Following a roller coaster ride in June which featured plenty of ups and downs for the San Francisco Giants, the G-Men opened up the month of July like a team asleep at the wheel, losing their first seven games after being swept on the road by the Miami Marlins and Washington Nationals before dropping two of three at home to the Mets. Having endured their second 7-game losing streak of the season, Giants manager Bruce Bochy called upon Matt Cain who pitched his team to victory in his second start of the season and first at home since August of last year as the former Giants ace hurled six shutout frames in a 3-0 win.
With a series against the visiting Phillies prior to baseball's Midsummer Classic, the Giants headed into the All-Star break with a bit of confidence and a three-game winning-streak following a three-game sweep of struggling Philadelphia. With a few days of rest and the return of Hunter Pence to the lineup, Bruce Bochy's ball club would begin playing their best ball of the season with a stretch of 13 wins in 15 games as the Giants turned up the heat in the NL Western Division standings and pulled within a 1/2 game of the rival Dodgers. Series wins against the D-Backs, Padres and Brewers as well as the first three-game sweep of their bay area rival Oakland A's for the first time at AT&T Park since 2011, would catapult the G-Men 11-games over .500 with a record of 56-45. In the series finale against the Athletics, Giants starter Tim Hudson joined an elite group of players by becoming only the 15th pitcher in MLB history to beat all 30 current teams following the 4-3 win, besting the team he broke onto the big league scene with in 1999 where he played six seasons.
Entering a weekend series against the Texas Rangers to close out the month of July and spring forward the month of August, the Giants headed into the lone star state as the hottest team in baseball before cooling down after splitting the first two games and eventually dropping the rubber match in the team's first visit to Arlington since the clinching Game 5 of the 2010 World Series. After allowing just 4 runs in his last three starts combined entering the weekend, Giants ace Madison Bumgarner was roughed up on the road in Texas. The Texas heat coupled with the power-driven offense of the Rangers made for a disastrous night on the mound as MadBum was touched for 6 earned runs in the contest. With the health of Tim Lincecum up in the air and the team unsure whether or not they'll see the 2-time Cy Young Award winner pitch again this season as he recovers from a degenerative condition in his hip which he was recently diagnosed with and has kept him on the shelf since June 27, Giants GM Brian Sabean was forced to dig into his bag of tricks.
Seeking some depth in the Giants rotation, the pitching staff got some much needed help from the front-office with the acquisition of right-handed pitcher Mike Leake from the Cincinnati Reds before Friday's trade deadline in exchange for Minor Leaguers Adam Duvall and Keury Mella. Making his Giants debut in the series finale against Texas, Leake, who becomes a free-agent following the season, pitched an impressive 6.1 innings while striking out 5 and yielding 8 hits, 2 walks and allowing only 2-runs on a home run by Josh Hamilton. However, Leake would suffer the loss as the Giants fell, 2-1. Leake came over in the trade owning a record of 9-5 on the year and an ERA of 3.56 in 21 starts as Cincy's no.2 man in the rotation, not bad for a guy pitching in Cincinnati's hitter-friendly Great American Ballpark.
Overall, San Francisco finished 14-10 in the month of July and currently stand 2.5 games back of the Dodgers with a record of 57-47 as they get set to pay the Atlanta Braves a visit for a three-game set before closing their current road trip with four meetings at the friendly confines of Wrigley Field versus the Cubs. August will serve as a major test for the orange and black as 8 of the 9 remaining series' this month will be against contending teams (@ Cubs, vs Astros, vs Nationals, @ Cardinals, @ Pirates, vs Cubs, vs Cardinals and @ Dodgers) with the lone exception of the Braves. Let's just hope the Giants' emotional leader in Hunter Pence can stay healthy as the team sports a record of 27-11 with him in the line-up this season opposed to 30-36 without him.
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Last baseball season, Reds pitcher Mike Leake became the first player since Xavier Nady (2000) and 21st ever to go directly from the draft to the Majors. And if you're looking for the last pitcher to reach this feat, you'd have to go back even further to 1989 when Jim Abbott did so. A shorter list however, would be that of Major Leaguers who've been busted for stealing sixty dollars worth of t-shirts at their local department store. This past Monday, Leake was arrested by Cincinnati Police for doing just that. The star hurler out of Arizona State University where he went on to win back-to-back Pac-10 Pitcher of the Year Awards, was caught shoplifting from a Macy's in downtown Cincinnati after removing the price tags and attempting to leave the store with six American Rag t-shirts worth a whopping total of $59.88.
Such an act like this comes as a surprise given Leake's current income of $425,000 and that's not counting the $2.27 Million he received in bonuses when signing with the Reds just a year ago. Leake was charged with theft, a misdemeanor in the state of Ohio and could serve a max of 180 days in jail if convicted. Luckily for him, Leake's criminal record is nonexistent, as this is his first run in with the law. Upon first hearing about this story, I thought he had stolen six shirts that were worth $60 each. Though that doesn't appear to be out of Mr. Leake's price range either, it would make a little more sense to steal...At least I thought so
Choosing to let the legal process run its coarse, the Reds organization released a statement but did not issue any disciplinary actions of their own. Still slated to make his scheduled start today, Leake pitched a strong seven innings against the visiting Arizona Diamondbacks, retiring 16 of the last 17 batters he faced to earn the win. Improving his record to 3-0, Leake allowed 3 earned runs on 4 hits while striking out 6 and walking 2 to help the Reds pull even with the St. Louis Cardinals (10-9) who currently share first place in the division. If the Reds plan to win back-to-back division titles for the first time since 1975-76, they better hope last year's NL MVP Joey Votto doesn't get any crazy ideas and pay a visit to his nearest JC Penny's or else they're really in big trouble.
