Bullpen issues plague the Giants

Scutaro completes yet another comeback.

We know how to come back from behind, that's for sure. This team, like 2010, seems to never say die, and always seems to get it done in the late innings. Lord, do we appreciate that, but how about sometimes we just don't fall behind to begin with?

Our pitching ain't what it was, that's for damn sure. We got spoiled with our superior rotation and superior bullpen and superior closer. The honest to God truth is that we have a slightly above average bullpen, and a strong rotation. Sorry. No superiority here.

Vogelsong has had a few rough starts, Lincecum is about as steady as a heroin addict trying to detox on ice skates, and Zito is just a wild card.

That's the good news.

The bad news is that Bruce Bochy, as solid as he is in so many decisions, continually sticks with the wrong guys until it's too late.

You see what he does with Zito and Lincecum now. They're on a short-ass leash. He's starting to view them like the rest of us. He can tell when they don't have it and knows when things are inevitably going to spiral out of control.

He yanks them.

Well it's time for Bruce to start being more careful with this bullpen.

I get it. He's a player's manager. He's loyal, he's understanding, and he's even-keeled. He doesn't make knee-jerk reactions like the rest of us. Bruce Bochy is like one of those big ass fuel tankers out in the ocean. It takes forever for him to stop and change direction, but when he does, his new course is usually the correct one. You can see a demonstration of this when he walks to the mound to make a pitching change. You can almost hear his old catcher's knees creaking like a haunted house's unoiled hinges and loose floorboards.

If I have one request of the skipper these days, it is the following:

It's time to relegate George Kontos to a smaller role, and Shane Loux is to be removed from the discussion entirely.

It's like, "Dude. Do you not understand that George Kontos lets two thirds of his inherited runners to score?"

For Christ's sake Bruce, he does it almost EVERY TIME.

This is the #1 Google Image result for George Kontos.

Technically as of this page's updating, he's allowed 10 of 21 inherited runners to score, 12 of 23 if it hadn't been updated since Sunday.

The point is that Kontos cannot deal with the pressure of coming into a sticky situation.

As bad as Casilla has been at times this season, he's still only allowed 7 of 25 inherited runners to score. Why not bring him in during a jam in the 6th? He's not the closer anymore, does it really matter when he comes in?

I know my ranting isn't the best writing job, but this can't be something all of you are not already upset about.

And Shane Loux? Dude, I'm sorry this whole baseball thing hasn't worked out. You stuck with it, but you're like 31, and it ain't happening. Hopefully you can find success in another field. Maybe coaching or something.

All I know is that if Bochy carts him out there again, I'm going to pull my hair out. He was sent to Fresno for a reason earlier this season-- just like Steve Edlefsen-- and he has no business pitching in a pennant race. I'm sorry, but it's true.

Now this Jean Machi character may have something to contribute. He's 30, and you just saw his solid outing against Arizona as his first major league appearance. He looked good. Let's give him a shot.

It's all just very unsettled and scary to me other than Romo and Lopez.

I have a feeling that Bochy is just trying to rest some of the important arms by giving some September callups an inning or two, I get that. But, some of these guys just aren't able to contribute in all situations.

If there's just one point to this badly structured rant of a blog post, it's that Kontos needs to start innings, not finish them. We see it, why has it taken so long for Bochy to see it?

Anyway, that's what I've got right now. Nothing profound was said here, but I'm just thinking out loud and trying to make sense of some of these moves.

Let's just keep winning!