Beware, Mets fans. The San Francisco Giants are in town.
Worried yet? You shouldn’t be.
Since the All-Star break, the Giants are slowly but surely being exposed an an average team at best. While their starting pitching and bullpen rank among the best in the NL, their offense remains painfully weak and inconsistent. Let’s be honest, the only reason the Giants are even in contention is because of the stellar efforts of Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain. Without them, the Giants are easily a sub-.500 team.
Yes, Pablo Sandoval is having a fine sophomore season. But when Bengie Molina’s your clean-up hitter, your offense has serious issues. I liked the trade with Cleveland for Ryan Garko. But who knows if his power-hitting potential will ever come to fruition in a pitcher-friendly park like AT&T.
I have more reservations about the trade for Freddie Sanchez. Okay, the Giants got a quality-fielding second baseman with a solid OBP. He’s also injury-prone, and has little pop. Long term, I think Pittsburgh may have gotten the better end of the deal, especially if top prospect Tim Alderson lives up to expectations.
So Met fans, you dodged a bullet with Tim Lincecum being unavailable for this series. (Shame, I would’ve liked to have seen him at Citi.) Which is why I think the Mets will take 3 out of 4.
The marquee match-up is Saturday with Johan Santana facing Matt Cain. Considering the Giants’ offense, would anybody be surprised if Santana threw a 2-hit gem of a shutout?
The Giants best bet is probably Monday with Livan Hernandez against Joe Martinez. Livan’s struggled of late, and Martinez is an unknown factor against the Mets line-up. And the Mets often have trouble against starters they’ve never seen before.
Am I overreacting a bit as a Giant fan? Maybe. But the Giants poor road record speaks for itself. And I think it’s going to come back to bite them in the end. If they’re going to compete with the Rockies and the Cubs for the Wild Card, they have to play better away from the bay. Starting now.
