Giants Within 1 in the West

The Giants can move back into a tie for first place with a win Tuesday, coupled with a Padres loss, as the Giants have moved to within 1 game of NL West leading San Diego.

The Giants have also apparently got their starting pitching back on track. Starting with Tim Lincecum's win last week, the Giants' starters have been outstanding over the last week or so. The team has won 4 of their last 5 because of that, as their offense still hasn't really found their groove in September yet. A prime example of this came Monday night, as the D-Backs held the Giants scoreless through 12 innings, when they finally broke through and won, 2-0. They only scored 3 runs the day before that in LA as well. There really just isn't anyone who's very hot in that lineup right now, and there are a few guys starting to struggle a bit. Andres Torres has hit a bit of a rough patch over the last week, going 2-25 in that span. The Giants outfield as a whole has really hit a rough patch. Newcomers Jose Guillen and Cody Ross started out well, but have since cooled off, and Pat Burrell has just 1 homer in has last 10 games. It's gotten to the point where Nate Schierholtz is starting to get some ab's again, and he ended up delivering the game winning hit on Monday night in AZ. Luckily, the Padres bats have sputtered more than the Giants, enabling the Giants to stick within striking distance of first place.

The Giants will try and reclaim that top spot again on Tuesday night, sending Tim Lincecum to the mound vs. young D-Back righty, Barry Enright. The 24 year-old Enright has been lights out since his promotion (6-2, 2.45 era) and won't be an easy task for the Giants. More importantly though, they're just hoping Timmy can continue his rythem from last weeks start, which was his best start in about 2 months. It's time to start the "Padre Watch" as well, and they'll be sending someone to the mound in place of Mat Latos (out with the flu) Tuesday to oppose the Dodgers' Clay Kershaw. This is a great opportunity for the Giants to move into that tie, as the pitching matchup now heavily favors LA. Also, the Wild Card race, which appears is becoming just a 2-team race between the Giants (or San Diego) and the Phillies. The Phills, who hold a 1.5 game lead on the Giants, send Joe Blanton to the mound against the Marlins Chris Volstad, Tuesday night.

Roster News: The Giants will be getting Emmanuel Burris and Eugenio Velez back on the big league roster Tuesday night as well, as the Giants have now expanded their roster to 32 players. With them being in a pennant race, again, there probably won't be many more call-ups, and certainly not any players that they don't plan on using in some way. I still would like to see Jesus Guzman brought up as a right-handed power bat off the bench, and still would like to see righty Henry Sosa get a few innings of work.