SFGate/San Francisco Chronicle
The 2010 Giants will be remembered for great pitching and a feast-or-famine offense that is more famine than feast. It has been that way for 152 games and surely will stay that way for the final 10 and into the playoffs, if they get there.
How surprising can it be that the Giants followed a 1-0 victory against the Cubs with a 2-0 loss Wednesday night? After all, the Giants have thrown 15 shutouts and been shut out 16 times.
The loss dropped the Giants into second place with San Diego winning 3-1 in Los Angeles.
With Jonathan Sanchez pitching into the sixth and holding the Cubs to a Kosuke Fukudome homer and another unearned run, the Giants held an opponent to three or fewer runs for the 16th consecutive game, matching the 1972 Indians and 1981 A's for the longest streak since 1920, when the live ball was introduced.
Alas, the performance went to waste, and the Giants lost for the sixth time during the streak. For the fourth time in the last five games, they scored zero or one run.
"We're not going to score a lot of runs every time," Sanchez said philosophically. "We're probably going to come back tomorrow and score 10 runs."
Don't laugh. In their past two series finales, the Giants scored 10 and nine runs, against the Dodgers and Brewers, respectively.
On Wednesday, the Giants had no answer for right-hander Randy Wells, who came in with a 7-13 record and a history of being really good or really bad.
The Giants pummeled Wells in San Francisco last month for six earned runs in five innings. Pablo Sandoval tripled and homered, and Pat Burrell went deep twice, including a grand slam.
Different city, different story. This time, Wells pitched 7 2/3 shutout innings and departed after Cody Ross' two-out double in the eighth put two runners in scoring position. Closer Carlos Marmol then struck out Freddy Sanchez on the way to a four-out save.
At least some of the hitters understand what they are squandering
"I've never been on a pitching staff that keeps you in the game every day like this," Aubrey Huff said. "The worst start you have is two runs in seven innings. If you can't score two runs in the big leagues ... We had our Cy Young guy (Tim Lincecum) come out in the fifth inning in his last start (for a pinch-hitter) because we can't score any runs."
The Giants had a chance to punish Wells early when Freddy Sanchez doubled and Huff singled in the first inning. But the right-hander struck out Buster Posey and Burrell on seven pitches.
Jose Guillen's leadoff double in the second went for naught, too. Wells retired the next 13 Giants until Freddy Sanchez's one-out single in the sixth. Huff then rifled a ball into the glove of first baseman Xavier Nady, who stepped on first for the easy double play.
Manager Bruce Bochy said there "possibly" could be lineup changes for tonight's game. One potential benching is Sandoval, whose failures mount. He batted after Guillen's leadoff double in the second and could not advance him with a productive out. Sandoval was due to lead off the eighth, but Bochy had Mike Fontenot bat instead.
Sandoval had no trouble with the move, saying, "I didn't do anything, and we needed to get men on base. ... I feel great in batting practice. The point I get to is when there's men in scoring position, I try to drive them in three times in one at-bat. You have to make adjustments and think a little more."
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