Maybe  July was just an easy month.  Mets, D-Backs, Marlins, Brewers, not the cream of the crop, to be sure.  Yeah, there was the Rockies and Dodgers in there too, so I was thinking the success was legit, but they seem to be sliding now.  There's a lot of season to go, but its facing the Padres, Phillies, Cardinals, Reds, Padres, Rockies, Dodgers, oh and more Padres and Padres.  We're five games back and second place in the Wild Card race.  Yes, there's a lot more season to go, but...

R.I.P. Bobby Thomson who died Monday at 86.  I'd like to experience something like that with the Giants someday.    The whole jumping up and down thing.  That would be cool.

I've decided statistics mean nothing.  They're fun and all, and god knows I'm somewhat hooked on them now, read them, post them, do more with them than I ever thought I would when I first started this blog...but yeah they mean nothing.  With each and ever game, you never know.   You can pretend to know, but you never know.  You can look at the Cubs, just as a for instance, and notice they are 17 games back, 5th in their division, with a win-loss record of 48-67 and say to yourself, "ppfffftt...easy series!"  And then they come into town and make you struggle like you've never struggled before!

Giants ultimately take the four game series with a 3-1 record, but MAN! were the Cubs tougher than I thought they would be.  They made the Giants earn every freaking win.  There was no easy game.  Everything involved that "skin of their teeth" expression.  A win is a win, and we did good, but I am so glad those guys are going home.  And it makes me wonder: are we slumping again or did they just happen to bring their A++++ game? 

Speaking of the Cubs, their logo stirs me for some reason.  I have a Cubs memory that I cannot remember.  It is maddening.  Something about their logo and my childhood.  But I can't remember.  All I can remember is that I can't remember something I'm supposed to remember.  Perhaps...I think...MAYBE...I had a Cubs hat when I was a kid.  Why did I have a Cubs hat though?  As I've said before, I didn't grow up in a sports obsessed family.  I didn't grow up in a family that came from Chicago either.  Why would I have had a Cubs hat?  It makes no sense, and yet I cannot shake the vague recollection that it's true anyway. And even if it is true, and I am recalling correctly, why do I care or remember it at all?  Why does it affect me so?  I wasn't a hat person, I've never been a hat person.  Why do I have such fond almost-memories of a Cubs hat?  What happened with that hat?  I do not care about the Cubs, I don't follow the team, I don't care about its roster or standings, and yet...they have those hats...

So, we're back to 2.5 games behind and we're finally going to face the Padres again, the scary, consistently number 1 team in the NL West.  They destroyed us before, but so did everybody else, and we have been issuing much payback since post-All-Star break.  Can we do the same with the Friars?  Our bullpen is tired, Andres Torres didn't get his break yesterday, Jonathan Sánchez is inexplicably talking smack and I can't say that I'm not worried.  This next series feels like the true test as to whether we're playoff worthy. 

I'm moving.  Things are busy. I'm behind in posting.  But...

Against the Dodgers!  In LA!  WOO HOO!  Since the All-Star break, we've won 4 series and tied 2 (because again, they make stupid even numbered series for some reason).  Of the 4 wins, the Giants swept two in their division, the D-Backs and Dodgers.  And tied Colorado, because Ubaldo is still too good.  We had the most hits in July (Giants? Hitting?  Insanity!), we're one game behind first place in the NL West and lead by two games in the Wild Card race.  Playoffs is in the air and it's good to be a Giants fan.

 

The Padres LOST!  But to the Dodgers.  I'm confused.

Well I got what I wanted.

Took the series, four AWAY games against a DIVISION rival.  I mean, yeah I guess not really a rival since the D-Backs have been way behind for quite some time, but the Giants are so bad at facing the NL West, a win is a win is a win is a win!  I talked about the first game already, but some things that stand out about the other three:

Posey Keeps On Hitting

And hitting and hitting and...a .371 batting average and an 18 game hitting streak, which places him second to McCovey for rookie Giants hitting streaks.  Is he stoppable?  Probably, but let's enjoy the ride, eh?

Velez Knocked in the Head

The most hated player on the Giants roster, if you go by Twitter, is knocked in the head while drinking his Gatorade by a foul ball from Pat Burrell.  Dislike him or not, that's still not cool.  Is there no way to keep the dugout safe from such random attacks?  It's happened at least three times this year that I've read about. (Maybe he can do Mountain Dew commercials now, though.)

Juan Uribe's Grand Slam

My step-daughter and I were shouting the "OOO-RIBEH!" chant in our living room when he decided to hit his fourth career grand slam in the 7th on game three, with two outs and on the first pitch to boot.  I totally think it was our chant that did it.

Still in second place and three games behind because the Padres JUST WON'T LOSE!


We're also first now in the Wild Card race, but who wants to get to the series that way?


I also saw on the television that we're number one hits this month.  Not sure if I saw that right and have no idea where to go to validate it but if that's true?  MAN what a different team post-All-Star game, eh?

More Star Wars?  Yeesh.

Kudos to Matt Cain for paying back the Dodgers by making the D-Backs suffer.  Eight innings, allowing zero runs and only three hits with nine strikeouts, earning his eighth win of the season. 


And then Wilson follows him up by finishing them off in the ninth and earning his 27th save. No hits, no runs, no loading bases; weird but perfect outing for Wilson.

Andres Torres was on fire both offensively and defensively, slamming one out of the park in the third inning off of Rodrigo Lopez, and then at the bottom of the same inning, he prevents Chris Young from doing they same with a great snag off the wall.  (Get out your magnifying glass, because no one takes pictures of the good stuff!)

Fairly straight forward game, which was a nice breather from the twists and turns of the last series.  So um...yep!  Don't know what else to say about it.  Let's do that three more times!

What's with me and the Star Wars references this week?  I'll balance it out with some Star Trek in a minute.  Anywho.


Pablo? Buster? Aubrey? Anybody?  Talk about a pitching war.  No denying Chad Billingsley was pretty amazing, throwing his second career shutout and third complete game.  But y'know, even though we lost, Zito had a steller performance as well, making it to the eighth inning and allowing only six hits and two runs, the second run chalked up to Romo allowing one hit in the 0.2 innings he pitched. Yeesh. 

This is the second time in a row we've lost the last game of the series.  Both times I've felt bummed afterward, which is kind of a negative considering we still won the series.  In fact we've won the last FOUR series, and are still ranked #2 in the division, with only FOUR games behind the Padres.  Today's blog post is sponsored by the number...

Off to face Arizona in a FOUR game series.  The D-Backs are trailing the division, 19 games behind the Padres and 15 games behind us.  Please please PLEASE let us slaughter them! 

Craziest game I've ever witnessed (not that I've witnessed many)!  First off, it was 5-1 Dodgers by the third inning, and yet I was somehow not freaked out.  Not that I was cocky enough to think we had it in the bag, but I knew we'd score more runs.  First half of the season, we would have stayed at one run, but not this new team. 

But that's not even what was crazy.  Here's what was crazy:

Lincecum's Wild Pitch

He was having another control issue day.  Only made it to the fourth inning. His comeback after the All-Star game apparently didn't last, oh well.  But he throws a pitch that is so completely out of control, it flies over his head and he can't even figure out where it went!  You gotta see it to believe it! 

Back and Forth Drilling

I'm thoroughly confused as to what even happened at this point, but here's what I think happened:

• Tim Lincecum beams Matt Kemp.  Retaliation for Vincente Padilla breaking Aaron Rowan's face in April?  Tim says it was an accident and lack of control. (Given the aforementioned wild pitch, I tend to believe him.  After all, Matt Kemp didn't break Rowan's face).  Kemp kind of veers towards Lincecum, not really looking at him or say anything, but still to the point where umpire Adrian Johnson steps between the two, escorting Kemp to first base, after which both benches are warned not to escalate anything.

• One inning later, Bautista makes Russell Martin duck and cover, Dodgers bench coach Bob Schaefer cries foul apparently too loudly and gets ejected. Meanwhile, Martin jogs close to the mound and snarls some nastiness at Bautista.  It's on!
  

• Seventh inning now, and Dodgers starter Clayton Kershaw strikes Rowand with the first pitch.  Everyone goes nuts except Rowan, who takes it like a pro and heads to first base.  Both Kershaw and manager Joe Torre are ejected, I assume because of the "no retaliation" warning? 

In other words, your typical Dodgers/Giants game? 


Rally by Technicality

So now it's 5-4 Dodgers, top of the 9th, 1 out , bases loaded, and my favorite oddity of the night occurs.  Assistant manager Don Mattingly approaches the mound to talk to his peeps, as managers often do when things are close, but unlike most managers, he leaves and then comes back for some additional thoughts.  And Bochy gets him. 


Apparently there's this rule 8:06 that "prohibits managers or coaches visiting the mound from supplementing their visits by making a U-turn. If they do so, the pitcher must be removed."  So the Dodgers are forced to bring in a pitcher cold and the Giants score two more runs, thanks to Torres and Posey.  So kids, bitch about Bochy if you want, he won that game.

Thanks to some rule breaking in our favor, we took the series!  It'd be nice to finish them off with a sweep tonight, but a series win in Dodger Town ain't nothing to sneeze at!

Madison Bumgarner pitches 5.5 innings and gets his third win of the season.  Not bad, minus that one teensy little home run.  Good on ya, son!  (I can call him "son" because he's like 15 years old and I am not.)  Still need to snag your bobblehead on eBay one of these days.


Buster and his .350 batting average continued his 13 game hitting streak, racking up an RBI in the process.  But it was our main man with the killer arm Nate Shierholtz (who's last name is still impossible to spell) who brought in two runs with his third home run of the season.  Good on ya buddy, you were due!

And since I'm talking to players as if they read this, "Hey Mr. Wilson!"  You're awesome and all, but serious what is with the pension for drama?  Why can't you just get your three outs?  Why does it gotta be two outs, and then loading bases for 20 minutes before effortlessly getting the third out by striking the dude out with three pitches?  Boom. Boom.  Boom.  Like you couldn't have done that three batters ago?   I feel like you're addicted to drama.  But...so long as the drama works out in our favor, I guess I'll suffer the nervous sweating and nails digging into my palms. 

The Dodgers and the Rockies are on a losing streak and we're in second place again.  We are a different team.  That said...yes we beat the Dodgers yesterday, in their home turf, but let's not get all full of ourselves just yet.  It's one game.  Two to go.  Game faces on, people!

BTW, the Giants did sweep the Mets.  I forgot.