Giants stifled by Willis, Fish
Wright hit hard on three days' rest; lineup lethargic in loss
By Rich Draper / MLB.com
SAN FRANCISCO -- Ever have one of those days when you'd rather sleep in than go to work, and feel desultory and less than 100 percent with a nice warm sun in your face?
Of course.
And the Giants are no different. They had one of those times Wednesday in a listless 12:35 p.m. contest vs. the Florida Marlins, falling 8-1 to left-hander Dontrelle Willis and what manager Felipe Alou called a typical mid-week malaise at AT&T Park.
Asked what the results of a teamwide MRI would show this day, he quipped, "Nothing ... empty."
San Francisco is now 0-3 on Wednesday afternoon affairs, and while there was speculation the team finally was coming down from a natural high after a great weekend in New York and three consecutive victories -- including a super-psych fireballing show by Jason Schmidt -- Alou said it wasn't so.
"This is a time of day that we don't play well," said the skipper. "We don't have our better games at this time of the day -- the 12:35 p.m. games for whatever reason. I'm only saying what I see."
Still, the Giants seemed wide awake in the first inning on Wednesday, grabbing a 1-0 lead on a Moises Alou RBI single, but unfortunately leaving two runners on. It might have set the tone for the rest of the snoozy day, as San Francisco would not score again.
"I've seen that happen a lot," said Felipe of aborted early inning rallies. "We score one, two, sometimes three or four runs in the first inning and that's the end of the day.
"A lot of stuff came out today -- no offense," he said. "You could see Pedro Feliz was really tired with the bat ... [Steve] Finley, even though he got a day off ... Ray [Durham] ... Vizquel."
Those players went a combined 0-for-13 against the Marlins, but another problem on Wednesday was veteran right-hander Jamey Wright -- taking one for the team on three days' rest -- throwing well for three scoreless innings before running out of fuel.
Wright (5-5) would yield five hits and six runs over a mere 4 1/3 innings, but didn't blame his weariness on less rest.
For the Giants and Wright, the game was essentially over when Joe Borchard hit a two-run homer in the fourth and Dan Uggla's five-RBI contest began with a three-run shot an inning later. He added a two-run blast in the ninth.
"I felt good -- I didn't feel strong, but a couple times my velocity was good and the ball came out of my hand good," said Wright. "The pitch to Borchard was a changeup up, and he hits it out, and same thing to Uggla, a sinker up and he crushed it."
Wright also blamed a walk to Willis in the fifth as a big mistake. That kept the inning going, to the Giants' detriment.
"I was definitely trying to be too fine," he said. "I had it in the back of my head he would pull [the bat] back and try to hit, and on 3-0 to him I was just trying to make a pitch, knowing he's trying to bunt it. At 3-2 I just missed with a sinker for ball four."
Alou did say Wright was "starting to lose it," yet the pitcher would not give himself an excuse, or even a reason for a less-than-stellar outing.
"I felt strong, even when I came out of the game," he said. "I felt I had a lot left. I was disappointed -- I felt I had the stuff to go deep in the game, but the most frustrating part was not giving us a chance to win the game."
Not competing in the game was Giants titan Barry Bonds, who has suffered an injury to his left side. Trainer Stan Conte said Bonds is "day-to-day," but referred any other medical updates to come from the outfielder.
In other news, starting catcher Mike Matheny, on the disabled list for a week due to a concussion sustained on a foul-tip in Florida, had an MRI of his head on Wednesday, which proved negative.
But Matheny, who still feels "off" with slightly impaired vision and speech, is likely to be out the full 15 days. Conte is taking no chances.
"All the tests have been negative, and that's good news," he said. "He's about the same, which we expected. This is going to be a slow process early on, and it's more of a wait-and-see [mode]. There's no timetable."
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Originally Posted by Bear
Lets stop playing weekday day games! F. Alou thinks this is the answer!
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