Giants Way Up, Dubs Way Down

Jake Peavy didn't get the win on Wednesday afternoon but he earned it.  He gave up one run in 6 2/3 and left leading 2-1.  The Giants added another before Osich gave up an unlikely homer for the tie.  So it took a solid smash to center by Brandon Crawford to finally win it in the 10th, another walk-off, 4-3, finishing a sweep of the Padres.  The Giants are now 9-0 against them this year.

Once again the Giants did this short-handed, but with a great defensive contribution from Kelby Tomlinson playing his second game in left, who threw out a runner at home (he also drove in the first run), and a nice throw from Jarrett Parker, starting in right (Parker is going to see a lot of big league breaking pitches until he shows he can hit them.)  The lineup may be even funkier at the beginning of the upcoming ten game road trip, as Brandon Belt has a mild ankle sprain and might be out for a game or two.

And a game earlier it was yet another 1-0 pitcher's gem--this time by Jeff Samardzija against James Shields--until the Giants erupted late and won 8-2, with a very efficient offensive attack.  Again it was Crawford leading the way.

So the Giants left for Colorado having quietly tied the Cubs for the most wins in the league at 30.  They've won an amazing 13 out of 14 games, and are sitting in first place by five games.

Not such great news for the Golden State Warriors, who lost the fourth game of the Western Conference Finals, once again by a lot, in Oklahoma.  It was the first time this year they lost two games in a row. They're down 3 games to one, and can't lose another.

It's not even improbable for the Dubs to win the next three, but this latest loss can't be entirely blamed on Steph Curry's slump.  Their real problem is that the Thunder now know how to beat them, and so far the Warriors haven't had an answer.  It's too reminiscent of last year's championship finals, when the Dubs figured out how to beat Cleveland in the third game, and never lost again.

 As I mentioned before, the Thunder suddenly became a killer team in the San Antonio series, better than all season. The Warriors are now going to have to prove they are the better team. So whether this is a coaching problem, personnel match-up problem, physical or psychic energy, or all of these, there's no more time for the Warriors to get it right.  Tonight's the night.