BOX SCORE
SAN FRANCISCOThe Giants are off to San Diego and theyhope to have a full complement in their bullpen.
Closer Santiago Casilla was unavailable for a thirdconsecutive day because of a bone bruise in his knee, but Giants manager BruceBochy said the right-hander was improved. There was no discussion of placinghim on the disabled list.
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Actually, hes doing pretty good, Bochy said.
The Giants also stayed away from using Sergio Romo, who hashis own issues after aggravating his subluxed knee during the Cubs series.Bochy was hopeful Romo would be ready to go as well when the Padres seriesbegins Tuesday night.
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Not only did Buster Posey become the first catcher in 36years to draw four walks in a game, but he also did it while running the countto 3-2 each time. He saw a total of 27 pitches, which came in very handy to getJeff Samardzija and his nasty arsenal out of the game after five innings.
RECAP: Baggs' Instant Replay -- Giants 3, Cubs 2
San Francisco Giants
The Giants made Samardzija throw 110 pitches. (No wonderStarlin Castro lost track of the outs in the fifth inning. He was listening tothe five-inning, 110-pitch lullabye.)
Posey became the third catcher in the Giants San Franciscoera to draw four walks in a game. The others were Dave Rader (in 1975) and DickDietz (in 1969). But put an asterisk on Raders game, since wily Cardinals managerRed Schoendienst intentionally walked him three times.
Posey also joined Juan Uribe and Dustan Mohr in a veryunique club. They are the only Giants other than Barry Bonds to have afour-walk game since 2000. (Bonds had 16 of them over those years, includingthree five-walk games.)
BAGGARLY: Giants establish winning pattern, sweep Cubs
Yes, Uribe. I still can't figure out what happened that dayat Citi Field in 2000. He saw 19 pitches and didnt let the bat leave hisshoulder once.
Well, it was New York, so that explains it, a wisecrackerin uniform told me. He was out all night.
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I'm sitting in the press box awaiting the Giants' first-round draft pick.
Every draft is important, even if you don't have a top-10 choice. So this one is no different, especially because, even if the minor league standings don't leave this impression, it hasn't been a great year for the farm system thus far.
Gary Brown is not going to fly through the minors the way everyone thought and it looks like he'll need to overhaul his unorthodox swing. Kyle Crick is not the same kind of strike thrower that Madison Bumgarner was as a teenager and Matt Cain became in short order. And Heath Hembree, after a great start, is not being used on consecutive days at Triple-A Fresno. It sounds as if he's being coaxed along, possibly because of arm tenderness.
I always expect the Giants to take a pitcher, since they evaluate and develop them so well. But I will only make one prediction as the time nears for the Giants to be on the clock: They will describe their choice as "the best player available" and "someone we had at the top of our board" and they will be "very excited that he was available."