SFGate/San Francisco Chronicle
On a night the Giants changed second basemen, Jonathan Sanchez raised the question whether a new fifth starter is in order.
A hectic Tuesday that began with badly slumping Emmanuel Burriss optioned to Triple-A Fresno and replaced by newcomer Matt Downs ended with an equally slumping Sanchez chased in the fourth inning of an 8-1 loss to the Angels, who have stormed into China Basin and emphatically planted their red flag.
One night after Barry Zito lasted 32/3 innings and allowed seven runs on 10 hits, Sanchez had an eerily identical line, the only difference being that one of Sanchez's seven runs was unearned. Like Zito, Sanchez was booed off the mound with the Giants trailing 7-0. He fell to 2-7 while the Giants lost for the ninth time in his 12 starts.
The Giants also lost their first series since they were in Seattle on May 23-25. After sweeping the A's, they need to win behind Tim Lincecum today to avoid being swept.
The offense went as cold as a winter's dawn in Killarney against 21-year-old Sean O'Sullivan, who made his major-league debut on Irish Heritage Night, if you can believe that. The Giants made O'Sullivan feel at home by piping Irish music through the stadium speakers.
O'Sullivan left a 6.02 Triple-A ERA in Salt Lake City and carried a three-hit shutout into the seventh before the Giants nicked him for a run. Even the Reno Aces scored twice off him Thursday. After the game, the Angels optioned him back to Salt Lake, sure and begorah.
"The guy threw a great game," Downs said after he walked and hit three hard flyballs in his big-league debut. "He had good stuff, obviously, seven innings strong. He probably wasn't intimidated. The way he threw, he didn't look like it."
Downs, 25, was drafted in the 36th round in 2006 out of the University of Alabama. He hit over .300 three straight seasons in the low minors before hitting .244 in a brief Triple-A call-up last year. This year, he batted .288 with six homers and 38 RBIs for the Grizzlies. Manager Bruce Bochy called him a "hard-nosed player."
Burriss defeated Kevin Frandsen in spring training for the everyday second-base job, started 57 of the team's first 63 games and played sometimes spectacular defense. But he largely struggled at the plate and was hitless in 27 at-bats when the Giants made the move.
"We felt we needed more offense here right now," Bochy said. "We feel now's the time Manny needs to go down and work on some things. It's fair to say he's had his struggles."
Specifically, the Giants want Burriss to work on his "little ball" - bunting, hitting to all fields, the stuff a leadoff hitter should do. Bochy said the organization still believes in Burriss and said, "This is a little hiccup in his career. He'll be back."
The Giants could not recall Frandsen, who returned to Fresno on Friday and by rule must stay for 10 days.
Bochy said Pablo Sandoval will play third base today. Sandoval extended his hitting streak to a career-best 10 games with a single and double but also committed three errors at first, including two on the same Maicer Izturis groundball leading off the third that led to Sanchez's demise.
Sandoval booted the ball then tossed it into the Angels' dugout in a misguided attempt at an out. The Angels scored four in the inning, including a three-run homer by Mike Napoli that gave them a 5-0 lead. Izturis' two-run homer in the fourth, after O'Sullivan lined a single off third baseman Rich Aurilia's glove, made it 7-0.
"We didn't play our best ball tonight behind him," Bochy said, "but we didn't limit the damage."
Bochy said there has been no talk of removing Sanchez from the rotation but added he and the staff will discuss using two upcoming off days to push his next start back.
From: MLB.com
 LA Angels (34-29) Won 5 | LA Angels 8, San Francisco 1 |  San Francisco (34-30) Lost 2 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Standings thru 6/16/09 | Recap: LAA | SF | Wrap | Gameday |
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