LAD 6, SF 1: Kershaw Dominates Again

This and this. And then tonight. All Clayton Kershaw does is dominate the Giants. In fact, he has now gone 23.2 innings without giving up a run to the Giants. But you know what? Kershaw does that to a lot of teams because he's one of the best young pitchers in all of baseball. He may not have the same track record, but he is the Dodgers' Tim Lincecum. And while the Giants may not have the best offense and some may want to blame the stupid rookie Brandon Belt for not getting a hit against one of the best lefties in the game, they just had trouble against a very, very good pitcher and probably will continue to have trouble with him for the next 10 years. My god he is impressive.

Madison Bumgarner has had a weird start to the season. Last week in San Diego, Bumgarner was actually looking pretty great through the first two innings before throwing over 40 pitches in the 3rd inning. And that 3rd inning was a bit unlucky. The Padres did what the Padres always do, annoy the hell out of you with long at-bats and bloop hits, and all of a sudden Bumgarner had allowed 3 runs in 3 innings and was out of the game. Today, he was again throwing pretty well. The first run scored when after Matt Kemp walked and stole second base, James Loney hit a liner that ricocheted off Freddy Sanchez's glove, scoring Kemp. Then came the 5th inning, when Rod Barajas led off with a homer. 2-0 Dodgers. After Rafael Furcal walked and advanced to 2nd on a single from Jamey Carroll, he stole 3rd base. However, the replays showed that Furcal was clearly out, so no runner should have been on 3rd. Furcal then scored on a single, and with runners on 1st and 2nd, Matt Kemp singled to left field and the ball went right under Pat Burrell's glove all the way to the wall, scoring both runners. After looking pretty sharp through 4 innings, Bumgarner's final line was: 5 IP, 8 H, 5 ER, 4 BB, 3 Ks. Kind of a bizarre start to the season for Bumgarner so far.

A loss to the Dodgers is always frustrating, especially when the offense looks completely helpless. But let's all remember that this was the 10th game of the year. There are 162 games in a season, and if you are extremely stressed and concerned after 10 games, I feel bad for you and I don't know how you ever survive a baseball season. The Giants will go on winning streaks and plenty of losing streaks as well. It's what happens. Just because they are having a rough start doesn't mean they are a bad team in need of major changes. Brandon Belt needs to be sent back to the minors after 35 major league ABs? No. Bumgarner needs to work on his stuff in the minors after 2 bad starts? Please, stop. Just stop it.

2011 Opening Day Impressions

Logic seems to say that it's wise not to think much of anything that happens on Opening Day. Here are just a few observations, without many conclusions, from today's loss against the Dodgers:

There were some disappointing moments in today's game, and only a few encouraging ones, but that will happen when you face Clayton Kershaw at his best. Remember this? Brandon Belt's placement on the big league roster was the big story yesterday, and in my mind he was the most impressive Giants position player today. We finally got to see him in a big league game of meaning, and he didn't look overwhelmed at all. He had some of the best at bats against an extremely difficult left handed pitcher. His first hit wasn't conventional, but he showed his characteristic patience at the plate, drawing a walk and making LA pitchers throw a total of 27 pitches, the most of an Giant (Andres Torres 2nd with 24, no one else above 17). I don't know what the ESPN guys were talking about in his final at bat. Something about a slow minor league bat? Huh? I agree with Dave Cameron that Orel Hershiser offered some good inside baseball knowledge, but there were strange moments during the broadcast. Why the announcers became obsessed with Andres Torres swinging on 2-0 is beyond me. Also, I saw more behind the backstop camera views in this game then I've ever seen, when it was completely unnecessary.

Lincecum wasn't his fully dominant self, but he was quite strong, and fell victim to bloop singles and poor defense. Burrell and Huff at the corner outfield spots is...interesting. Tejada looked okay on some routine plays, and then tried to do too much, something that shouldn't happen. Just make the easy plays. We warned you about Tejada. But we'll revisit that in a month or so if the shortstop position shows itself to actually be a problem. I hope it works out. Posey and Sandoval also tried to do too much, and it led to the first run of the game. This game may have been very different if the Giants had been smarter in that inning. But I also don't mind the aggressiveness and will to make a play.

For a moment I was sad that Lincecum got a loss, that he was 0-1 after tonight, and then I realized I was thinking about wins and losses.

Juan Uribe Signs With the....Dodgers?!

Today, Juan Uribe has signed with the Dodgers, yes THEM, for 3 years and $21 million. Uribe is no Giants legend, who after spending his entire career in San Francisco is ending his career by playing for the enemy. But after his home run sent the Giants to the World Series, he'll be a Giants postseason hero forever and that is why it's a little painful to think of him in Dodger blue. Nonetheless, it's a good thing the Giants didn't match the offer.

Three years and $21 million is too much for Juan Uribe. That amount of money isn't as much today as it used to be, but giving a low OBP player, who is coming off a season that was WORSE than the year before, that much money and that many years just doesn't seem like a good investment (Not that I care if the Dodgers are handing out bad deals). Uribe is a hacker. He swings at tons of pitches outside the zone, so he strikes out a lot, but it also means he doesn't walk much, and will always have a low OBP. His career on-base percentage is .300 and his best OBP for a single season was .329 in 2009 with the Giants. He actually had the highest walk rate of his career in 2010 (7.8%), and his OBP was still just .310. And he'll be 32 on Opening Day 2011. He does have the ability to hit some huge home runs, but that's not a player I want to commit to for 3 years.

Uribe does provide value defensively because he can play three infield positions (2B, SS, 3B) and plays them all at least decently. According to UZR he's been a plus defender for the most part. But he's no defensive wizard, and at age 32 and looking at his body type, it's likely he'll lose some range. On a good team, he should provide above-average defense and be hitting towards the bottom of the lineup. So again, I'm not sure that warrants $21 million over 3 years.

I was never a huge Juan Uribe fan, but after the World Series, I appreciate the hell out of what he gave the Giants. In that sense, it's too bad the enemy gave him the best deal. On the other hand, losing Uribe shouldn't be a huge loss for the Giants, and they would have been idiots to give him a better deal than he got from the Dodgers. It'll be interesting to see how he's greeted when he comes back to San Francisco. I've heard things like he's a traitor or he's not loyal. This isn't about loyalty. He played for with the Giants for 2 years. He deserved to go out and find the best deal he could, as it was likely his last opportunity to really cash in. I have to hate him now, but I will never forget how important he was to this team. When he gets his World Series ring, maybe I'll give a little cheer for just him, but after that, I'll be booing. It's just business, gotta keep the rivalry alive. Here's to hoping that Uribe works out about as well for the Dodgers as Jason Schmidt did.

FJM Friday: Helllloooo, Marchman...

So sorry about skipping Fire Joe Morgan Friday last week. Anyway, here we are, on a day the Giants could clinch the division, and Tim Marchman of SI is here to tell us we shouldn't be excited. Go for it, Tim!

This year's NL pennant races are the kind that could one day inspire songs: dour songs, about futility and lack of meaning, sung by moping teenagers.

Huh?

In theory, this has not been an especially dull race. In practice, September has been a month of listing apathy.

I'd say that in PRACTICE, it has been a very exciting month, and that it is your THEORY that states otherwise. No?

Teams winning out on the basis of being less mediocre than others will never be any more compelling than a bicycle race run on flat tires.

Bicycle races with flat tires sounds GREAT. Much better than normal bicycle races. I think this statement bothers me more than anything else in the article, because it at least SEEMS to be suggesting that the great runs by the Phillies and the Giants in September are just those teams being "less mediocre" than their rivals. The Phillies finally got everyone healthy, and are clearly the best team in the league. And the Giants, well, the Giants pitching staff has had one of the most impressive runs of superb pitching in the history of baseball. That's not mediocrity. That's excellence.

...take BR's SRS stat, which adjusts run differential for strength of schedule and rates teams by how many runs per game better or worse they are than an average major league club. By this measure, the 95 win Phillies are as good as the 87 win Red Sox, the 88 win Reds are as good as the 77 win A's, and the 88 win Padres are as good as the 82 win Blue Jays.

I have a hard time thinking that the A's are as good as the Reds, or that the Red Sox are as good as the Phillies. But still, I get it: the AL is better than the NL. So? The amazing Yankee dynasty of the late 1990's won the division with 87 wins in 2000. Were they a mediocre team? There are countless other examples through the 100+ year history of AL/NL baseball which show teams much worse than the 2010 Reds going to the playoffs. And there have been just as many collapses that are far worse than the Padres this season. Your sepia-toned view of the teams of yesterday is inaccurate.

NL partisans will protest, but there's lot of reason (sic) to think that a team like the A's would do quite well if dropped into the Senior Circuit next year.

Please don't do that. The Padres are boring enough. The last thing I wanna watch is Wade LeBlanc pitching to Mark Ellis.

The 2nd point is that the irrelevance of the Dodgers, Cubs, and Mets, 3 teams with enormous natural advantages -- makes for a huge, sucking void in the standings.

Those teams might be irrelevant THIS year, but each of them has had very recent success. The Cubs were a 97 win team in 2008. The Dodgers played in the last 2 NLCS. And the Mets were one of the best teams in the NL from 2006-2008. Of course, the real point here is that there is no precedent for THESE teams making baseball exciting. The Dodgers, like the Giants, are one of the most storied franchises in baseball, but just like the Giants, they have had as many miserable seasons as great ones. And the Mets and Cubs? Posterboys of painful mediocrity for most of the 20th century. When they are not in the NL bracket, they are not missed.

...it takes villains to make heroes: How much more meaningful would a Reds division win be if it came over a bullying Cubs team, vaunting over the money minted along Clark Street?

I understand there might be a rivalry between the Reds and the Cubs (though certainly not at the level of the Cardinals and Cubs), but still, I don't think the Reds fans care one bit about sticking it to Chicago. I mean, the Reds are the oldest franchise in baseball history, and have had periods of ENORMOUS success. They don't need to prove anything to anybody. Certainly not the Cubs.

Broad equality among teams, with none standing out as especially good or especially bad, and a diminishing of the power of big city clubs are essentially the goals of the apostles of competitive balance. In the ideal game of the parity preachers, all teams would be average, with some just being slightly less average than others. Each year, there would be hope and faith for all, and each year a cluster of slightly above average teams would trip into October questing for a large trophy.

I don't know who these "apostles of competitive balance" are. I do know that many people, quite rightly, protest the fact that Boston and New York won 13/14 AL East titles from 1994 to 2007. People want every team to have the chance to be great. That's all. Of course they can't all win at the same time.

As baseball's races this year show us, though, a game actually built on this line is on par with roach fighting, without the illicit kick -- one has interest in the spectacle, but unless money is involved, less in the outcome. A great race needs great teams; it needs the swagger of wealth; mostly, it needs the prospect of a team playing spectacularly well and still losing out on what it wants.

I don't see the races this year as being akin to a roach fight, although I've never seen a roach fight. In fact, it is insulting to hear you say that. Did you watch the series the Giants just played in Colorado? It was magnificent. It was great baseball. So sorry the fucking Mets weren't playing.

SF 10, LA 2: Diiiiiiiiirrrrrrrrtttyyyyyyyyy

Wow, that was pretty great.

Not only did Jonathan Sanchez give up just 4 H, 1 ER and strike out 12 Dodgers, he didn't walk a single batter. He was just beautiful. It's the kind of beauty that's impossible to stop thinking about. Just thinking about how beautiful he is makes me smile. When I think of him, nothing in the world can bother me. Thinking of him makes me feel like I'm in the middle of an open field dancing and playing with flowers and butterflies. You know what it is that Jonathan and I have? It's love. Congratulations Mr. Sanchez, you will be who I'm thinking about when I go to sleep tonight. What?

Now that I've expressed my love for a man over the worldwide web for billions of people to see, I'll talk about something else. Actually, no. Sanchez lived up to his nickname tonight, Dirty Sanchez. The nickname is so obvious and simple, but it's perfect. The Giants are in first place. He can be absolutely nasty and starts like tonight show how valuable he is. If you read this blog a lot, you probably know that I'm in favor of trading him for a bat. But he is too valuable to give up for anything. The Giants are in first place. A 27 year old left-handed pitcher with a 3.21 ERA and a 9.3 K/9 is only worth giving up for a legitimate middle of the order hitter. If you can't get that, you keep him. It's just a bonus that he happens to be frickin' beautiful!

The pitching wasn't the only bright spot tonight. The Giants found themselves down by a run after half an inning because of a double and a throwing error by Juan Uribe, but that didn't scare the offense. The Giants are in first place. In the bottom half of the 1st, Aubrey Huff tripled and Buster Posey promptly brought him in with an RBI double. Then in the 3rd, with 2 runners on Aubrey Huff blasted a 3-run shot over the right field wall. I bet you can't guess what awesome thing I'm going to say next, though. The Giants are in first place. The next batter, Buster Posey, also blasted a home run, this one into the left field bleachers to give the Giants a 5-1 lead. It was the Aubrey and Buster Show! Against the Dodgers. With the division lead on the line. Epic. The Giants are in first place. There was also a Jose Guillen homer and a couple more RBI hits and the Giants ended up with 10 runs. Against the Dodgers. With the division lead on the line. Epic.

Edgar Renteria went 4-for-5. Say hello to your new leadoff hitter!

The Giants are in first place.

SF 2, LA 1: Matt Cain Is Good

Maybe the most important thing I learned tonight is that Dodger fans are even more idiotic than I thought. But I'm not going to go into that right now, it's a story for another time.

The game itself was also pretty important. For most of it, the offense was looking dormant against Giant killer, Chad Billingsley. It really wasn't a surprise because the lineup was terrible. Eugenio Velez, a career .696 OPS player, was hitting leadoff. Yeah, that bad. It's just not going to be the same without Andres. Anyway, despite the poor lineup, the Giants had plenty of chances. In total, they left 17 men on base and were 2-for-11 with runners in scoring position, with both hits coming after the 6th inning. Fortunately, two runs were all they would need. Mike Fontenot blooped a single to right field in the 7th to give the Giants a 1-0 lead and Aubrey Huff added an insurance run in the 8th by scoring on a fielder's choice.

They only needed 2 runs because Matt Cain was great. His final line of 7 IP, 3 H, 0 BB, and 5 K's looked great, but he could've gone even longer. After 7 innings he had thrown just 91 pitches, but he was lifted in the 7th for a pinch-hitter because the Giants needed to score some runs. Sergio Romo pitched a perfect 8th and even though Brian Wilson allowed an Andre Ethier homer in the 9th, it didn't matter. The idiotic Dodgers fan behind me had nothing to say.

I like winning series. Let's do it tomorrow.

LA 1, SF 0: Giants One-Hit The Dodgers!

And lose! I don't even know what to say about this game, because I'm having trouble assigning blame in a game where you'd think the blame is obvious. Barry Zito, though he failed to finish the 6th inning, pitched very well. The only run he gave up was unearned, coming on an error by Juan Uribe with the bases loaded and 2 outs. But can we really put the loss on Uribe for that 1 error? It must be the offense's fault. They lost their 2nd 1-0 game in 4 days. And as easy as it is to talk about the shortcomings of this offense, and to point out that it is foolish to think that going into next year with a similar lineup would make the Giants a playoff team, tonight I don't think is the night to blame the offense. Because Clayton Kershaw is one hell of a pitcher. This wasn't Wade LeBlanc pitching. This was Kershaw, and he's gonna be annoying us for years to come.

He has a GREAT curveball. When he spots it on the outside corner to a right handed hitter, there's nothing that can be done. And tonight that's what he was doing. Many times, Giants fans have watched their starters lock in and completely baffle a good lineup like the Phillies or Brewers. So what could be expected when Kershaw is pitching like that and the Giants lineup is hitting. They had no chance. Great pitching seems to always have the edge in the end. So it goes for the Giants.

Game Recap: SF 2, LA 0

We all know that Matt Cain is one of the most underrated pitchers in the game. Being overshadowed by Tim Lincecum doesn't help, and neither does Cain's quiet, calm personality. He never gets any attention, yet he'd be the ace on a lot of teams. To prove my point, I present to you:

This picture breaks my heart every time I see it. Matt Cain deserves more respect, and hopefully he got some tonight on ESPN. Cain looked close to as good as he's been all year, and that fact that it was on national TV just makes it even sweeter. Tonight he went 7 2/3 IP, gave up just 4 H, 1 BB and struck out 7 Dodgers. It was just a beautiful, beautiful outing from Cain.

There wasn't too much offense, but only one big hit was needed and it came from Edgar Renteria. After the Dodgers walked Aaron Rowand to get to Renteria (why?), there were runners on 1st and 2nd. Renteria made them pay by lining a triple into the left-center gap, scoring both runners.

Sweeping the Dodgers is always delicious, and this was the first time it's happened since 2004. Now the Giants need to take this momentum on the road to Coors Field. That place has never been too friendly to the Giants, so winning at least 2 of 3 would be nice.

Game Recap: SF 2, LA 1

I always wanted the Giants to sign Pat Burrell. When he was DFA'd by the Tampa Bay Rays and the Giants expressed interest, I was super excited while everyone else was ready to gouge their eyes out over the thought of him on the team. I always knew that he was a difference maker, a guy still in his prime no matter what everyone say. That is all a lie. And all I can say is, I am smarter than everyone else. Where's the "Lynch Pat Burrell" Crowd now?!?!

So Pat Burrell hit the go-ahead home run in the 8th inning. Against the Dodgers. Basically making Casey Blake's solo home run meaningless. The crowd was electric. Perfect game.

Nevertheless, Chad Billingsley and Hong-Chih Kuo combined shut down the Giants offense through 7 2/3 innings and it was depressing. Anyone who said the Giants didn't really need another hitter is just wrong. The offense is still capable of putting up terrible numbers. On that note, it's also good that we acquired two bullpen arms today, because Denny Bautista needs to go. One time I was at a game, and I was in the stands and I was about 200 feet from Bautista. Cool, huh? He seemed like a nice guy based on the eye contact we made, but he's not a good pitcher. He walked Kuo, a guy who never hits, on 4 pitches and Podsednik on 5. Luckily for him, Mota bailed him out, but he's still going to get DFA'd. I still don't know why Bochy goes to him so much. What about Chris Ray or just anyone else?

Mota was awesome. 1 2/3 innings of perfect pitching to close out the game. Keep doin' that.

Burrell stole the show, but Barry Zito had himself a game. In 7 innings he gave up just 3 hits and 1 ER while striking out 6. His control was spot on all day, with the exception of the pitch to Blake. Anyway, Zito didn't get the win because the runs came too late, but he looked really, really good today.

Obviously the Trade Deadline was today. Look out for our Giants Trade Deadline Review very soon!

Barry Zito only asks to get to 10 wins. Just 10 wins, guys!!!

Game Recap: SF 6, LA 5

Sorry for the late game recap guys, the internet was down. Anyway, I'm starting to think our bullpen needs fixing.

Seriously, this was a game where pretty much everything about the Giants looked good until the 9th inning. First Sergio Romo tried to close out the game. But he allowed a run scoring triple to Scott Podsednik, so he was replaced by Denny Bautista. Don't ask me why, I would've rather kept Romo in. Bautista did his usual act, getting ahead in the count, but ultimately walking the batter, so he was out. Now, at this point it was a save situation and Brian Wilson wasn't even warming up. We found out after the game that he had back spasms, so he couldn't be used, and as a result the Giants brought in Jonathan Sanchez to face two Dodger lefties in a row. He struck out Ethier but then hit James Loney. Now Sanchez was out of the game and it was Chris Ray's turn. Ray allowed a single up the middle to Matt Kemp, scoring Rafael Furcal and cutting the Giants lead down to 6-5. Luckily, Ray got Casey Douchebag Blake to groundout, ending the madness.

There was something else pretty interesting about this game. I think I may have been the only one that noticed it, because I'm generally a pretty observant person, but Tim Lincecum had a new delivery. He brought his hands over his head, which he's never done before. You're welcome for the heads up. I'm not really sure how the new delivery is going to affect him. In the first three innings he was wild, but he settled down and ended up going 7 innings with 9 K's, 2 BB's and 7 hits. Not a bad outing at all.

Aubrey Huff is good. That is all.

Game Recap: LA 2, SF 0

I thought you had changed, Giants offense. You really made me believe that our relationship had improved. Sure, you've gotten a little better, but every once in a while you mess up, and tonight you disappointed me. You're sleeping on the couch tonight.

This game was absolutely brutal to watch. The offense never got anything going against Chad Billingsley, and the Giants didn't score enough to support Barry Zito's fantastic start, an all too familiar story. Zito almost pitched a complete game loss, going 7 1/3 IP, allowing just 6 H and 2 ER. The only flaw in his performance was a home run allowed to Casey Blake in the 2nd inning on a curveball down and in. His other ER scored when Sergio Romo came in and allowed a single, scoring the a runner that Zito was still responsible for. It's always maddening for Giants fans to watch a starting pitcher go without run support and Barry Zito was clearly frustrated as well.

Some could argue that Chad Billingsley deserves credit for a great pitching performance, but I'm not buying it. It's very possible that I just refuse to acknowledge any accomplishment from a Dodger, and if that's the case, I'm okay with it. Sure, he was good, but he got a lot of help from the Giants, who looked like their old selves tonight. They were impatient and constantly swinging at bad pitches, while going 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position.

The series in Arizona is not going to be easy. The Diamondbacks are in last place and 19.5 GB of first place in the NL West, but if you'll remember, things didn't exactly go well the last time the Giants visited Chase Field. Our pitchers were terrible and the Diamondbacks always have some dangerous power hitters. We'll need a better performance this time if the Giants want to stay near the top of the division.

Even with the loss tonight, it was a good series, taking 2 of 3 from the Dodgers in LA. Boy, a swept would've been satisfying though.

Game Recap: SF 7, LA 5

What a demoralizing loss for the Los Angeles Dodgers. But really, who cares?

Despite a less than stellar performance from Tim Lincecum, that was the best Giants vs. Dodgers game I have seen in a long, long time and maybe ever. Hit batters, pitchers getting ejected, managers and bench coaches too, and most importantly, a Giants win. So much went down in this game, let's see if we can dissect it all.

- Lincecum was maybe the worst he's been all year. Just three batters into the game, he had already allowed 3 runs and in total gave up 7 H, 5 ER and 3 BB in just 4 2/3 innings. The main issue was his fastball. Tonight for whatever reason it topped out at just 87-88 mph, so it was basically an ineffective pitch. When he left the game, the Giants were down 5-1.

-In the top of the 6th, the Giants finally scored some runs, thanks to Xavier Paul. With runners on first and third, Pat Burrell hit a deep fly ball to the warning track that Paul dropped, bringing in one run and leaving runners on 2nd and 3rd. The next batter, Pablo Sandoval, stayed hot, roping a double down the line, scoring both baserunners and making it just a 5-4 Dodgers lead.

- The tension in this game started in the 5th inning when Lincecum came in with a pitch high and tight to Matt Kemp. On the next pitch, he hit Kemp. Kemp was visibly angry, taking a couple of steps toward the mound, before the home plate umpire intervened. In the 6th inning, Denny Bautista also came in high and inside to Russell Martin, prompting a swift ejection of Dodgers bench coach Bob Schaefer. It was pretty comical how upset the Dodgers were and how sure they were that these inside pitches were intentional. Maybe they were intentional, but Lincecum's command was off all day and Bautista always has problems throwing strikes, so it just seemed like some unintentional wildness from Giants pitchers to me.

-But like I said, the Dodgers were angry, and sure enough, Clayton Kershaw retaliated by plunking Aaron Rowand in the top of the 7th. Really, they were doing us a favor by putting Rowand on base. Kershaw and Joe Torre were both ejected and Kershaw will probably be suspended. Perfection! Ah, to bask in the failure of the Los Angeles Dodgers.

- The biggest and most bizarre moment of the game came in the bottom of the 9th inning. The Giants are down 5-4, one of the best closers in the game, Jonathan Broxton, was pitching, and the Giants had the bases loaded with just 1 out. Don Mattingly, who was the acting manager for the Dodgers, came out to the mound, presumably to talk strategy with Broxton and his infield. Mattingly started to head toward the dugout when he turned around and came BACK towards the mound. It's all very confusing, I know. Anyway, Bruce Bochy rushed out to tell the lead umpire that Mattingly had visited the mound twice. Per MLB rules, if a manager visits the mound twice in 1 inning, he has to take his pitcher out. BRUCE BOCHY, YOU SLY DOG. He really caught the Dodgers off-guard with this one. All of a sudden, they have no one warming up in the bullpen, and they have to bring in a pitcher who hasn't warmed up to replace their All-Star closer. It was quite a turn of events.

- So, the Dodgers bring in George Sherrill, one of their worst relief pitchers this year, without having warmed up. Andres Torres proceeded to make Bruce Bochy look like the smartest man in the world, and it's almost impossible to make Bochy look smart in any way. Torres hit a double in the gap to score two runs and give the Giants a 6-5 lead. They added one more run and Jeremy Affeldt closed it out in the bottom of the 9th.

What a game. It's almost exhausting trying to comprehend everything that just happened. The Giants beat the Dodgers even with their ace struggling. The Giants came back to win in the 9th, and made the Dodgers look like absolute fools at the same time. Oh, how sweet it is.

We would also like to cordially invite Matt Kemp to the 8thInningWeirdness Hate List. Although, he has to come, he doesn't really have a choice. What a pompous jerk.

Game Recap: SF 5, LA 2

The Giants tried their hardest to lose tonight, but despite giving it 110% they weren't able to come up with the loss. It's really a shame because I know they wanted it so bad! They should have lost, they really, really deserved it. Wait....what's that you're saying? Teams don't like to lose, they want to win? Well, the Giants certainly could've fooled me.

This game was pretty much the polar opposite of yesterday's. On Sunday, they should've won, but lost. Tonight they made way too many errors and deserved to lose, but they won. A win is a win, so maybe I should be more positive, but I can't help but feel troubled after so many mental errors. Let's see, how many were there? There was Pablo Sandoval choosing to tag the runner heading to third instead of going for the force out at 1st to end the inning, allowing Jamey Carroll to score before he applied the tag (Carroll didn't score before Pablo tagged the runner headed to 3rd, it was a terrible call, but still a big mental error by Pablo). How about walking Garrett Anderson, who is hitting .187 this year, with 2 outs? If that wasn't enough, Sergio Romo walked Jamey Carroll, who doesn't have a home run this year, to load the bases for Andre Ethier. Ethier grounded out, but walking guys like Anderson and Carroll with 2 outs in the inning is just not smart. Ahhh, and finally, Andres Torres forgot how many outs there were and ran on a shallow flyout with just 1 out. That can only be described as a Pablo Sandoval/Eugenio Velez type of baserunning mistake.

Oh yeah, Eugenio Velez is back. Be happy.

A pairing that Giants fans hope to see producing for a long, long time, Buster Posey and Pablo Sandoval, got the scoring started in the 3rd inning. Posey singled up the middle to bring in a run, and Sandoval proceeded to smoke a double into the left field gap, scoring Posey. It was rather beautiful. Sandoval had another good game with the bat, going 2-for-5 with a double and an RBI. Later in the 4th inning, Nate Schierholtz added a 2-run homer, giving the Giants a 4-0 lead.

Bumgarner had a good start despite only lasting 5 2/3 innings. He was pulled early, mostly because of his high pitch count but gave up just 6 H, 1 ER, and 2 BB with 3 K's. He continues to impress for a guy who is just 20.

A win against the Dodgers always feels good, but the Giants got lucky. They'll have to play better if they want to beat Clayton Kershaw tomorrow night.

Also, the bottom of the 9th turned out to be pretty awesome. Brian Wilson managed to load the bases with 2 outs, and up came Casey Blake. Remember when Blake mocked Wilson's tribute to his father that he does after every save? Well tonight, Wilson struck him out. It was a pleasure to watch.