Is It My Turn to Be Bad?

My theory seems to be panning out, unfortunately. The Giants bullpen has a bad case of can't-get-right, with just about everyone (with the exception of Jeff Fassero) taking a turn at imploding.

Armando Benitez took his turn in the Bad Bullpen rotation yesterday afternoon, allowing the Hated Los Angeles Dodgers to score four runs in the 9th inning to steal a victory in their home opener.

Oh, there were other factors, such as the four errors the Giants commited, one of which that allowed the Dodgers to score the winning run. Odd that two of the four errors committed by the Giants were by players whose best attribute is supposed to be their defense: Omar Vizquel and Jason Ellison (who now already has two errors in limited playing time). Odd as well that the only Giants victory against the Dodgers came as the result of poor Dodgers defense, and here the kind and generous Giants return the favor by gifting the Dodgers that victory-via-poor-defense right back. Aren't they sweet?

And balance in everything, of course; the Giants have had two dramatic come-from-behind victories recently, and have now become the victim of one. It's early, but when coupled with the Dodgers' elimination of the Giants for the division title last October, their early season mojo against San Fransisco is starting to build into something that could get into the psyche of the Giants in short order.

So, while they don't really need to beat the Dodgers tomorrow, I think the Giants really need to beat the Dodgers tomorrow.

Other stuff from Monday's game:

• It looks like both Pedro Feliz and Edgardo Alfonzo are staying hot, with Feliz notching his first home run of the season yesterday along with four RBI (and a WALK!), and Fonzie deciding that he just wasn't hot enough -- he collected four hits in five at-bats yesterday.
• Apparently a threat on offense and defense, Mike Matheny is also still hot. He's run his OPS over 1.000 (1.053 to be exact) in six games played, making it well-nigh impossible to play Yorvit Torrealba for any other reason than fatigue. I should've figured this would happen, as much as I talked about how terrible Matheny was at the plate. I'm gonna smack Murphy for passing that Law the next time I see him.

By the way, Kevin from Kevin's Royals Blog threw a discussion question my way the other day about Kansas City Royals centerfielder David DeJesus. We exchanged a few thoughts, and the results are here. Check it out, or risk my eternal irritation loosely focused in your general direction.