Dodgers BLECH, Giants UGH: I'm not going to wait til the end of the game to write this one. I don't think you'll disagree: Worst loss of the year.
HOWEVER. It's not a huge deal. Really, no biggie. Eugenio Velez finally gaveth back what he's been takething away the past two weeks. Call it the clank we've all been waiting for, but his egregious 5th inning error wasn't the sole reason for the Giant defeat. Joe Martinez made some good pitches, some bad pitches and got knocked around, error or no (10 baserunners in less than 5 innings -- don't get all weepy about hard luck); the Giants' bats were once again powerless before the unblinking cycloptic eye atop the Devilish Blue Pyramid. Pick your conspiracy theory, they all work here. Russell Martin + grassy knoll = You know what I'm talking about, and Joe Torre knew full well about Pearl Harbor on Dec. 5, 1941. I have proof.
But back to reality, where Giants fans can't feel too sorry for themselves: only one game back in the wild card, where our attention really should be focused anyway, Tim Lincecum pitching tomorrow, and the same offense that averaged about 5 1/2 runs a game in a 5-2 run last week is suddenly putrid because it's managed just under 3 runs a game in this current 1-4 funk?
Well, yes, sort of. Half-putrid. More like playing to our worst fears, just like when Velez drops a sure out in the middle of a key inning. It's like when you buy a lime-green Mini Cooper with red racing flames on the side, and suddenly you notice all the lime-green Mini Coopers on the road. We are human. We see what we expect to see. We buy ugly little cars. Our biases are hungry, and we feed them with morbid pleasure.
If two sour losses to the Dodgers leave you rolling up your sleeves and measuring out the razor's width, look at it this way: a win tomorrow (pitching matchup: Fresh Gnarly v. Original Gnarly!) and a Colorado loss, and this exasperating, frustrating, ill-conceived, boulder-headedly managed, palooka-for-a-GM team is tied for the wild card half way through August.
