San Francisco Giants

From the start of Tuesday's game, the Giants' bats were working. Andres Torres - who had been struggling - led off with a double, and two batters later, Aubrey Huff hit a two-run homer. Buster Posey then doubled and scored off a Jose Guillen RBI single. With three runs of support, Tim Lincecum began dealing, not allowing a hit until the fifth inning. Through six innings, he had struck out nine; but in the seventh inning, it all collapsed for the Freak. Kelly Johnson led off with a triple, followed by a Chris Young home run.

From the start of Tuesday's game, the Giants' bats were working. Andres Torres - who had been struggling - led off with a double, and two batters later, Aubrey Huff hit a two-run homer. Buster Posey then doubled and scored off a Jose Guillen RBI single. With three runs of support, Tim Lincecum began dealing, not allowing a hit until the fifth inning. Through six innings, he had struck out nine; but in the seventh inning, it all collapsed for the Freak. Kelly Johnson led off with a triple, followed by a Chris Young home run.

Before our very eyes, the Giants are only one game back of the Padres.

This comes only two weeks after trailing San Diego by six games in the division.

The biggest change in the Giants' fortunes was not Tim Lincecum finding his composure once more. It was not Juan Uribe's bat coming alive in September.

As the calendar turned to September, the Padres forgot how to win.

The Padres had lost 10 straight games before beating the Dodgers 4-2 on Monday night.

Ah, it's good to be back...

Last Night Rewind

On Monday, the Giants did what their team was built to do: win behind dominant pitching, and just enough run support.

Brian Wilson leads the National League in saves at 39. He has been one of the most consistent closers in all of baseball. 

Consistent you ask?

Well Brian's version of closing in consistent in a different way than you think. 

Giants fans are witnesses to this.

Almost every time he is asked to save a game, he starts off by putting men on base. Whether he walks them, or gives up a hit, he is always making Giants fans nervous. 

Down 4-0 by the fifth inning, the Giants did not throw in the towels. Not one bit.

Matt Cain settled down and threw shutout innings in the fifth, sixth, and seventh for a final line of 7 IP, 4 ER, 7 H, 1 BB, 6 K.

A few weeks ago, the Giants acquired Jose Guillen in order to give them an extra bat to push them into the playoffs. About a week later, the Giants were awarded Cody Ross off waivers.

Since then, Jose Guillen has been the starting right fielder, with Cody Ross getting occasional playing time. This is a poor decision for several reasons...

Begin Slideshow

Heading into the 2010 Major League Baseball season, there was one thing the Bay Area and everyone else knew for sure about the San Francisco Giants. Namely, that the squad would contend as long and as hard as the starting pitching would allow.

It was justifiably considered the organization's backbone and primary weapon on the diamond.

Two-time defending National League Cy Young Award winner Tim Lincecum, as notorious for throwing smoke as he became for inhaling it, was the unquestioned leader of the staff.

For the entirety of the San Francisco Giants 2010 season, there has been an air of inconsistency that can only be described as Duane Kuiper has: torture. 

The team itself had a real good April (.591) followed by a .500 May, a sub-par June (.481), a torrid July (.714), and a dismal August (.464). 

This is the team that scored one run in three games against Oakland in May and then scored 11 runs in three straight games against the Reds in August.