Riches to Rags to Riches: Giants 9, Nationals 7

The Giants turned their worst loss of the season into their best win with one mighty swing of Pablo Sandoval's bat. The Kung Fu Panda's 3-run bolt of a HR off reformed Dodger Joe Beimel gave the Giants a stirring come-from-behind win despite blowing 4 run 7th inning lead to the worst team in baseball and then trailing with 2 outs and nobody on in the 9th.

It was the Giants first real comeback win of the year, and puts them a season-high 4 games over .500, and guarantees them yet another series win. In the last 9 series including this one, they are now 7-0-2, both those ties coming on the road after losing the series opener. It was also the second game in a row, the Giants have allowed 7 runs (albeit against one of the best offensive teams in the NL so far), yet still scored enough to win it with their hitting (albeit against one of the worst pitching staffs in the NL so far). Oh yeah, and Pablo's HR kep the Giants undefeated when scoring first (14-0).

The Giants comeback followed what could have been a crushing rally by the Nationals, who scored 3 runs each in the 7th and 8th to erase a 5-1 lead and steal a win away from Matt Cain. Cain cruised through the first 6 innings, allowing just what should have been an unearned run (Adam Dunn's double should've been caught by Nate Schierholtz, who misjudged it and saw it clank off his wrist), but ran into trouble in the 7th. With 1 out and none on, and Cain on a pitch count which might allow him to finsih the game, Alex Cintron got his first hit of the year. Cristian Guzman followed with another hit before Nick Johnson crushed a good pitch from Cain (knee-high, outer third) for an opposite-field HR -- his first hit ever off Cain.

Right then, you knew it wouldn't be easy.It didn't take long for that to prove out. Cain stayed in to retire Ryan Zimmerman (who had 2 hits to extend his hitting streak to 30) and Adam Dunn to end the inning, but left after 7, having thrown just 100 pitches (not that much for Cain). The combo of Howry (mostly) and Affeldt (just a little) blew the lead by allowing 3 runs (albeit on some pretty weak contact) and the Giants suddenly trailed 7-5. A sure victory for Cain was gone, and the game seemed lost -- even when Bengie Molina led off the next inning with a HR.

I figured the Giants would lose by one, just to make it that much more frustrating. But with 2 out and none on in the 9th, Emmanuel Burris singled, and after being wild-pitched to 2nd, Edgar Renteria drew a crucial walk in a great at bat plate appearance. That set the stage for Sandoval, whose dramatics had to be all that much sweeter to him following an embarrassing play a few innings earlier when he stumbled trying to leg out a triple and took and header in the basepath.

TOMORROW: Barry Zito takes the mound against ex-Giants farmhand, 4-0 rookie Shairon Martis (who was criminally given awaty by Brian Sabean in the Mike Stanton robbery trade) as the Giants go for the sweep of the Nationals. Will Zito continue his recent run of unexpected mastery, or will he run out of smoke and/or mirrors?

There's no "W" in Zito: Giants 1, Rockies 0

The Giants got great pitching and terrible hitting. This is not a recording. The good news is -- as it has been so often this season -- the offense did just enough to win. Not just the game, but the series -- the Giants 5th straight winning series. Seriously.

The worst part of watching your team struggle mightily to score is that point they reach where it's in their heads, and it seems they can do everything but score. They hit leadoff doubles (as they Giants did twice today in the later innings of a 0-0 game), they get them to third with less than 1 out (once) or even no outs (once), and still can't score. Guys lineout (once), guys hit shots into double plays (once), and guys hold up on balls that get away far eenough for them to score because they're afraid of being the latest guy to blow a rally (twice). Instead they leave it someone else.

When you're winning 5-0 in the 6th, a lineout to 2B with a man on third is a minor annoyance. When it's 0-0, and the guy on the mound is threatening to take shutouts into the 7th three times in a row without a win to show for it (more on that in a moment), that same lineout is a tragedy worthy of an opera. Schierholtz's lineout to 2B with the potential winning run on third and 1 out was bad luck, but the Giants are also making a lot of that lick -- lewis could've scored on a wild pitch earlier in the AB had he tried it.

And the bad luck leads to bad decisions from the manager, too. Witness Bruce Bochy's decision to PH Bengie Molina for Fred Lewis in the 7th. Rather than have the red-hot Lewis -- 3 rockets on the day for 2 hits: 1 to LF, 1 to CF, 1 to RF -- face a LHP, he went with Molina. This, despite the fact a double play would end the inning, and Molina undisputed King Of The DP. Of course, that's what ended up happening, and the Giants wasted a 1st and 3rd, 0 out situation. It was also their last chance to make a winner out of the suddenly hard luck Barry Zito.

Zito must have caught whatever curse Matt Cain had the last couple of years, because he went winless again, despite going 7 innings and allowing 0 runs twice over the last 3 starts. Both games were 0-0 when he left. That's same serious Cainage right there. Of course, the bright side is that he's pitching not just like the non-embarrassing #4 or #5 starter that I hoped he might turn into, but a real live ace. I doubt that will continue, but I'll enjoy it while it does, and keep hoping when he things finally even out, he'll settle into a middle of the solid rotation guy. While the odds are against that, his peripherals from his last two 7 inning, 0 run outings are encouraging -- 5 K's/0 BB's last time, and 4 K's/1 BB this time.

Just like the last time, the Giants came back to win 1-0 in the 10th after Zito was no longer around. Last time, the winning hit came from PH Bengie Molina. This time, it came from PH Rich Aurilia. The hit scored backup C Steve Holm, who walked and advanced to 2nd on a sac bunt by Randy Winn. Holm had a nice day in his first start of the year, notching a hit, walk and sac bunt while catching a 10 inning shutout. Not bad for a guy who was 0 for 18 in AAA before being called up.

TOMORROW: The Giants fly into Chicago for their only trip to Wrigley Field -- just a 2-game series. Jonathan Sanchez will take the hill against Ryan Dempster. Can the friendly confines of Wrigley awaken the Giants slumbering bats? God, I hope so.

Real Sunshine, Real Grass, Real Baseball: Giants 1, Padres 0

It was great to see a giants game live today, great to see a businessman's special -- my favorite games -- and great to see Barry Zito pitch like something more than a shadow of his former self. He was far better than that -- throwing 7 shutout innings, striking out 5 and walking none. it was the second straight game in which a Giants starter with control issues had 5 K's with no walks, and the 5th straight game a Giants starter pitched very well.

Luckily for the Giants, they avoided dropping a second of those five by being shutout when they scored the game's lone run with 2 outs in the bottom on the 10th. As Jon Miller said on the postgame show, right now the best way to describe the Giants is "If they score, they win".

It seems I was wrong on my prediction of Schierholtz getting his first start, but I was close: Andres Torres got his first start instead, and scored the winning (and only) run. I would've gone with Nate, who is now the only Giants position player yet to start a game, but Bochy's hunch paid off.

Hell, he even put Pablo Sandoval in catching gear for the first time today, and gave Bengie Molina the day off (the day after Steve Holm was brought up to provide a real backup catcher -- I'm sure if that timing makes sense or not), and had both players play major roles in their victory. Sandoval caught a 10 inning shutout and made a couple of nice plays (and one bad throw as well). Molina came off the bench to win the game with a double, scoring Torres, who had singled and stolen second.

Torres showed today how much better he is than Eugenio Velez -- he made a great defensive play, helped with the bat, and looked fantastic on the bases. Meanwhile, Velez has shown to be a terrible defender and baserunner (despite his great speed). In the 10th alone, the difference between them was clear. After Torres got himself in scoring position, Velez had a chance to play the hero, and struck out. Worse, than that, he realize it. After swinging and missing at strike three, he waited around at home plate as if he thought he got four strikes. The ump had to tell him to go away, holding out three fingers as if to say, "Can't you count to three, moron?" Because Velez still has options, I wouldn't be surprised to see him return to AAA.

TOMORROW: Off-day.