John Lennon Had It Right

He sang once, "Feels like starting over." Every day is a John Lennon song in baseball; Instant Karma, where celebrating a homer excessively can earn you a brushback pitch, is just one example. (Just Like) Starting Over is another, because every day really is like starting over.

That's the trick for baseball fans. On the one hand, it is a blessing, because if you get in a slump, there is always a next day to try to recover, the next inning, the next at-bat, the next pitch. On the other hand, you do sometimes have to start over, and that's not always a good thing. The Giants started brilliantly this season, jumping out to a 7-2 record, although all but the first three games were in the cozy confines of their waterfront ballpark. Their bats were alive, and they were fighting every game. It felt like they weren't automatically doomed if they fell behind by a couple of runs.

Then came a pinch-hit home run from Manny Ramirez, and the bats died. For goodness sake, Jonathan Sanchez pitched a one-hitter against the Padres, and the Giants lost. That's dismal. All of a sudden, they are down to 8-7, still with a winning record and coming back home, but facing a tough stretch against St. Louis, Philadelphia and Colorado. It would have been nice to have a bit of momentum going into this gauntlet.

All of a sudden, they are stranding runners they were driving in before. Leadoff triples are followed by three weak outs. And the thing that really bugs me is the fact that the Giants aren't even making the opposing pitchers work. There are far too many one-two-three innings composed of three or four pitches, the batters swinging too hurriedly at bad pitches. Their weak collapse against the Padres in San Diego felt like one big hangover from losing two of three to the Dodgers. Road trips are always hard, but it isn't a good thing to fare so poorly against division rivals early in the season.

(Keep in mind that I'm aware of the expression "Those who can't do, teach. And those who can't teach, teach gym." Similarly, in baseball, "Those who can't play, coach. And those who can't coach, write blogs.")

A couple things, though, are grounds for optimism--there's that starting over theme again:

1) The pitching has remained stellar, especially the four core starters: Tim Lincecum, Barry Zito, Matt Cain, and Jonathan Sanchez--the latter is the number four starter, but I would say he has been out-pitching Cain. Todd Wellemeyer, though, needs to step it up.

2) Supposedly, early in the season tends to belong to the pitchers, and batters tend to pick it up as the season goes along. At least this is what I'm choosing to tell myself, ignoring the inverse implication that the Giants pitchers might not be as dominant all year as they are now.

3) Aaron Rowand and Mark DeRosa were both injured during the last four losses. Those veterans were surely missed, as much as fans complain about Rowand's hitting sometimes--and I think those fans are crazy, because he sure seems to hit well when needed, from what I've seen.

Every day is a new story, a chance for new players to be a focus of attention, for better or for worse. I'll just be sitting here, watching the wheels go round and round over the course of the season, trying to keep the larger picture in mind. That's hard to do with sports sometimes, because we invest so much into it. But it is a great story; let's see what happens tomorrow.