Giants Win 8-3 a Month Too Late

Mike Fontenot makes this picture. He's standing on the top step, I believe.

The Giants jumped out to a 3-0 lead behind Eric Surkamp on homers by Cody Ross and Carlos Beltran. They added a run but then the Padres cut the lead to one run, making it 4-3 against the Giants squishy young middle relief. Then the Giants -- for the first time all season -- went "Oh whoops, let's get some more runs" so Pablo Sandoval went out and drilled a three-run opposite-field homer. They just added more runs, like it was no big deal. Like they were the Red Sox or something. Back-to-back 8-run games. You know when it would have been nice to have back-to-back 8-run games? AT LITERALLY ANY OTHER POINT IN THE SEASON. This is the type of game they should have been having against the Astros, or the Cubs, or the Astros again, or hey, against Arizona. That would have been cool, too. But now the Giants are just playing out the string, so of course now is when they suddenly decide they can hit the baseball with their wooden batons. Whatever.

I would really like Carlos Beltran to return next year, but all reports indicate he's doing everything short of sitting in front of his locker, openly muttering "I've made a huge mistake" over and over.

TCB - Mets 5, Dodgers 3

Fig. 1 - A Perfect Curveball

Back in 2006, the last time the Mets made the playoffs, they would celebrate each home victory by playing Bachman Turner Overdrive's 'Taking Care of Business.'  I loved it for its simplicity, as if the team was acknowledging "Yes, we are in the business of winning baseball games!"  You can only control the game you're playing that night, and if last night's 5-3 win was nothing remarkable - no homers, a pretty pedestrian pitching performance by Jon Niese, and nobody really filling up the stat sheet - at least it kept the modest four-game winning streak alive, improved the Mets' record during this critical stretch of the season to 8-4, and kept them undefeated for a West Coast trip, when they traditionally perform dreadfully.  

Things are going so well right now that I can easily brush off ridiculously hacky troll jobs and even ALMOST stomach Reyes' pretty-much inevitable DL trip, which will take him out of the All-Star Game and Philadelphia series.  Also, I didn't realize that the Phillies were capable of losing, which they did last night.  Now all the Braves have to do is get into the act, and baby, we've got a stew goin'.  


ETA:  WHATTUP