The San Francisco Giants play the second game of a three-game series tonight against the Los Angeles Dodgers, and it’s fairly safe to say that the Giants played some of their worst baseball of the season yesterday. The Giants were completely stifled last night by opposing pitcher Ted Lilly, and, ultimately, they lost 9-1. Barry Zito kept them in the game for six innings, while only giving up three runs (one unearned), but the Giants could not find any consistent offense.

In addition to their offensive woes, the Giants have now committed a Major League-high error total of 33, with three coming in last night’s game. Some of this is to be expected with a lineup that includes several rookies, but several players, not just the rookies, were bobbling the ball on simple plays too. Bruce Bochy said in last night’s press conference, “It looked like we skipped Spring Training.”

Watch an error by Gillaspie here.
Watch an error by Edlefsen here.

Before the game, the Giants also had to deal with one of their relievers being suspended for 100 games due to performance-enhancing drugs. Guillermo Mota tested positive for clenbuterol, which is a drug found in inhalers that can be a stimulant and can build up muscle mass. This is ironic because Mota has a 5.06 ERA this season and has been pretty much ineffective all season. Mota is serving 100 games this season because this is his second drug offense. He was suspended for using performance-enhancing drugs for 50 games when he played for the Mets, which he served in 2007. This recent suspension does leave the Giants in a little bit of trouble seeing as Mota was their only long reliever on the roster.

Mota’s agent, Adam Katz, plans on appealing the suspension. Katz said, “A 100-game suspension for taking a children’s cough medicine that contains trace amounts of a prohibited substance, which is what happened here, is severe and unfair and does not reflect the intention of the Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program.”

There are several things wrong with this statement.
1) Why would Mota even be using children’s cough medicine?
2) Mota would have had to take such a large dosage that normal cough medicine would make more sense to take.
3) Based on that argument, all other players that have used cough medicine before could’ve gotten a positive test too, and they haven’t.
Therefore, this argument as to why Mota’s suspension should be appealed is totally bogus and makes no sense at all.

The Giants are in quite a tumultuous situation right now because of the injuries that they have to deal with and their poor play. This Dodgers series is going to prove to be quite difficult for the Giants since they have to face Clayton Kershaw tonight, who they normally have very little luck against, and Billingsley tomorrow. Hopefully the Giants can start playing tighter defense, hit for a better average with runners in scoring position, and gain some momentum going into the next series.