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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.

The Giants offense put together a noble (and successful) comeback effort. In the seventh inning, Posey cut the deficit to three with a solo home run. In the eighth, Renteria and Burrell cut the lead to one with back-to-back solo home runs. Finally, in the ninth, after a Cody Ross single (which he just barely beat out), Juan Uribe crushed a two-run homer to left-center field off of Dodgers closer Jonathan Broxton.

Brian Wilson came in, and after Dodgers had runners on the corners and just one out, he was able to settle down and shut the Dodgers down, securing the Giants win.

The Giants, now that the Padres have lost a staggering nine games in a row, are now just two games back in the NL West. 

Now, here are some notes:

Each day brings more evidence that Jose Guillen should not be a starting outfielder. Pat Burrell hit a home run, Andres Torres is, well, Andres Torres, and Cody Ross scored the game-tying run. Oh, yeah and Jose Guillen had a golden sombrero (four strikeouts in a game, for those of you that aren’t well-versed in baseball terminology).

Although not completely relevant to the Giants, it’s quite interesting to note that the Dodgers have not caught a runner stealing since July 23. Darren Ford stole second in the eighth inning with two outs and the Giants down 4-3.

The Giants have now executed three comebacks of four runs or more: June 4 against the Pirates; July 20 against the Dodgers (you might remember that as the game in which Bruce Bochy got Broxton taken out of the game because Mattingly stepped on the mound twice); and of course, Saturday, September 4 against the Dodgers. 

Props to Pat Burrell: he was able to come off the bench and battle for an eight-pitch at-bat, culminating in his solo home run off of Octavio Dotel. 

The Giants had four home runs. Quite satisfying.

Saturday’s game was symbolically a juxtaposition of the Dodgers’ and Giants’ relative seasons. At home, the Dodgers blew a game they should have won thanks to yet another poor performance by Broxton, who has brought the Dodgers down with him during his second-half downfall.

The Giants, in contrast, executed a beautiful comeback, and Brian Wilson was able to settle down and shut down the Dodgers to win the game, as he has done for most of 2010. 

Uribe had a WPA of .622 on Saturday: he raised the Giants’ chances of winning the game by 62.2 percent with his offensive performance. 

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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…

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The Giants won 2-1 on Wednesday and after a disastrous month of August, Tim Lincecum has rebounded. It took several starts to rediscover his rhythm, but he did his job on Wednesday night. His line: 8.0 IP, 1 ER, 5 H, 1 BB, 9 K. The nine strikeouts are certainly a promising sign, as well as the one walk. The lone run came on an opposite-field solo shot by Carlos Gonzalez. With a Cy Young Lincecum on the mound, the Giants are a force to be reckoned with. Their offense hasn’t been scoring a lot of runs lately (just 2 on Wednesday), but they did face Ubaldo Jimenez. Mike Fontenot knocked in a run with a 5th inning RBI single, and were able to score another run off of a combination of luck and small-ball: in the 8th inning, Mike Fontenot drew a walk. September call-up Darren Ford pinch ran for him, and Lincecum laid down a bunt to get him over to second. Ford attempted to steal third on a wild pitch, and the throw to third was high and flew into left field, giving Ford ample time to score. Darren Ford is going to be an asset to the Giants: previously, the best speed on their bench was Nate Schierholtz. Ford is quite a bit faster.

Meanwhile, the Giants’ foes are falling rapidly. The Padres have lost seven in a row now, and they haven’t been cheap losses. Five of the seven games they’ve lost have been by three runs or more. The Cardinals, too, are struggling, having lost 13 of their last 17. The Giants are just three games back in the NL West. They still have seven games left against the Padres, so an NL West division title is not out of the question.

Notes:

• The Giants’ starting pitching is back to doing what it does best: win games. The Giants’ starters have had four consecutive quality starts, giving up just 6 ER in 28.1 IP (ERA: 1.92); Tomorrow Barry Zito will try to continue the quality start streak. 
• Freddy Sanchez refuses to cool down: he was 2 for 4, and is now riding a nine game hit streak. During that span, he’s 20 for his last 36 (.555 average). 

Tomorrow: Giants get to rest. And maybe enjoy a Phillies loss (Joe Blanton pitching at Coors Field).

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For the past few weeks or so, the Giants starting pitching has been the subject of much criticism. The blame for the Giants’ dismal 12-15 August record has been placed upon this quintet.

The hitting was doing fine: Sanchez, Sandoval, and Torres were heating up, and Guillen, Burrell, Huff, and Uribe were providing jolts of offense here and there. But on Monday, the hitting fell silent. The Giants managed to get just four hits, and nine different Giants struck out at least once.

Jonathan Sanchez pitched the Giants’ second quality start in a row, going eight innings and giving up just one earned run, while striking out six. His control was spectacular (two walks). He came out to pitch the ninth, with a 1-0 lead, and promptly walked Dexter Fowler.

Bruce Bochy then put Wilson in the game. Carlos Gonzalez hit a fly ball that appeared to be playable by Cody Ross, but he took a quick first step, and failed to recover from it as the ball sailed over his head.

Fowler rounded the bases scoring easily, and Gonzalez dug for three. Ross relayed the ball to Freddy Sanchez, who threw a two-hopper to Pablo Sandoval. As Carlos Gonzalez was sliding into third, he slid into the ball, causing it to roll into the stands, and giving him a free pass home.

The Giants would not recover  from the 2-1 deficit, although Posey smoked a ball back at the pitcher, and Huff hit a deep fly ball to the warning track in the bottom of the ninth.

The Giants just can’t seem to get things going at the same time: when their pitching is great, their hitting fails to support it; and vice versa.

It’s going to take a decent hot streak to get this Giants team back in the playoff race.

Tomorrow: Bumgarner will get the start. He should do fine. They’ll face Esmil Rogers, whose ERA is 5.66; if the Giants lose this game…it’s totally over. But they can’t lose that game. There’s no way they are that bad.

The big question is what Tim Lincecum does in his start against the Rockies. If Lincecum can’t prove that he’s capable of performing for this Giants’ team, the Giants are skating on thin ice.

The facts are, though, that the Giants remain just 1.5 games back in the NL Wild Card. It’s a completely manageable deficit. The Padres have lost five in a row, so now’s where the Giants need to take advantage. They have all of the tools to succeed, they just need to get them all working at the same time.

There is still hope; but the Giants need to play like they did in July; not like they have played in August.

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Matt Cain is the 2010 stopper. Lincecum was the go-to guy last year; whenever the Giants had a losing streak, he would stop it; which is actually not surprising at all, considering that he pitched behind Joe Martinez and Randy Johnson for a good part of the season, and he was a Cy Young winner.

This season, Matt Cain is becoming that guy. With consecutive bad performances from Sanchez, Bumgarner, Lincecum, and Zito, Cain stopped the bleeding. It wasn’t a brilliant outing: 6.1 IP, 3 ER, 7 K; but it got the job done nevertheless. The relief was terrible, except Brian Wilson, of course. Casilla, Affeldt, and Lopez combined for four earned runs and five hits in one inning pitched. But Wilson came in and shut the door for 1.2 innings.

Five Giants had multi-hit games: 

Freddy Sanchez – 3 for 5, 2 RBI
Andres Torres – 2 for 4, 2 RBI
Matt Cain – 2 for 3, 1 R
Eli Whiteside – 2 for 4, 2 R
Pablo Sandoval – 2 for 4, 2 R

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The San Francisco Giants appear to be making a serious run at the playoffs, especially in the NL Wild Card race.

With Sept. 1 just a few days away, here are five September call-ups who could push the Giants over the edge, securing them a spot in the postseason.  

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Wednesday’s game got off to a lousy start, as Bumgarner served up three home runs. His final line was: 2.2 IP, 7 ER, 3 HR.

The Giants were at one point facing a 10-1 deficit against the Cincinnati Reds; but they rallied back. They rallied and rallied and rallied, scoring 10 runs in their third consecutive game.

With an 11-10 lead, the Giants couldn’t hold on, and would end up losing 12-11 in 12 innings, thanks in part to a throwing error by Pablo Sandoval, who really should be moved to first base ASAP.

In what’s become sort of a tradition, here are the multi-hitters from Wednesday:

• Pablo Sandoval, 4 for 6
• Mike Fontenot, 2 for 4, 2 R
• Andres Torres, 2 for 7, 2 RBI
• Jose Guillen, 2 for 5, 2 R
• Juan Uribe, 3 for 6, 1 HR, 3 RBI

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I truly thought it was gonna be hard for the Giants to best Monday’s performance. I was wrong….they are now tied for first in the NL Wild Card.

Players who had a multi-hit game on Tuesday:

Pablo Sandoval: 3 for 5, 1 HR, 4 RBI
Cody Ross: 2 for 5, 2 R
Andres Torres: 3 for 5, 4 RBI
Freddy Sanchez: 4 for 4, 1 HR, 4 R
Juan Uribe: 2 for 4, 1 HR, 2 RBI
Aubrey Huff: 2 for 4, 1 RBI
Honorable Mention – Buster Posey: 1 for 5, HR, 3 RBI

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Yes, this is an incredibly bold conclusion. Actually, I haven’t concluded anything, I’ve just posed a question.

The fact of the matter is, the Giants have an incredibly fickle nature. Remember in July, when they won 20 games in a month for the first time since September of 2000? Well, right before that month, they had a seven-game losing streak. Are they going to once again bounce back?

This is a team that can get on a roll, and dominate. They have all of the tools necessary to win a game. Their rotation is as good as any in the majors. They have a solid group of hitters—Torres, Huff, Posey, Burrell, Uribe, Guillen, Sandoval, Sanchez—the problem is, they aren’t always consistent.

Sandoval has struggled all year, but now he is starting to return to his 2009 form, or so it appears. He has four home runs in his last eight games, including his first home run of 2010 from the right side of the plate. These are promising signs. 

Aubrey Huff and Andres Torres have carried this team the entire year, amassing a combined 10-plus Wins Above Replacement by doing everything—they have versatility on the field. Torres can run, they can both hit home runs, Torres is among the top hitters in the National League in doubles, and so on…

Posey hit .440 for the month of July, and when he is hot, he rarely goes without a hit. He’s heating up again, currently riding a seven-game hitting streak during which he’s batted over .400. 

And, all the other guys—Burrell, Uribe, Guillen, Sanchez, etc.—have the tools to provide clutch hits here and there. Burrell, Uribe, and Guillen are all legitimate power threats, and Sanchez is the only Giant who can really play small ball—he always gets the bunt down when he needs to. 

Beyond Lincecum’s struggles, the rotation has really been solid. Even Lincecum has. The only problem is consistency, but after going 14 games without a win from a Giants starter, Sanchez and Bumgarner have now won back-to-back games. Lincecum, as the ace, has to be compelled to step up his game now, right? 

The Giants have a tough road ahead of them, facing St. Louis and Cincinnati, both playoff contenders. They are an inconsistent team, but they possess the tools to beat any other team in the National League—well, maybe not the Padres just yet.

The Wild Card is still within their reach, though, and if they get all the right gears clicking, they can go far. Consistency is the key though, and for such a fickle-natured team, it is impossible to say whether they will get all the right gears clicking. 

Their defense is average at best, with Guillen, Burrell, and Sandoval having minimal range. If they can manage to keep runs to a minimum, though, score some runs with their starting lineup in the earlier innings, then put in defensive replacements, the Giants could very well succeed. 

Potential is a word often thrown around, but it’s true—this Giants team has great potential. Will it be fulfilled?

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Relievers are often called upon when a strikeout is necessary to prevent the other team from scoring. Here are the five relievers that are best at striking hitters out, based on their K/9 rate. 

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