Giants Hanging On By Thread

I have to admit, with the way the Giants finished up August and started September, I was fairly certain they weren't going to the postseason. But with a little over a week left in the season, here they are, still hanging onto hope by a thread and doing all they can to keep their chances alive.

The Giants have all the sudden hit an 8-game winning streak and it's rejuvenated their season, albeit in the very final stages. The youngsters like Belt and Surkamp have provided a nice shot in the arm, but it's really been about that middle and combo of Carlos Beltran, who's definitely found his groove as a Giant, again, about a month later than everyone would have hoped, but it's happening at least. His presence though has been absolutely huge for Pablo Sandoval though, who's just turned into a power hitting machine since Beltran's arrival. For most of the season, Pablo was hitting the ball hard, but still didn't have an overwhelming number of homers at the all-star break, but now you look up and all the sudden he's at 22 on the year and coming very close to that amazing 2009 campaign he had. Put the Giants in first place in the West and take back those 6 weeks he missed because of injury and you'd be looking at a certifiable MVP-candidate. Again though, you have to credit Beltran at least a little bit for Pablo's improvements. Now that Beltran himself has gotten hot too, it's forcing pitchers to go after Pablo more and we saw what happens when they do on Sunday in Colorado (3-4, 2 HR, 4 RBI)! They say truly good players make people around them better, we'll, we're finally seeing that come out in Beltran, and I think it will show the Giants brass that they indeed need to pursue another big bat in free agency, be it Beltran or someone else, they need to enter next year with Sandoval, Posey and some other big-bat in the middle to have a formidable 3-4-5.

But, we can't start talking about next year just yet, as the Giants are just 3.5 back in the Wild Card and still breathing in the West with a series still to play vs. Arizona. What we've seen happen during this win streak is the offense break out, but the pitching, especially starting pitching, slip just a little. They can't have that any more. They're facing a hot team in the Dodgers right now and have to deal with Clayton Kershaw and Matt Kemp and they need their pitching on point to beat both of them. At least the Giants get to counter Kershaw with their own ace in Timmy, and it's a good thing too because Lincecum has been lights out in his last 2 starts. The Giants also have the bearded one back in the bullpen, as he threw in the 8th inning of Sunday's game and had a perfect 1-2-3 inning. I'd assume he'll retake his closers role immediately and stay there for this last week, even if he's not %100. The Giants are making it interesting, which is something we all would have taken 2 weeks ago, and it looks like this season could very well come down to the final weekend. It's time to put up or go home but the Giants have already shown that you can't bet against them or count them out until they're actually out!