Giants Slug Dodgers In L.A.

I'm guilty of writing off the Giants no less than three times this season, most recently after the loss to Colorado Thursday. I was at that game and the Giants were going through their usual "where-is-waldo" offensive drought. Fans started leaving around the seventh and eight innings as Colorado held a 4-0 lead with no sign of Giants hitting in sight. Then in the 9th "Waldo" arrives and the Giants rally for three runs and in losing the game give us fans something to hang our hopes on going into L.A. for a critical three game series.

So last night's Giants/Dodgers match-up was tough for any Giants fan to tune into knowing that this could seal their non-playoff fate for 2009. My excuse for flipping away from the game a few times was that I knew my Giants, with a 1-1 tie into the 3rd inning, would lose track of "Waldo" as the Dodgers began their usual home run attack. The Dodgers produced home runs in the 4th and 5th innings only this time the Giants didn't lose "Waldo." Building off Kung Fu Panda's three run homer in the 3rd, the Giants kept "Waldo" alive while their pitching shutdown the Dodgers bats.

The SF GIANTS stand 2.5 games behind the Colorado Rockies for the wild-card spot thanks in part to a Rockies 5-7 loss last night against the Diamondbacks. We Giants fans find ourselves in an awkward yet enviable position. We have the excitement of being in a wild-card race, however, we and everyone else knows our weakness of losing "Waldo" and relying on pitching to get us through games. But that was before last Sunday's broom stealing 7-2 win over the Dodgers. Before that we'd scored more than 4 runs only once in the past eleven games. Since then we're finding "Waldo" and are a threat to produce runs in any inning.

With the Giants 8-2 win over the Dodgers last night, we fans who've stuck with them through this season are getting much more than we bargained for in April. Hold on to your hats guys and gals, the fat lady has been led off the stage without as much as a peep.

Go Giants!