Off Day & Bad Day

It's an off-day for the Giants, and a really bad day for the Pirates.

With only one loss in the current home stand--a nightmare game with the Reds when the bullpen couldn't hold leads and they went down in the 10th 9-8--the Giants have been doing their part to stay relevant in the division race.  But the Dodgers haven't cooperated by performing their annual tank job.  They are also winning, and with each passing day, getting closer to finishing in first.  It may be over before the two meet again.

In the Central, the Pirates hopes of overtaking the Cards are also dwindling, as the Cubs came into PNC Park and won 3, including two extra inning games.  To make matters worse for the Bucs in the postseason, today they lost a key player to injury--Jung Ho Kang--who has been their spark plug for the last month or so.  Their losses to the Cubs, likely their opponent in the Wild Card game, are troubling.  As bad as last year's Wild Card loss to the Giants was, another one and out postseason this year would be very disappointing to the team and the city.

But in San Francisco, the fans aren't hanging their heads.  There's lots to see and cheer at the Giants games.  Like legally blind Jake Peavy becoming the fifth Giants starting pitcher to homer this season, all (except MadBum) since August,  something that hasn't happened in 80 years in Giants history.  Plenty to cheer about at the ball park--some fans even cheered a heavy rain shower last night.

Spectators are getting to see some Giants of the future in their first appearances, and will see more of them if the Dodgers clinch.  That's fun-- but so is witnessing baseball history: the talk of the town is about the possible matchup of two Bay Area greats in one of the Giants-As games in Oakland to end the season: Tim Hudson, in his last major league start against the team he started with, against Barry Zito, a star pitcher for both teams.  In show biz and baseball history terms, the teams would be crazy not to match them up.