You know what’s awesome? That it was Buster Posey, Madison Bumgarner, and Andres Torres (though he’s not really part of the “youth movement”) that won the game for the Giants. You know what’s not cool? That it was Buster Posey, Madison Bumgarner, and Andres Torres who won the game for the Giants. Where are the rest of the guys? Watching them swing at first pitch after first pitch, not working the count, hacking away like a bunch of drunk loggers was dreadful. Thankfully, the two youngest members of the Giants were able to keep the G-Men from a second straight loss to the Rockies with Ubaldo going for the Purple today.

Bumgarner wasn’t special, but, he got the job done. He wiggled his way out of a few jams and got some solid defense behind him, a welcome change from the past week or so. Posey was Posey – just another night at the yard, and Torres, while he struggled most of the night, came through with the go ahead moon shot of a homer before Posey opened it wide open with his double.

The NL West leading Padres continued their scuffle, dropping their 6th straight game (3 of the 6 have been to the Diamondbacks), but chances are they’ll get back in the win column as their ace Mat Latos takes the hill tonight in Arizona. Either way, despite the Giants struggles of late, they have closed the NL West gap to just 4 games, although it’s 5 in the loss column. It’s been a mini implosion by the Padres, no doubt – but it’s up to the Giants to capitalize now. It wont be easy versus the NL’s potential Cy Young winner (despite his recent struggles) Ubaldo Jimenez who opposes Tim Lossecum, err, Lincecum tonight.

If we ever needed a vintage Timmy outing, it’s tonight. Come through, big time Timmy Jim. Please?

Hilarious. Simply, hilarious.

Venture to any San Francisco Giants message board, forum, blog – what have you – and you’ll find venom spewed at the mere mention of Jose Guillen, especially after his two run drop in the outfield last week. And that drop was simply awful. It should have been caught, simple as that. In fairness to him, it was clearly windy (as Freddy Sanchez struggled with a similar pop-up the next batter), but it was a play that needed to be made. So, alas, Guillen was the scapegoat. I’m not sure he was all that deserving, considering Barry Zito gave up four runs prior to that…but I digress. So, with Guillen’s drop – the pitchforks came out. “WHERE IS CODY ROSS??!?”….”CODY ROSS IS SO MUCH BETTER THAN GUILLEN”…you could run down comment after comment – it was clear. Cody Ross was the superior player to Jose Guillen. Or so I was told.

Frankly, I’m not a big fan of either. Guillen makes Bengie Molina look like Usain Bolt and Cody Ross looks like, well, Aaron Rowand part II. But watching last night, I couldn’t help but giggle in pure disgust as Cody Ross made one of the worst plays I’ve ever seen (combined with Freddy Sanchez’s inability to make a throw that any little leaguer could have done).

I’ll make it quick, to ease the pain. Giants up 1-0 in the top of the 9th after a fantastic outing by Jonathan Sanchez. Sanchez allows the first runner of the 9th to reach, resulting in Bochy pulling Dirty for Brian Wilson. Okay, understandable. After a mini battle with Carlos Gonzales, Brian Wilson gets him to break his bat and send a hard hit bloop into right field. Cody Ross, for whatever reason totally misplays the ball and starts running in towards second base like somebody just key’d his Geo Metro in the players parking lot. The ball, of course, goes sailing over his head, allowing the game tying run to score. But, just you wait, it gets better. Ross throws it wildly (a bit) to cut-off man Freddy Sanchez who has about 7 years worth of time to throw out Cargo who can’t be anymore than 34-40 feet past second base. I could have thrown out Gonzales from my couch he was so far away. But of course, Sanchez throws about a four hop fart at about 9mph that eventually hits Cargo as he slides into third, misses Brian Wilson who is backing up the play, and painfully comes to a stop inside the Rockies dugout. That of course allows Cargo to score, on a broken bat bloop…

For Cody Ross, it even got worse as he again played another ball poorly, this time off the wall, just moments later….thankfully the Giants were able to avoid letting that blunder score, but the damage was already done.

Listen – I’m not trying to pick on Cody Ross, though it might seem like that. We all make mistakes. Did I find it hysterically ironic that it was Ross, the labeled superior defender that outright cost the Giants a crucial game? Yes, very much so. But it’s more in the way of I like pain…

Ross’ (and Sanchez’s) play was a perfect way to describe the season, IMO. It was such a microcosm of it all. And in short, I think last nights game showed the G-men where they’ll be in October. Home.

With 30 some games to go in the playoff race, things like this simply can’t happen. They can’t. You can’t lose 3 of 4, at home, to two teams with a combined 45-82 road record and tell me you want to make the playoffs.

The Giants need to go 18-12 (that’s .600 level ball for you mathematicians) to win 90 games. Do you think 90 games gets you into the playoffs this year? The Phillies only need to go 17-14 the rest of the way to get to 90. I wont even give you the Padres number as I don’t want anybody jumping off a bridge.

Games like last night, cost you the playoffs. And not to be overly dramatic, but last night very well might have been the early nail in the coffin.

Had the Giants lost yesterday, it would have been devastating. Getting swept, at home, by the Diamondbacks in a pennant race? Words can’t even describe.

Thankfully, the Giants avoided the sweep and even picked up a game on the NL West leading Padres as they were swept at home by the Wild Card leading Phillies.

The bullpen was a disaster yesterday afternoon, but, probably not as big of a disaster as Bochy’s managing of them. He ran through those guys (with a big upcoming Rockies series) like some bad Mexican food after a night of boozing it up. And of course, every further decision he made – sucked. The offense bailed him out after the Giants imploded their 5-2 lead and went down 6-5, a loss that would have been already devastating in nature would have become soul crushing. But alas, a win is a win, right? What? I’m trying to stay positive and motivated. I can see the bright side too! I mean, look – we’re playing the Rockies now who never beat the Giants when it counts and never have a 73 game win streak late in the season to push them into playoff contention and Todd Helton almost never hits .649 against us for the series and….fuck. Where was I going with this?!

The Giants can really step on the necks of the surging Rockies right now who are only three games behind the Giants, or, they can let them sneak into the Wild Card chase. It’s mildly amusing how the Rockies do this yearly, or so it seems. They’re like a bad case of herpes – not that I’d know. *panics*

Giants versus the Rockies for three, at the Park.

Padres at the Snakes for three.

And the Phillies travel to Los Angeles to take on the Bums, who obviously wont help us at all, for a three game tilt.

Mmm, playoff baseball. Smells good.

Whatever Tim Lincecum was doing last night that gave away his location – Diamondbacks shortstop Stephen Drew figured it out early on. Drew lead the game off with a four pitch walk and could be seen on the broadcast tipping pitches to Adam LaRoche as he stood at second base. A look to the left. A touch of the helmet to the left. Moments later, a three run bomb shelled into the Cove by LaRoche and the Giants are down 3-0. As the inning finally came to an end, TV cameras caught Drew talking to more Diamondbacks in the dugout, mimicking Lincecum’s delivery, informing them of what he had picked up.

As for the game…what else can you say but ugly. It was the type of game that makes you wonder if the Giants are all that interested in the postseason. You have 33 games left. To get outplayed by a 51 win team with only a handful of games left – you can’t let it happen. The Giants aren’t going to win 75% of their remaining games, we all understand that – but put up a god damn effort. The Giants were absolutely blistered by an…..average pitcher. Nothing against Enright, but, his stuff was far from solid. The Giants just went up there hacking blindly letting Enright wiggle out of jam after jam.

You simply can’t lose, in that way, at this time of year, to that kind of team.

Of course, this is the Giants we’re talking about – so they’ll most likely come back from the dead and win the next two. At least, we hope so..

Speaking of hope, for those that missed the game, Buster Posey left late and was spotted leaving the park with a sleeve on his left forearm. They’re calling it a strained left forearm right now and both he and Bochy feel he could have continued and will play today – but strained forearms aren’t the funnest of injuries to deal with. Hopefully it’s only minor…

And one last tidbit for the day, as I go into TMZ mode. There is a rumor that wont leave the net that says Lincecum’s problems stem from impregnating a woman who wants to keep the baby.

I couldn’t make that up if I tried….

Playoff race, and we’ve got baby rumors. FML.

You don’t see too many articles in USA Today about the Giants. Hell, you haven’t seen much of anything in the National media, Giants related, at all. I’ll blame the whole east coast bias thing, cause well, I have the power to do that. Who’s gonna stop me?! *flexes*

Anyway, I thought Jorge Ortiz of USA Today wrote a great piece on two fan favorites, Gerald “Buster” Posey and Andres Torres which you can read here.

It touches on each individual players road to the MLB (and the Giants) – and I simply thought it was cool to see not only Posey, but especially Torres get some much deserved props for his play outside of San Francisco.

Torres also spoke about how he’s one of the few allowed to take banned medication and how it calms down his ADHD:

Before the 2009 season, Torres applied for and received a therapeutic-use exemption from MLB, allowing him to take medication that’s banned for other players because of its effect as a stimulant.

The rise of exemptions for ADHD — 106 were granted by MLB in 2008 — raised eyebrows at the World Anti-Doping Agency. In January 2009, Gary Wadler, chairman of the committee that determines WADA’s banned substances list, called the number “crying out for explanation.”

For his part, Torres says his need for medication and its positive effects are palpable; he takes a Focalin pill an hour before each game.

“I’ve played with the medication and without it, and the difference is like night and day,” he says. “It has helped me be more consistent and to focus.

“There were times I would go to bat, and there were so many things in my head I couldn’t even see the ball.”

Face it – the Giants chances of catching the Padres in the NL West is slim to none. Sure, I guess it’s possible that the Padres could totally shit the bed and go 1-6 against the Giants the rest of the way. It’s also possible that I could win the mega lotto next week AND find a magical pony in my backyard that knows the recipe for Krispy Kreme’s. I mean, anything is possible. Other than the fact it’s not.

As I speak, the G-men (who are idle today) sit 6.5 games behind the Swingin’ Friars who will play the Diamondbacks later on this afternoon and win – cause hey – what else do the Padres do other than win? Either way, the Giants will end the day either 6 or 7 games out of first place with only 34 games left on the 2010 schedule.

On the bright side (or maybe not…) the Giants DO have seven games left remaining against the Padres, and it’s simple mathematics combined with the law of averages to say the Giants will play the Padres a little better in those remaining seven, right? I think? I hope? I pray? Fuck, we’re screwed.

In all seriousness though, barring a total collapse (and that includes melting down versus the Giants) or a 14 of 15 winning streak, catching the Padres just doesn’t seem like much of a concern any longer. Even if the Giants were to take, let’s say, 5 of 7 from the Padres…and the Friars played .500 ball the rest of the way (which is not happening)…the Giants would need to *starts counting on fingers* – fuck it, I can’t count that high.

My point is – forget the West. It’s a near impossible task. The Phillies are currently in the process of crapping their own pants, losing to the Astros (who’ve already beat them three straight, *nojinx* and are in the hopefully process of doing so four straight)…meaning the idle Giants would overtake the Wild Card spot by a 1/2 game and be tied in losses. That means our orange and black would control their own destiny from this point forward (well, 99% of the way…St. Louis has a small say in that, record wise…but we’re getting too involved here). Plain and simple – the Giants control their own destiny in the Wild Card chase.

The Rockies are mounting their normal Summer surge right now – but they still sit behind the Giants by 4 games. So while they’re a minor concern, it shouldn’t be that much of one yet.

The Phillies and Braves still have two slugfest series left to play, and the East is far from decided. It very well could be the Braves the Giants are battling for the Wild Card come season end, not the Phillies.

Either way – the Giants hold their own cards right now. I’m not discounting the Braves/Phillies or Cardinals – they’re all solid teams. But, the Wild Card is there for any team who wants it. It’s a sprint to the finish.

34 games left for the Giants….buck up, boys. It’s gonna be one hell of a ride.

First things first – the Giants were awarded their waiver claim on former Marlins outfielder, Cody Ross.

The move was simply nothing more than a block on the Padres and/or Phillies, making sure those fellow playoff contenders (PLAYLOLFFS?) wouldn’t be able to snag the free powerful (I guess?) outfield bat.

In my humble but incredibly awesome opinion, it was a bit odd of a block anyway – it’s not as if Ross had been lighting up the world for the Fish down in Miami. Sure, he’s got a bit of pop – but he’s pretty much average anywhere else. Ross has 100 strikeouts in 111 games this year and could only manage a .315 on base percentage, so – ah fuck it – who am I kidding. With numbers like that, he fits in perfectly for the G-men.

Speaking of fitting in – that’s the other problem. Where exactly is Ross going to play and how does it alter the current roster? Well sweetcheeks, I’m glad you asked.

The two scenario’s that come to my mind are either flipping Ross to a team in need, say like, Boston? And if that doesn’t happen, somebody like Schierholtz
or Rowand (okay, I’m wishing…get lost and let me dream) will find a lightly colored pink slip in their locker soon.

Of course, neither of those things will happen – a phantom DL stint will come a callin’ until somebody picks up Sabean from his week long fantasy football draft.

So there you have it. You’re a proud new owner of Cody Ross. Excited yet?! Woooo baby.

As for the game, well, I think it explained the road trip quite well. The Giants, somehow, had a chance to leave the Arch with a 3-3 roadie, yet, failed and failed miserably. Jamie Garcia absolutely clusterfucked the Giants all day, throwing a complete game on only 89 pitches. Yes, you read that right. 89. I can count because I completed 8th grade algebra, so, suck on them apples.

I’m going to assume you know enough about this roster and this offense to realize what type of result will partake when the opposing starting pitcher throws a complete game in 89 pitches. So, I wont tickle your baseball weenus anymore than need be.

The Padres continued their winning ways (as has everybody not named the Giants), an extended their lead over the Giants to six games (seven in the loss column). The G-men also fell two behind the Cardinals and Phillies for the Wild Card slot.

With the Reds in town, things wont get any easier for the slumping Giants – so here is hopes to a winning record come the National League West filled September schedule.

I smell something. And I know it’s not me – I showered last week.

Could it be the scent of a final big pay day?

DING DING DING! What do I win!?!

Aubrey Huff has decided to be represented by Mark Pieper of SFX who represents many of the biggest names in Major League Baseball – some of which include Justin Verlander, Miguel Cabrera, and Mariano Rivera.

I love Huff as a player and as a clubhouse guy but I can’t help but think he’ll chase the money after the impressive season he’s having. I just hope the Giants aren’t the team that overspends.

Huff back at a legit rate – I’m all over that, but the last thing the Giants need is another Edgar Renteria/Aaron Rowand contract on the books in a couple seasons. Sabean and company have a unique love of overpaying vets who are beginning their decline – so excuse me if I have to wear huggies this off-season.

Think that explains it pretty well – don’t you?

Oh July, how I miss you so.

The first half of August has started incredibly rough for the black and orange – and this daunting roadie isn’t making things any easier. The Phillies made sure of that in the first game of their series with the G-men.

Aubrey Huff continued his massive slump (which he’s more than allowed) which hurt the Giants on more than one occasion, but he was far from alone.

The starting staff continued their struggles as well, tonights effort spearheaded by Barry Zito. Zito was unable to register a strikeout during his five innings, giving up two mini-bloops which resulted in four runs for the fightin’ Phills – and that was more than enough to take down the Giants.

Although the final score was 9-3, the game was only a one run event going into the bottom of the 8th. However, the wheels fell completely off as the Phillies blew it wide open after the Giants stranded the equalizer on 2nd in the prior top half.

What can you say?

There are games every year you look back on and question if they changed the course of a season. There are stretches you do the same. This, is one for the Giants. And not only is this one, this particular stretch very well could be a season swinging pendulum.

With only 42 games left, the Giants are quickly losing sight of the first place Padres. Is it impossible to catch them? No…but the Giants are going to need to win both remaining series and hope for some luck along the way for a shot, barring a total meltdown by the Friars. With the Phillies getting healthy and the Reds/Cardinals both looking strong, the Giants need to end their funk quickly before their hole is too deep to crawl out of.