SF bats come alive, but pitchers do poorly

SAN FRANCISCO -- The Giants have hit well lately. They've also pitched well. Just not in the same game.

Which is how they've managed to lose five in a row, including Sunday's wild 13-8 loss to the White Sox at AT&T Park.

"It's extremely frustrating," Tyler Walker said. "The pitchers aren't picking up the hitters and the hitters aren't picking up the pitchers. We have to be on all cylinders if we are going to win games. The offense came up huge today and we didn't. It's a tough day."

In the Giants past four losses, they have had two games in which they have wasted good pitching and two in which they've wasted a bundle of runs, which has been their pattern this season.

The Giants have lost 13 times this year when scoring four runs or more, the most in the majors. They have also lost five games when allowing three runs or fewer, tied for the fourth-most in the majors.

All three games in this weekend sweep by the White Sox fell into one of those categories.

"If we get the runs, the pitching isn't there, and if we get good pitching, we're missing the offense," manager Bruce Bochy lamented. "Every team goes through it. It's how you handle it that matters."

Bochy said he would address his team on the flight to Denver on Sunday night. He said he didn't think there was a problem of attitude or effort, though.

"We are losing ballgames, but they are trying and today was indicative of that," Bochy said. "We lost the lead a couple times and come right back."

Matt Cain took a no-hitter into the fifth. But Joe Crede hit a homer to tie the game, 1-1. In the sixth, Cain gave up a homer to Orlando Cabrera and then a two-run shot to Carlos Quentin. In the seventh, Cabrera hit another homer, putting the White Sox up, 6-3.

Cain, the first Giants pitcher to give up four homers in a game in more than two years, had no explanation for the sudden collapse.

"The pitches felt pretty good," he said, "but they ended up putting pretty good wood on them, enough to get them out. . . . That's why this game is so humbling. You're pitching a great game for a couple innings and then it just blows up on you. It happens."

But the Giants came back, scoring three runs in the bottom of the seventh, two on Bengie Molina's double.

Bochy then summoned Walker, his top setup man, to keep the game tied. Walker pitched much better than he did in his previous game, when he gave up two homers to blow a four-run lead against the Astros, but the results were almost as bad.

The White Sox loaded the bases on three soft singles. Then Nick Swisher dumped a two-out blooper into shallow left. Dan Ortmeier stumbled going after the ball, and all three runners scored.

"Walker had horrible luck," Bochy said. "I don't think they had a hard-hit ball and he gave up three runs."

Said Walker: "I've got no answers for what happened today. The other day they hit balls hard and I gave up some home runs, and that's almost easier to swallow than getting (blooped) to death out there."

Even after all that, the Giants still had a chance to come back again, thanks to the wildness of Octavio Dotel. He walked the first three hitters in the bottom of the inning, and the Giants got a run on a throwing error by Crede. With the bases still loaded and no outs, Ray Durham grounded into a force, driving in one run, but then Steve Holm hit into an inning-ending double play.

By the time the Giants got to bat in the ninth, Brian Wilson had allowed four more runs -- these were not cheap -- to put the game out of reach.

With the loss, the Giants fell to a season-worst 11 games under .500, as the good vibes of their competitive start are beginning to fade, and now they are looking more like the team skeptics expected out of spring training.

"We think we are better than what our record shows," Bochy said. "We have lost some tough ones. We have let some games get away. We are the ones that can change this and turn this around. The only thing we can do right now is keep our heads up and keep pushing forward."

NOTES

Eugenio Velez has not started for a week, and Bochy said Velez is going to remain a bench player for the foreseeable future because he's been struggling offensively and defensively.

"We're going to back off Velez a little," Bochy said. "I think his confidence has been shaken a little bit, both defensively and offensively. We're still trying to win games." Bochy said Velez would do some more work in the outfield. There is less need for him at second now that Omar Vizquel is back at shortstop, leaving Emmanuel Burriss and Durham at second.

The Giants ended up with Holm at the plate in a critical spot in the eighth inning because he had entered to pinch-run for Molina in the seventh. Molina had represented the go-ahead run when Bochy lifted him.

"I've done that before and I'll continue to do it," Bochy said. "If it's the tying or winning run, I'm going to run for him."

Kevin Correia threw his first extensive bullpen session since he went on the disabled list with a strained oblique. Correia will go to Arizona this week. When the team gets to Arizona to play the Diamondbacks next week, Correia should be ready for a rehab assignment.

Rich Aurilia had the 700th RBI of his career with his second-inning homer.

Randy Winn stretched his hitting streak to 13 games, longest by a Giant this season.

Durham is hitting .371 over 22 games.

Contact Staff Writer Jeff Fletcher at 521-5489 or jeff.fletcher@pressdemocrat.com.