cy Young chances and enable him to get 20 wins (a moot point now). The Giants might sell a few more tickets with Lincecum going twice on the final homestand, but Bochy said that did not enter the conversation.

Also, Lincecum has shown no signs of arm trouble. He would need an escort to find the training room.

"Obviously, if we had concerns we wouldn't do this," Bochy said. "Obviously, we don't have any concerns right now."

One concern Thursday was getting runs for Lincecum against Johnson. The Giants were poised for an early knockout when they loaded the bases with nobody out to start the game, but Johnson got an important out on a pop foul by Molina. The Giants got a run on Pablo Sandoval's sacrifice fly, but that was all.

Likely there's a Sabean in Giants' future

Henry Schulman - San Francisco Chronicle (SFGate)
William Neukom will have many important items on his agenda when he becomes the Giants' managing general partner Oct. 1, but it appears his to-do list will not include a general manager search. Numerous team insiders say they expect Neukom to retain Brian Sabean for the final year of his contract.

They stressed that no decisions have been finalized ahead of Neukom's official ascension to the No. 1 chair, but he is leaning strongly toward retaining Sabean for a 13th season as general manager.

The Giants have 10 games left in their fourth consecutive losing season. They stand 68-84 after a particularly painful 7-6 loss to Arizona on Wednesday night. Jonathan Sanchez blew a 3-0 first-inning lead, allowing Brandon Webb to earn his 21st victory and gain more footing in his race against Tim Lincecum for the National League Cy Young Award.

"That's big," Sanchez acknowledged. "I wanted to beat Webb to make it easier for Timmy."

The Diamondbacks withstood a three-run ninth inning that included a two-run Omar Vizquel triple and cut their deficit to 3 1/2 games behind first-place Los Angeles in the West. For what it is worth, they also eliminated the Giants, making it five years without a trip to the playoffs.

That might make some teams lose patience with their GMs, but this situation is unusual. The Giants' downfall after eight straight winning seasons stemmed from an overplayed strategy of building around Barry Bonds. Those above Sabean in the front office were culpable, too, so the blame cannot fall entirely on the GM even if he made some poor choices along the way.

Meanwhile, Sabean has done precisely what ownership demanded when it awarded him a two-year extension in July 2007. He expanded and bolstered the front office with strong people who can spot position-playing talent, particularly special assistant John Barr, and oversaw what is universally viewed as an excellent 2008 draft.

Those close to Neukom describe him as cautious and deliberate, not the type to walk into a new executive position and clean house before he gets the lay of the land.

Even the recent improvement on the field might be swaying Neukom. The Giants are a marketing-driven organization with roughly 13,000 season tickets up for renewal this winter in a tough economy. A handful of fans have written The Chronicle, saying they will not renew if Sabean is retained.

But one front-office source said that gripes from season-ticket holders, which were on the rise early this season, diminished once Sabean and manager Bruce Bochy decided to play the kids following the July 31 trade deadline.

Those kids joined with some of the old-timers to pin three first-inning runs on Webb. Pablo Sandoval and Bengie Molina drove in two on back-to-back swings for a double and a single. Dave Roberts launched the rally with an infield hit.

The Cy Young race was on everybody's mind.

"It's like the elephant in the room," Roberts said. "These are the two guys who are the front-runners and you have a chance to do something about it. More in the beginning of the game, this is your chance to pick up your guy and try to get Brandon the loss. We started out according to plan early. It kind of changed real quickly on us."

Sanchez allowed a run in the first and was one strike away from getting out of the second. He was ahead of Webb 0-2 when he tried to get the pitcher to chase at an eye-level fastball, but the pitch was not high enough and Webb cranked it into left-center for a two-run double. The floodgates opened, and Arizona scored five in the inning.

"Sanchez had a rough start," Bochy said. "He had trouble keeping the ball down. Webb has killed us with his hitting this year."

Webb was a .131 hitter, but the double made him 4-for-8 with six of his nine RBIs against San Francisco.

Stephen Drew followed with an RBI single and Justin Upton a two-run homer. David Eckstein added a home run against Kevin Correia in the sixth.

Webb put a clamp on the Giants after the first inning and did not allow another run through seven. He has two starts to go. If he wins both and finishes 23-7, he will have the upper hand. The last pitcher with 23 victories not to get the Cy Young was Arizona's Curt Schilling in 2002, but he lost to teammate Randy Johnson, who won 24 games.

Giants' Cain could sue for lack of support

TWO SOLO HOMERS PLENTY AS HAREN THROWS A SHUTOUT

Andrew Baggarly - MercuryNews

The Giants could sign Pat Burrell. They could trade for Adrian Beltre or Prince Fielder. They could exhume Babe Ruth's body. Heck, they could even bring back Barry Bonds.

Well, maybe not that last one.

They'll look just about anywhere for a power-hitting presence to bring consistency to the lineup. And nobody would welcome it more than Matt Cain.

When Cain crouches in a duck blind over the winter, he won't want to be reminded of starts like Tuesday's 2-0 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks. Cain allowed home runs to Chris Snyder and Stephen Drew, which was enough to doom him on yet another night in which he got no support.

Former A's right-hander Dan Haren threw his sixth career complete game and first shutout, striking out Travis Ishikawa with a biting slider to strand runners at the corners and finish a four-hitter.

"I went up there with a plan,'' said Ishikawa, "and it seemed he was reading my mind.''

You didn't need to look at Tarot cards to predict Cain would have another lean night. The Giants failed to score behind him for the seventh time this season; he has received one run or less in 14 of his 32 starts.

Cain's average support of 3.30 runs is the second-lowest among all National League pitchers; only Cincinnati's Aaron Harang (2.98 runs) has had less margin for error. Cain also received the second-worst run support in the league last year, with 3.51 runs.

It's no wonder, then, that the Giants have a 21-42 record in Cain's starts over the past two seasons — a shocking failure behind a pitcher generally regarded as one of the brightest young arms in the game.

"It's not like anybody is trying to pick on me,'' Cain said. "Guys are doing all they can. It'll make me stronger down the road. By getting used to pitching in these tight games, that's how you get better.''

Cain said he most lamented the starts in which he frittered away leads or didn't give the club a chance to win. He was coming off one of those starts Thursday at San Diego, in which he got blasted for five runs in the first inning.

He refocused while throwing between starts and didn't walk a batter, but it took perfection to win on a night that Haren had both precision and prescience on his side.

Haren played mind games in the eighth, after Conor Gillaspie came off the bench and made crisp contact on his first major league hit. Pinch hitter John Bowker was next. Haren turned to the scoreboard and noted that the rookie had drawn 19 walks all season.

"I didn't throw him one strike,'' said Haren, who offered a succession of splitters that Bowker swung through. "He's up there trying to tie the game, so I tried to take advantage of his aggressiveness.''

4 straight losing seasons wear on Giants, Vizquel

Henry Schulman - San Francisco Chronicle (SFGate)
Nearly four years ago, Omar Vizquel joined a Giants team coming off eight consecutive winning seasons that included four trips to the playoffs and a World Series. He hardly could imagine that as autumn beckoned in 2008, he would sit in a deadly silent clubhouse discussing the unimaginable.

"I didn't know I was going to be talking to you guys about four losing seasons," Vizquel said.

The Hall of Fame candidate will not taste a winning year in the black and orange. The Giants' 3-1 loss to Arizona on Monday night was their 82nd. The most they can win is 80 after Adam Dunn hit a two-run homer off Brad Hennessey in the eighth inning to bust a 1-1 tie.

"When I came to this organization, (it) had a run of playoffs and the World Series," Vizquel said. "I thought things were going to be a little different. For some reason, things didn't work out."

They did not work out because the Giants got very old in a hurry as they overplayed what had been a successful strategy of building teams around good pitching and Barry Bonds, at the expense of their farm system.

The organization appears to be turning a corner. The Giants are younger and peppier, and anyone who has paid attention the last two months has to maintain some optimism that this run of losing seasons will end soon, if not next year, then in 2010.

Vizquel will be watching from the outside. Emmanuel Burriss is the shortstop-designate for next year. Vizquel, 41, wants to play another year. If he cannot, he will retire without a World Series championship ring, having come within a half inning of getting one with Cleveland in 1997.

He thought he had a shot in San Francisco. He was wrong.

"There's not a regret in any way," he said. "It's the other way around. It's kind of great that I could play in San Francisco. In San Francisco, we don't realize how spoiled we are at times. We play in one of the most beautiful ballparks. ... It's a great place to play. What else can you ask? The rest is up to you, really."

In that vein, Vizquel could have done more to forestall the 82nd loss. The Giants stranded nine runners. He personally stranded five.

Even in defeat, the Giants had to enjoy the eight innings from Hennessey in a complete-game defeat. He did not walk a batter in his second start since his banishment to Fresno ended. For a team that leads the National League in walks, that is a godsend. This marked the sixth time in 150 games the Giants had none.

In 14 innings over two starts against the Diamondbacks, Hennessey has allowed four runs, all on homers. Justin Upton hit a long one in the fourth inning to tie Monday's game. With Chris Young aboard in the eighth inning and two outs, Dunn came to bat 0-for-3. Manager Bruce Bochy had left-hander Jack Taschner warm in the bullpen, with no intention to use him unless the Giants fell behind.

"It was his game," Bochy said, not second-guessing his decision a whit to stay with Hennessey. "He made a mistake there. The way he was throwing, I was going to let him face Dunn.

"It was a great effort. He pitched a great game. Giving up one run going into the eighth inning in this ballpark, he did a terrific job. We just couldn't get a key hit there."

Hennessey said his first pitch to Dunn "leaked back" over the plate. Dunn hit a soaring drive into the right-field seats, leaving Hennessey to say, "It sucks to lose. To lose that way is even worse."

But in defeat, Hennessey lasted eight innings for the first time in the majors. His Giants career appeared dead in the water as he toiled in Fresno for four months. Now, you have to wonder if he is ingratiating himself back into the team's plans.

If nothing else, the Giants could, by bringing back Hennessey in 2009, provide insurance for the rotation in case Noah Lowry hits a roadblock in his recovery or the team trades another starter for a bat.

"I've got two more starts I believe, I hope," Hennessey said. "I can't really think about it until then. It's not up to me. I'm just going to try to prove to them and other teams that I'm more than capable of succeeding at this level."

Even for a team that dreams of winning again.

Giants leave San Diego with a win

Andrew Baggarly - MercuryNews

When the Giants mail out season's greetings this winter, it might be polite to send a fruit basket to Petco Park. As dark as the Giants' season has been, can you imagine what their record would look like if they didn't have 18 games with the deplorable San Diego Padres?

They completed the season series with an 8-6 victory in 10 innings Sunday afternoon, their 13th win over the Padres this year.

The Giants rallied from a four-run deficit to take Barry Zito off the hook. Pablo Sandoval doubled and scored on a wild pitch to put the Giants ahead in the 10th inning, and Brian Wilson recorded his 39th save.

The Giants dominated the season series with the Padres, one year after San Diego took 14 of 18 meetings.

A day after passing the Colorado Rockies for third place in the N.L. West, the Giants moved within 41/2 games of the second-place Diamondbacks. They'll begin a four-game series in Arizona on Monday.

Zito had his first truly bad outing in 10 career appearances in his hometown, giving up six runs in 42/3 innings. It was a start pulled straight from his scattershot first half. He allowed eight hits and issued five walks, one off matching his season high.

The Padres scored four runs in the second inning and two more in the fourth to take a 6-2 lead.

But Zito was spared his 17th loss of the season when the Giants rallied to tie with a four-run sixth. The first five batters all singled against right-hander Cla Meredith, with Omar Vizquel's two-run hit knocking the sidearm right-hander from the game. Pinch hitter Dave Roberts followed with a sacrifice fly against Mike Adams to tie the score.

And just like that, Zito was absolved. With two starts remaining, the worst he can do is tie the San Francisco-era record for losses in a season, which Ed Halicki set when he went 12-18 in 1968.

The Giants improved to 8-5 in extra-inning games. Even though they tacked on an extra run on a bases-loaded walk in the 10th to make it a two-run victory, it's worth noting that the Giants are 29-18 in one-run games. Their plus-11 record is second best among N.L. clubs; only the Milwaukee Brewers (plus-14) are better.

Lincecum wins to stay in the hunt

Shutout helps pitcher's Cy Young chances

Henry Schulman - San Francisco Chronicle (SFGate)

The shifting sands of public opinion pushed Tim Lincecum into the lead for the National League Cy Young race last week. When Arizona's Brandon Webb earned his 20th win Friday night, Lincecum had to hold serve against San Diego on Saturday night.

Roger Federer would have been proud. Lincecum not only held serve in a 7-0 victory, he served up the game of his life.

The 24-year-old not only polished his record to 17-3, he struck out 12 and finally achieved his first complete game and shutout in the big-leagues, a four-hitter that gives Cy Young voters one fewer reason to nitpick his candidacy.

When he blew his 138th and final pitch past Edgar Gonzalez into Bengie Molina's glove, Lincecum, for the first time all year, was lost on the mound.

"My first thought was, 'What do I do now?' " he said. "Bengie had to tell me to come toward him. It was a good hug, nonetheless."

Besides winning his sixth straight decision, Lincecum went over 200 innings for the season and raised his major-league leading strikeout total to 237, the fourth-highest mark in San Francisco history, behind Jason Schmidt (251), Juan Marichal (248) and Marichal again (240).

Adrian Gonzalez, San Diego's best hitter, went down on strikes three times. When Gonzalez singled in the ninth to extend the game, he asked for the ball.

Lincecum does not relish talking about the Cy Young race, but his teammates and even opponents do not mind.

"He's a stud. He's been this way all year," losing pitcher Chris Young said. "Lincecum will be right up there. I think he deserves as much consideration as anybody. He shouldn't be penalized for his team."

That team won for the eighth time in 10 games and hopscotched Colorado for third place in the National League West.

Young threw a nice game, too, but gave the Giants and Lincecum too wide an opening when he allowed a two-run Molina homer in the first inning. The Franchise hopped onto that 2-0 lead and rode into the night. The final score was misleading, for the Giants scored five runs over the final three innings.

If Lincecum's first shutout was the headline, the secondary story - and a controversial one - was manager Bruce Bochy's decision to let Lincecum throw 138 pitches, the most in the majors this year, after he threw 127 last time and 132 on Aug. 27. Bochy let Lincecum continue even after Adrian Gonzalez and Kevin Kouzmanoff singled with two outs in the ninth.

Even fans thrilled by Lincecum's Cy Young campaign have to be a little worried. To those people, Lincecum said, "I'm fine. That's it. I've gotten up to 160 pitches before in college," the last place he threw a complete game.

Molina said Lincecum "realistically was getting tired" in the ninth but stepped up and made his pitches.

Bochy expected the questions after the game and said, "He's put me in a tough spot a couple of games. I know how bad the kid wanted it. ... The kid hasn't thrown a shutout. He deserved the opportunity. The way he warms up, he really limits his pitches. We watched him for the most part this season. He hasn't been overworked.

"The chance to get a shutout is big for a pitcher. His nickname is The Freak. He's never had any arm issues. There's no question we're going to give him a chance to get the shutout right there. But I'll tell you now. He won't get a chance to do it next time."

Molina drove in three runs with his homer and a single, giving him 86 RBIs. Eugenio Velez had three hits and Pablo Sandoval ignited the Giants again with an entertaining at-bat that extended the first inning.

Young threw pitch after pitch out of the strike zone and Sandoval kept hacking at them - pitches at his neck, pitches a foot off the plate. The only pitch he took bounced to the backstop.

But Young could not get strike three, just foul balls. When he tried a slider on the ninth pitch, Sandoval whacked it into right field for a single. Molina then golfed a pitch into the left-field seats.

"You throw the guy the Wilson bag and he'll find a way to hit it," Molina said of Sandoval. "He can flat-out hit. He's really fun to be around. The kid is full of energy."

The Giants have another kid full of energy, and he might have walked off the Petco Park mound with the Cy Young Award in his back pocket.

LHP Madison Bumgarner named most spectacular pitcher

RHP Kyle Nicholson wins ERA title in Arizona League

MLB.com San Francisco Giants left-handed pitcher Madison Bumgarner was named Minor League Baseball's Most Spectacular Pitcher today for finishing the season with the lowest ERA with a 1.46 mark. The award goes to the qualifying pitcher with the lowest regular season earned run average in a domestic full-season league. It marks the second straight season a Giants minor league pitcher has earned the award, as right-handed pitcher Kevin Pucetas won the honor last season, posting a 1.86 ERA for the Augusta GreenJackets.

Bumgarner, the South Atlantic League triple crown winner, went 15-3 with 164 strikeouts in 141.2 innings for the South Atlantic League Champion Augusta GreenJackets this season. He ranked third overall among minor league players in strikeouts and tied for fifth in wins. The South Atlantic League All-Star was named SAL Pitcher of the Week on five different occasions and was awarded the Topps SAL Pitcher of the Month for June after going 3-0 with a 1.08 ERA (3er, 25.0ip) in four starts, including his first career complete game shutout on June 11. In addition, the 19-year-old reeled off 38 consecutive scoreless innings July 28-August 27 (span of 6 starts), the longest scoreless stretch in all of minor league baseball this season.

Bumgarner helped lead the Augusta GreenJackets to their first SAL Championship since 1999 by going 2-0 and allowing just one unearned run in 14.0 innings in two playoff games this season.

The Hudson, North Carolina native will receive the MSP Award trophy and a check for $7,500 at a ceremony at the Triple-A Championship game in Oklahoma City on September 16.

In addition, right-handed pitcher Kyle Nicholson earned the ERA title in the Arizona League by fashioning a 1.15 mark in 62.2 innings. He finished with a 6-1 record with 54 strikeouts against just three walks while holding Arizona League opponents to a .159 average. The 23-year-old helped the Giants capture the Arizona League Title this season, the club's second championship in the last four years.