Marty; The Giants have just concluded three games with Arizona, winning two of them at Arizona’s home field. In assessing the significance of this short series, is it an overemphasis to call it a microcosm of the remainder of the season?

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MartyIn the first two of these three games the Giants threw Schmidt and Williams at the D’Backs. in the third game they started Brower. They won the first two games decisively. Schmidt, not at his best, was still good enough to pitch eight innings, give up seven hits and hold Arizona to three earned runs. By the time Arizona got up in the bottom of the ninth, the score was ten to three. In the second game, Williams continued his phenominal pitching, allowing two hits thru six innings in the team’s 8 to 1 win. In the third game, with Brower starting, they had a four run lead by the time Arizona came up in the first inning, proceeded to blow it, giving Arizona seven runs by the bottom of the second, six of them attributed to Brower, and lost the game 7 to 4. What has been self-evident for some time, namely, that the team is short two starting pitchers in the rotation, was reinforced by Brower’s ineptitude. The Giants announced yesterday that they had picked up Matt Herges fron San Diego, a relief pitcher, not a starter, since they apparently intend staying with Brower in the immediate future. thereby feeling the need for help in the bullpen. One conclusion which can be reasonably reached, not only by this series, but by the performance of the team over the past weeks, is that this is a very good ball club, leaving the pitching aside for the moment. When they get good starting pitching, this team can win more than 6 times out of 10. In describing the team as a “very good ballclub” one need only take a look at what has transpired over the past 94 games.( By the way, there are only 68 games left of the season. The All-Star break no longer marks a halfway point.) Bonds is on one of his all time great runs, hitting home runs on a schedule that will break Mays’ mark this year by a goodly number, drawing his usual free trips, with an on- base percentage that is unmatched, the engine which makes this team go. There are few,if any, mysteries about the club. What appeared evident at the start of the year remained evident thru the latest Arizona series. The left side of the infield a problem, Grissom having a career year, Durham playing a more than acceptable second base, Cruz, perhaps, coming around, after a very tough eight or ten weeks, to a respectable hitting stride and continuing to play as good a right field as anyone in the league. and a realization that Snow is a major asset when playing on a team that is otherwise a winning team. J.T. is the best fielding first baseman in the majors, a point that was emphasized by his two unlikely errors in the last series. Emphasized, by the fact that these followed only one error up to that point. His three errors to date must be judged in the context of his playing first with greater range than anyone else. His defensive play is one of the reasons the Giants lead the league in fielding. They seldom give away runs and Snow is one of the defensive leaders. Furthermore, Alou has found the proper place for Snow to hit in the lineup, second. He is a patient hitter, drawing more than his share of free tickets. In the Giants first game with Arizona, Snow was up five times, had one hit, driving in a run, walked three times and scored four runs. His on-base percentage is close to .400. All of which leads, inevitably, to the pitching. The pen continues to be effective. Ehre has given them left handed strength since the beginning, Christiansen gives signs of recovering from his surgery, there is nothing more to say about Worrell than has already been said, namely, that he has done far better than anyone had a right to expect. Rodriguez is still not as reliable as one would wish but overall has helped more than hurt. Nathan has been effective for much of the times called on. Even Zerbe has helped out, giving garbage time a positive aspect on most occasions. However, the rotation has recently been described, without rebuttal, as being in a shambles. Alou has recently described Williams as a ” gift from God”. One might quarrel with the religious fervor but one cannot quarrel with Alou’s conclusion which provoked the fervor, namely, that without Williams this ship might be sinking. Be that as it may, they have Williams and he has been astonishingly effective. Together with Schmidt, the two represent the overpowering duo that, in the past, and, possibly. still to be heard from, Johnson and Schilling presented. That leaves three rotation positions to account for. One may be filled by Rueter when he returns the latter part of this month. Playing the role of the third starter, Rueter can fill the bill if he pitches back to the level which he has traditionally filled in the past, giving them what in these days is defined as ‘quality starts’. This leaves them with two spots open and no one an obvious choice to fill one of them. Brower, in his start Sunday, certainly gave little encouragement to the notion that he might be capable of performing at a decent level. This was an important game, even with the understanding that at this time of the year it might be presumptuous to so refer to it. A winning effort would have moved Arizona seven games back. They have a four game series coming up with the Giants a few days after play resumes, at Pac Bell park. At seven games back, it would have been a daunting task for the D’Backs to make a significant move on the Giants. It’s not going to be easy when they are five back but the win in the third game was vital for them and they took advantage of the opening the Giants lack of starters gave them. The Giants have announced the rotation commencing after play resumes. Moss, Schmidt, Brower and Williams. This has certain unsettling connotations. Brower has been mentioned. Moss gives no indication that he can fill the role. He has thrown significantly more balls than strikes, has put 162 men on base in 96 innings. Every time they think of having given up Ortiz for him, they must have dispairing moments. Other than Brower and Moss the only pitcher mentioned is Foppert. He is presently at Fresno, trying to recover some confidence which has been badly shaken the past month or so. Relying on these three to produce one effective starter is probably an exercise in wishful thinking. Sabean may have something in mind, but if so, he is not letting the uninformed, such as this observer, in on the secret. With respect to the microcosm initially referred to, the past series may very well serve as a prediction of how the remainder of the year will go. The Giants will continue to be a very good club, leaving the pitching aside. They will have problems with the rotation, the solution being unknown now and, at best, highly speculative. They will continue to win at a pace which gets them into the playoffs and possibly win the pennant, due to their two great starters and a well balanced array of position players, including the addition of Hammonds at some future time, and a bullpen which does what is expected of it. Arizona has to make a significant move during the four game series next week or they might find themselves running out of time. The Dodgers still can’t hit and Brown is injured again. Predictions of Giants success, at least from this corner, have not changed much since the beginning of the year. The success of Williams and the decline of Moss have struck some sort of balance, altho Williams emergence is more striking than Moss’ failure. From the start of spring training, one didn’t have a great deal of confidence in Moss. Williams wasn’t even on the team. The season is beginning next week.