Game Two and other notes

There's been plenty of criticism of the way Ron Washington handled his bullpen in the eighth inning Thursday -- see here and here for examples -- but the fact remains that even if he had used Neftali Feliz from the moment he went to his bullpen, and even if Feliz threw zeros, the Giants still win the game.

Nelson Cruz hit .318 with 22
home runs in the regular season,
but he's just 1-for-9 so far in the
World Series.

The first two guys he went to, Darren Oliver and Darren O'Day, did the job for him all season. The third guy, Derek Holland, was a big reason the Rangers beat the Yankees in the ALCS. By the time he went to the marginal relievers, the game was out of hand.

* Matt Cain has yet to allow an earned run this postseason. Thursday's start was only his second in 18 days. Sure looks like the long layoffs have rusted him, huh?

* Aaron Gleeman notes in the first linked post above that seven of the Giants nine postseason wins so far have come in games in which the opposing starter had a season ERA of 3.35 or lower. The Jints have pretty good pitching themselves, of course, but they have been able to grind out runs against good pitching -- and their lineup is supposed to be their weakness.

* Addition by subtraction: The Giants added Jose Guillen in mid August after the Kansas City Royals cut him loose. He started almost every game for San Francisco the rest of the way, hitting .266/.317/.375 and demonstrating the defensive skills that limited him to DH duties with the Royals.  Cody Ross was added a week or so later; he got considerably less playing time despite being more mobile and hitting .288/.354.466 with the Giants.

Then came the postseason, and the Giants left Guillen off the roster. Ross has been a lineup fixture and offensive key to the Giants' run.

But lest we conclude that somebody in the Giants operation came to his senses, it now is reported that Guillen has been linked to a shipment of human growth hormone, and MLB pressed the Giants to leave him off the roster.

*Hey, a Twins note: No surgery for Joe Mauer. In my world, surgery not required is better than surgery required.