Argh! My ears!

Ouch. Lotsa loud contact vs. Noah Lowry in the early going, as the Padres have put up 3 runs.

If Lowry can hold them, similar to what he did in his last start (struggle early, settle down in the middle innings), then...

Well, the Giants won't lose by so many runs, then. Seriously, my positive vibes from earlier aside, does anybody feel the Giants are due to score many more runs than the one they have now? I mean, I realize that they can score more runs, but it just doesn't seem likely.

Ah, well, nevermind.

Update (8:30) - Hm, Lowry did settle down. Even when he's not all that good, Lowry still finds a way to impress me.

Update (9:28) - Tyler Walker has officially Settled Down. If you look at his games this year and ignore his well-over 5.00 ERA, then you could see that after allowing runs in his first two appearances, he's allowed none in the subsequent five...

...holy crap, what a play by Ray Durham, showing some Baron Davis-type hops on a line drive by Mark Loretta. You should be a-seein' that one on your fave sports highlight show tonight.

Anyhow, while Walker has settled down, he still has some lingering control problems -- like his stuff is too nasty to control sometimes, a la Jim Brower.

Again, not to be too anti-positive, but I'm going to note that two of the three Giants runs to this points were driven in by flare singles, the second of which should never have fallen in. Woody Williams is a plenty good pitcher, but the Giants must find some kind of run support for their starters.

Update (9:44) - A tip of the cap to a few Giants: Edgardo Alfonzo, Omar Vizquel, and Ray Durham, all of whom have managed to have more walks than strikeouts thus far this season. That is always a good thing.

(sigh) Nice sliding catch by Mark Loretta in the 8th. It would've been foul, but at least Grissom would've stayed alive in the at-bat -- wait, with one out and a man on 1st, perhaps that was best, as Grip no longer had the chance to hit into a double play. This inning's scoring potential now rests on the shoulders of Mike Matheny.

(sigh) Another nice Padres defensive play, this time by Sean Burroughs, to end the inning.

By the way, a larger tip of the cap to Edgardo Alfonzo, who, while cooling down from his h-h-h-h-hot start, is cooling down, not going cold. He's still getting hits and collecting walks while playing a solid defensive 3rd base. He's finally earning the money on that contract -- here's to hoping he keeps it up.

Update (10:03) - Hm. Loss. 3 runs by our offense. Painful. This is starting to stray into an area where we'll simply have to admit the Giants just aren't very good. I was hoping the Giants could find themselves at .500 by the end of April, but that isn't looking likely.