Important Road trip looming

Whewww!!! Now that that homestand is over and the Giants are still standing proudly 1 game above .500. They can hang their heads high after pulling out the final game against the Mets 2-0,but we all know the Series win could have and should have gone the other way, 3-1 to the Giants. Then again, coulda/woulda/shoulda the past all we want, but the past is the past. Or as Sawyers uncle in "Lost" said, "What's Done is Done!" Best we can do now is fix what went wrong for the future. Speaking of the Future...

A 6 game road trip against San Diego (16-22) & Seattle (18-20) is looking pretty tasty right now...Or maybe, pretty miserable....

On one hand, limping into these two cities after posting a 3-4 homestand that could have easily been 5-2, on paper the Giants couldn't find a better recipe for success.

San Diego is a very beatable team that relies on 1 Ace (Peavy) and 1 Slugger (A. Gonzales), and have had surprising success from Scott Harrison...but that is all. The Giants aren't even facing Peavy this go around (for a head-head matchup comparison, click here). Better yet, the Giants get to face Kevin Correia so maybe he'll give back a little of what he owes us. The Giants hitting is coming around some (key word, some) and so is their plate discipline. In their first 30 games, the Giants had a total of 77 BB's (2.56/game), 222 K's (7.4/G), & 109 Runs (3.63/G). On the 7 game Homestand, they scored 41 runs (5.85/G) while drawing 21 BB's (3/G) & only 42 K's (6/G). While it is still not the offense we all are craving for, it's enough to win behind once the starting pitching gets back to form.

Seattle is similar to San Diego, except San Diego is playing way above expectations. The Mariners have a very good 1-2-3 front line with Hernandez, Bedard, & Washburn. A healthy Bedard is scary, as he could be the #1 on 23 teams out there by next season. Fortunately,the Giants will miss Bedard this time, but it looks like they will get one of Hernandez/Washburn, and possibly both, going against Cain/Zito. The Mariners are living behind Ichiro...and Russell Branyon??? as they are the only consistent (and good) hitters for them this season. Adrian Beltre, Ken Griffey, Jr, Jose Lopez, & Kenji Johjima are hitting well below standards and the pen had looked, well, very Giantish so far. So if ever there was a quick road trip the Giants could capitalize on, this is it...Or is it?

As my mother always told me, I have a selective memory. This must be the reason I don't remember the 3 game sweep the Padres laid on the Giants back in early April down in S.D. (Nor would I ever recall the same thing in L.A.). So this must be a typo, a misprint I see here on April 10-12, because there is no way my Giants got swept in S.D.... But then again, it must have. If it happened once, could it possibly happen again. Sometimes teams have anothers number, especially in their home park. I hope this isn't one of those years.

And Seattle... And Seattle... Like I said before, they could have 2 of their best going for them and like we love to see first hand, you don't always need to score runs to win. Just take a look at the 5 games the Giants have already won 2-0 or 1-0 this season. Also going against the Giants is history, specifically interleague play. The Giants are .500 in interleague play over 12 seasons. The Mariners, .547. In total head-to-head, the Giants are 9-10 against the Mariners, but only 4-7 in Seattle.

Hopefully an energized Randy Johnson will come out and pitch against his old team like he did against the DBacks.

One thing is for certain, with 16 of the next 22 games on the road,the Giants desperately need to take advantage of 6 very winnable games.