Coping

Before I find a comedy on HBO I've seen a million times to try to forget about the dreadful ending to tonight's game, I want to try to describe the disappointment of this loss.

I thought that last week, when the Giants came back from nine runs down to tie the game, then take the lead only to give it right back in extra innings was painful.

But watching Jonathan Sanchez dominate the Rockies, only to have Bochy let him pitch one inning too long, then watch Wilson come in and give up a ridiculous looking thing that I guess you have to call a two-run home run, with Cody Ross running around Triples Alley like a little leaguer looking for the ball and Freddy Sanchez throwing at the ground on the relay and are you kidding me? and disappointed grunts while watching on the laptop, prompting Mrs. Orange to ask me if I'm okay from the other room and a 1-2-3 ninth...

Actually, I don't know how to finish that sentence. It was never really a sentence anyway. But the teams ahead of us in the standings are losing and we can't take advantage. Playoff teams can.

And now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to watch the last 20 minutes of I Love You Man.

Dog Days

After a July of cotton candy and rainbows, it's been a very moody August so far for the Giants. They stink! They're hot! They're within striking distance! The season's over! Well, maybe not! What time are the Niners on!

My litmus test for how over I should consider the season is whether or not scoreboard watching is still fun. And it is. I still get those in-the-hunt goose bumps when, after a exciting win like tonight's over the NL Central leading Reds, I check the scores and see that the Phillies lost. It's still adventurous.

I am resigned to some realities, however. The Padres are headed for the playoffs, most likely with the division crown. We're five and a half back, and it's hard to rebound from that in a year other than 1951. So it's probably wild card time for now. The other reality is that the Padres are in their position because they're consistent. We're in ours because we've been erratic.

So we're erratic. It's charming, and character building. It's costing us the division, but does it mean the Giants won't make the playoffs? Not necessarily, because a jaunt through Downtown Wild Card City brings sightings of a lot of erratic play lately. Are the Phillies really a model of consistency? Or the Cardinals? I know they're good, and both teams just gave the Giants a lot of trouble, but take a look back at their Augusts, and they look a little Giantsish. These teams are as streaky as they come.

Out of the three NL Wild Card teams, I don't see any of them cruising into the playoffs easily. Each contender seems to look bad, then good, from one day to the next. Kind of like the Giants.

Here's a few thoughts following tonight's game:

-Panda still hot. If the Giants are going to go on that run they need, it's not going to be without Sandoval involved.

-Is the rotation getting solid again? That's three wins from the starters in the last five games after no wins from the starters in the previous 14.

-Rick Reilly should never host SportsCenter again.

Dramatic Walk-Off Home Run Pioneer Bobby Thomson Dies at 86

A Giant is gone.

Not much I can add to this news report about Bobby Thomson. The Shot Heard 'round the World was the most iconic and dramatic home run of all time. Bobby Thomson is the cornerstone of the Giants side of Giants-Dodgers rivalry. I think it's safe to say the rivalry wouldn't be as fierce today had it not happened.

And, it seems to be the model for how walk off home runs are shot to this day. Check out the video at the bottom of the story. The triumphant slugger comes around the third base side, the camera follows him as he gets greeted by his teammates, celebrating at home plate. Did Bobby Thomson invent the modern walk-off? If there's any earlier footage of a home run hitter jumping into his teammates at home plate after a walk-off home run, I haven't seen it.

Other awesome things in the video:

-Brief shot of the Dodgers walking off the field, dejected, before panning to the Giants carrying Thomson off the field. I know it's the Dodgers and all, but, totally heartbreaking.

-Giants Manager Leo Durocher, wearing number 2, who had replaced regular third base coach Herman Louis Franks, totally freaking out as Thomson rounds third.

San Diego Globetrotters Take Yet Another Series from San Francisco Generals, Charm Fans with Irreverent Antics and Sound Fundamentals

So let's take stock of where the Giants are after the most important series of the year:

Just been shown up on a national level after probably our shakiest starting pitcher guarantees a sweep, 3.5 games back - no wait, 4, because the Padres won again today on our off-day, no longer clinging to a .5 game wild-card lead but now tied for first, looking up at a first place team that not only has a 9-2 advantage over us but never seems to lose despite analysts and experts predicting every week that they are going to fall apart, my faith in the starting pitching at a low point for the season - including our ace in the worst stretch of his career, some hot bats starting to cool, looking back at the schedule during our winning July and seeing lots of Chicagos and Metses and Washingtons, and looking ahead to the rest of August and September and seeing lots of St. Louises and Philadelphias and Cincinnatis and seven more San Diegos.

Can this team still take the division? Yes. But many things have to happen for them to do so. Almost too many. The offense can't just hang around while the starters shut down the opposing teams anymore. Maybe our starting rotation will get back to that level before the season ends, but right now I hear a lot of sentences combining our pitchers' last names and the phrases "working on mechanics" and "battling individual issues." Trying to find the punch in this lineup right now, though, is kind of like playing whack-a-mole. Posey and Torres are still hitting well, and Sandoval is starting to win my confidence back a little bit, but Huff and Burrell had a quiet series. They're good, so it's likely they'll come back to form, but when they do, I'm just bracing myself for the next guy to drop off.

Why so glum? Because we're now to the part of the season where we can't afford to work through inconsistencies. On Tuesday, the six-game road trip through Philadelphia and St. Louis starts. Then in September, the Generals meet the Globetrotters again for four games. If the Giants aren't in a position to overtake the division by then, they might have a whole off-season to work through them.

Weekend at Jose Guillen's

I was all set to write about this weekend's upcoming series with the Padres when the Jose Guillen trade story dropped this morning. At the time of this writing, it's unclear how often he will start or who we gave up for him. What we do know is that Guillen's ex-employer, the Kansas City Royals, will pay for a substantial portion of the $12 million that's owed him on his current contract.

Fan reaction has ranged from a head-scratching minority to an I'm-ready-to-slit-my-wrists/bomb-Sabean's-house combination from the majority. The doomsayers are bringing up the fact that he seems to be quite the head case, his defense is bad , and although he has power, he has demonstrated a poor ability to get on base.

I don't necessarily disagree with that assessment of him, especially the defense. A Guillen-Burrell-Torres outfield would indeed be pretty horrible defensively, besides Torres. But I'm also not banging my head against the wall and screaming "WHY!" (Some fans are. Check out some Giants fan sites if you don't believe it). I shrug my shoulders at this trade under the following conditions: No high rated prospects are given up, Burrell's playing time is unaffected, and the warm and fuzzy Giants clubhouse can absorb his negativity as if it were a sponge. Big if's, for sure, but it's also a big if that he's going to be completely mishandled.

Check out this possible lineup:

Torres CF
Posey C
Huff 1B
Burrell LF
Guillen RF
Sandoval 3B
Uribe SS
Sanchez 2B
Pitcher

See, that was easy! I neither want to slit my wrists nor bomb Sabean's house looking at this lineup (offensively at least). My usual issues with Sabean is that he is short-sighted at the expense of the future. This season has been one of his better ones. He struck gold with Huff and Burrell. He struck at least bronze with Fontenot. Is Guillen gold or pyrite or somewhere in between? The bottom line for me is this pennant race. Guillen, if handled smartly, seems like he would neither put it at risk or hurt it.

Although I may feel differently depending on how this Padres series goes.

SWEEP! ...and thoughts on the trade

What a bright sunshiny day in Giants land. Our boys push the Dodgers further down in the NL West race with a huge sweep, and Matt Cain finally gets his first win against them. I'm very giddy right now, but I confess that for most of the day it's a Pittsburgh Pirate that's been on my mind.

John Bowker is a popular guy among Giants fans, and at first I was upset about seeing him and Joe Martinez go to Pittsburgh and seeing Pirates reliever and Javier Lopez come through the door. I looked past Javier's shoulder, but to my disappointment nobody else was behind him. I was not too disappointed about Martinez being traded, because in my mind he doesn't have a lot of upside. But Bowker had the promise of power, something which, as a Giants fan, I salivate at the sight of. As a bullpen lefty, Javier Lopez does fill a need. And he did what he was supposed to do tonight. But bringing him on for the short term doesn't seem to be worth the departure of Bowker's long term bat.

It is easy to second guess a GM who has a track record of bringing in the one missing piece that ends up not fitting. However, since we can't predict what going to happen, I don't know if I should be more worried about the state of our farm system when we need offense in the future, or the state of our bullpen right now during the crucial months of August and September.

Long Term Me is arguing with Short Term Me about whether I'm justified being really upset about this trade. It's not an argument about whether or not this was a good trade. It wasn't really good because it's not an upgrade. It addressed the bullpen issue (possibly), but took away the solution to another need (possibly). Too much is up in the air, so the argument turns into whether we should smash things in in frustration or relax and let the chips fall where they may. Let's let Long Term Me and Short Term Me decide.

Long term me: Horrible trade. One of our best hitting prospects and a guy who could fill the 5-spot in the rotation in an emergency for a questionable middle reliever.

Short term me: WE SWEPT THE DODGERS!

LTM: Is that all you care about?

STM: YES!

LTM: Okay, good point, but weren't you just saying that we should fix our problems from within? We've been needing an offensive boost for years. Bowker could be that bat we need someday and he's gone. And would you stop writing in all caps and exclamation points?

STM: Fine, sorry. But why should I care about whether or not Bowker is not involved in this division title run we're in the midst of? He hasn't been involved so far and we're within striking distance of the Padres. Can you smell the title? It's right there in front of us! Especially now that we SWEPT THE DODGERS!

LGM: Bowker hasn't been involved because he only got 82 plate appearances and got sent down. He's going to be a 25-30 HR type guy someday. You watch. Once again, we're squandering our future for an non-guaranteed playoff run.

STM: Please, you said the same thing about Fred Lewis and we're fine without him. You want to know what's not guaranteed? John Bowker hitting 30 home runs. I know it's a shame he didn't get much of a chance, but look, it just wasn't going to work out between the two sides. Accept it. It's like a breakup - it's not you, it's me, blah blah blah. And besides, WE SWEPT THE DODGERS!

LGM: Yeah? Well what if we don't win the NL West or the wild card? Then, we've lost some potential power and you're going to come crawling back to seeing things my may.

STM: What if we don't? We still have some good pieces in place. It's kind of dramatic to say we're totally devoid of any prospects now. We have Brandon Belt and Thomas Neal waiting in the wings to give us that offensive boost. Belt will probably make you forget all about Bowker during his inevitable September call up. Also, I don't know if I've mentioned this, but, WE SWEPT THE DODGERS!

LTM: I'm not saying we're devoid of any prospects now. My issue is that we gave away something and got virtually nothing. And speaking of those Dodgers, they just had a better trade deadline than we did and that worries me going into the home stretch.

STM: You always worry. The Dodgers still have plenty of problems they haven't addressed. Plus, they had to get rid of their best catching prospect to make those moves you seem to envy. You need to chill, dude. Our first playoff appearance in six years might happen and you won't even enjoy it.

LTM: Well, I care about our future and it might be at risk. As far as the playoffs? We'll see.

STM: We'll see.