Giants In Drivers Seat for Final Week

The final week of the regular season is officially upon us, and it's now do or die time for all teams scurrying to make that last postseason push. The Giants start a 3-game series with the Arizona Diamondbacks Tuesday night before returning home to host the Padres the final 3-game set of the year, and the one that should ultimately decide the fates of both teams.

As we stand now though, the Giants have a 1 game lead on the Padres as we start play Tuesday, so they, in essence, control their own destiny. They send Jonathan Sanchez to the mound against the D-Backs' Rodrigo Lopez in a pitching match which heavily favors the Giants. Sanchez has been an in absolute groove lately too, as he's allowed just 3 runs over his last 5 starts. Unfortunately, he's still battling some wildness, which is spiking his pitch count early, and forcing him out of games in the 6th and 7th innings, even when he's throwing shutout or 1-run baseball. But as all Giants fans know, it's not necessarily the pitching that any one's worried about. As they've showed throughout most of September, when they score runs, they win, and they don't generally have to score a bunch either. Outside of that wacky game in Colorado Saturday, the Giants don't really have trouble beating teams when they score 3 or more runs. In fact, that game in Colorado has been the only one all month in which the Giants have scored 3 or more runs and have lost the game. The pitching is on right now, both the starters and the bullpen. Rookie Buster Posey hit the nail on the head this weekend when he was quoted as saying "If we give this staff a little run support, we're going to be tough". The hitters know they hold the key to this thing, and right now, they're responding.

In effort to ensure that ever so important offense is clicking on all cylinders, the Giants activated Andres Torres from the DL about 7-10 days quicker than the earliest anyone had been anticipating. Torres started Saturday's game and homered in his return to the top of the lineup. The Giants have been getting some good performances out of Cody Ross lately too, and he's been one of the hottest bats on the team over the last week. Over his last 4 games, Ross is 6-14 with 3 homers and 5 RBI. He's now given Bruce Bochy a solid back-up plan in-case Torres is not quite ready for everyday duty, and if he keeps it up, he may force himself into a full-on platoon situation with Torres in center field. Right fielder Jose Guillen has also gone a bit cold over the last week (no homers or RBI since September 19th), and Ross could find himself out in right field against arms that Guillen isn't familiar with. Guillen has been solid since his arrival from Kansas City, hitting .289, but he just hasn't quite been the run producer the Giants were hoping they'd get. Still, he is very streaky though, and he's about due for another 2-3 homer, 10-RBI series, so let's hope he's saving it for San Diego.