Feelin' Frisky: Giants 3, Dodgers 1

Since the Giants started 2-7, they've gone on a 13-6 run fueled by great starting pitching, a competent bullpen, and some of the ugliest offensive baseball you'll ever see. It was more of the same tonight, as the suddenly dominant Barry Zito did his thing against the Dodgers for the second time in a week and a half, and the Giants offense scratched out 3 runs to beat the previously 5-0 Chad Billingsley.

For the fourth straight time out, Zito held the opponent scoreless through the first 5 innings. For the first time in those starts he allowed a run before the 7th, and even then he came within inches -- as Fred Lewis allowed a 2-out RBI double by Casey Blake to tick off the edge of his glove. That tied the game at 1-1, and seemed to be yet another bad break for Zito, who seems to have inherited Matt Cain's poor luck from the last 2 seasons. But for once this season, Zito caught a little luck in the next half inning when the Giants scored 2 runs while he was still the pitcher of record.

So Zito got first first win of the year when Brian Wilson nailed down another 4-out save, in what seems to be a growing trend -- Bruce Bochy going to Wilson in the 8th when the right-handed set-up men (previously Howry, tonight Merkin Valdez) struggle to close out the inning in a tight game. Wilson was up to the pressure, and so were the Giants, an interesting turn in what has become a fascinating sequence of events over the last couple of days: First Manny's suspension, then the Dodgers blow a game they led 6-0 after 1 inning against Washington (the worst team in baseball) to snap their 13-0 start at home, and finally the Giants win in LA against the Dodgers ace in their toughest matchup of the series.

Suddenly, LA looks vulnerable, and the Giants look feisty. Of course, while the Dodgers may struggle to score without Manny, we know the Giants will struggle to score. But if the Giants win on Saturday, and head into Sunday going for a sweep behind Tim Lincecum to pull within 2.5 games, I'll be too drunk on optimism and momentum to listen to that kind of reason.

TOMORROW: The biggest game of the year so far (as if that meant anything) -- Jonathan Sanchez vs. Eric Stultz.

Not Ready For Prime Time: Dodgers 5, Giants 3

The Giants had enough talent to win tonight. They went up against a pitcher who's owned them and hit his well enough to win. And their own starter, Jonathan Sanchez pitched well enough to win. But none of those things happened, of course. And the impediment to their success was themselves.

On offense, baserunning mistakes and that old favorite (you guessed it) poor situational hitting cost them several runs. On D, fielding errors cost them a couple of runs and forced Sanchez to throw extra pitches which lead to him leaving the game after just 5 innings. Oh, and they walked nine hitters. Despite those gaffes, they still almost won the game. But they're not quite good enough to make this many mistakes and still beat a good team.

The Dodgers had something to do with this result as well. Rafael Furcal used his great arm to gun down Randy Winn in the 1st inning on a play when it looked like he'd score easily. Then the threat of Furcal's arm caused 3rd base coach Tim Flannery to hold up Travis Ishikawa on a play he probably could've scored on. Finally, Ishikawa compounded the error by getting doubled off 3rd on a lineout by Emmanuel Burris.

Juan Uribe had a particularly shitty game, making a big error, and failing to knock in a run, despite batting with 8 men on in 3 AB's with a total of 3 outs (1st and 2nd with 0 outs, bases loaded with 2 outs, bases loaded with 1 out). Bobby Howry lost it in the 9th, but by then, the Giants sloppy play had already all but sealed their fate.

TOMORROW: Tim Lincecum tries to win the rubber game of the Dodger series, thus striking a devastating blow to the heart of pure evil.