Giants playoff chances still alive, but it doesn't hurt to plan ahead

The Giants are one step closer to being out of the playoffs after yesterdays debacle against the Phillies. An early 2-0 lead melted like an ice cream cone in the August heat into a disappointing 9-3 loss to the Phils.

The Giants began the scoring doing what they do best offensively, with Aubrey Huff grounding into a DP, as Andres Torres scored after leading off the inning with a 2B. Pat Burrell added a solo HR after Huff's DP. Newly acquired Jose Guillen added a HR late in the game. Zito and Oswalt pitched equally well, but a couple of stats stood out. Giants 10K and 0 BB. NO WALKS, REALLY!! This is contrasted by only 2 K's and 3 BB's on the Phillies side of the ledger.

Giants pushed only 3 runners into scoring position vs. 13 for the Phillies. Understood that reliever Chris Ray threw a lot of gasoline on the fire late, but this is symptomatic of a lack of diversity in this offense. Not good for late in the season play or, God forbid, we manage to squeak into the playoffs. The lineup looks better on paper, with a disturbingly old-style American League feel. Wait for the 3-run HR. If you don't get it, runs are hard to come by. Two solo HR's look good on the stat sheet, but only count for 2 R's. Not very efficient.

The G-men are almost dead on the MLB average across the board in the major offensive metrics.

BA (.260 vs. .259 MLB avg.)
OBP (.326 vs. .327 MLB avg.)
SLG (.405 vs. .405 MLB avg.)
OPS (.731 vs. .732 MLB avg.)

Average will likely not get it done down the stretch. The offense simply has to start picking up the pace.

I know the pundits and most fans will want to continue to hang our hats on the strength of the Giants superior pitching. However, even here the starting pitching is beginning to show some cracks and the middle innings relief, which was a strength has already faded somewhat due to injuries.

The most disturbing stat is that the Giants pitching staff leads the majors in WALKS. Which turns a good-looking .243 BA against into a near league average OBP.

The Padres, with perhaps more depressing offensive stats than the Giants, just seem more diversified offensively. At least in the limited number of games I've seen the Pads play this season.

We know that the Phillies--the other main threat to the Giants playoff chances--are beginning to reload their lineup with a returning Chase Utley and Ryan Howard. Their offense is more than ready to pick up the pace into September. They are a veteran team that has been there before.

The Giants have seemingly been on a 90 win pace all season. Unfortunately, it seems like it may take 92-93 W's to secure the wild-card berth. The Giants, of late, show more signs of fading to 85-87 wins than closing the race like legendary track stars Jim Ryan or Kip Keino.

It's time to pick up the pace and close the deal or start making other plans for mid to late October.