Giants show some fire, but what about the future?

By Art Spander

SAN FRANCISCO — That was an interesting figure of speech from Bruce Bochy about an apparent controversy dealing with the pre-game stretching routine by relief pitchers. “It’s pole vaulting over mouse droppings,” said Bochy, or something a trifle more colorful

Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports reported that Mark Melancon, the closer the Giants paid $62 million to hold the leads they almost never have, along with his fastball and sinker brought his own exercise program, “one that rubbed teammates the wrong way.”                            

Nothing is too small to be overlooked when a team is playing as poorly as the Giants are, certainly. Losers have issues that nobody notices or fusses about on winners.

But a debate over stretching? As Melancon said, it brought back memories of Allen Iverson missing a workout and whining, “We’re talking practice, man.”

In other words, irrelevant. Pole vaulting over mouse droppings.                                     

The discussion ought to be how the Giants escape this disaster of a season when losing streaks seem to last forever. Mercifully, the most recent one, five games, came to an end on Monday night at AT&T Park, with San Francisco beating Colorado, 9-2.

Jeff Samardzija pitched, shutting out the Rockies for the first six innings, and virtually everyone hit, Buster Posey, Hunter Pence, Joe Panik. Still the Giants are 2-12 in their last 14 games. Those are 49ers numbers.

Tim Flannery retired as the Giants' third base coach two years ago and now on occasion sits in the NBCS Bay Area studio after game telecasts and gives unfiltered opinions.

On Sunday, after a listless San Francisco loss to the New York Mets, Flannery said “there is something missing” from his old ball club. He didn’t mean in personnel. He meant in attitude.

“If I were in that clubhouse,” Flannery said, "I’d kick a few butts." 

And not long after that, Mike Krukow, who shares TV play-by-play duties with Duane Kuiper, growled that the Giants seemed accepting of their fate, saying, “They had no spirit.”

That’s not at all surprising for a team that has underachieved, a team with a lot of high-price players, a team out of the pennant race before the end of June. What’s to get excited about?

San Francisco, however, belied all the negative comments on Monday night, showing spirit and competitive fire, if against a team with its own troubles, the Rockies having lost six in a row — although their first to San Francisco after nine straight wins.

And Panik, who had two hits, two runs scored and two RBIs, insisted the team, even if it had lost games, hadn’t lost its way. “Being professional is coming to the park every day and playing hard, no matter what,” said Panik.

So, according to Panik, the Giants haven’t conceded. The fans? Well, the Giants announced a 550th straight sellout, 41,388, but at least 15,000 of those seats were empty. Baseball and blue Mondays never have been the best of matchups by the Bay, yet this was reminiscent of those seasons at Candlestick.

What has happened this season is a contradiction, bewildering and yet understandable. The Giants in March seemed very much a contender — but with Madison Bumgarner injured, the pitching, other than Samardzija and Johnny Cueto, has been a mess, especially the relief pitching.

The team ERA is 4.78, awful for a club dependent on pitching for success, which is why there hasn’t been any success.

Posey can hit. He’s batting .347. But he’s a singles and doubles hitter, in the cleanup spot. Pence had three hits Monday night, but in too many games he looks like the 34-year-old he is, striking out, grounding out.

In the media dining room before Monday night’s game, the talk was less about the Giants’ present than the future. Do they trade or sell Cueto and/or Pence? Do they bring in a more efficient defensive centerfielder than Denard Span? Do they go after a home run king like Giancarlo Stanton?

No mention of pole vaulting over mouse droppings.