It's good to see Barry Bonds show that he has his swing back, as he was driving every pitch he saw. Some left the park, others one-hopped the wall, but the important thing is that Barry Bonds is absolutely fine. He's righted himself, and the season can continue. He's looking like the old Bonds. And even though it seems like you're trying to tell me something, I can't hear you. Lalalalalala lalalalala lalalala lalalala. Bonds is fine. Lalalala lalalalala lalalalala.
Now that we've settled that, the rest of the team still worries me. This weekend the Giants were like a kid who took a multiple-choice test, blindly filled in "C." for every answer, and still walked away with a B+. Sure, Pedro Feliz is sitting in the back with a No. 2 pencil up his nose, but the team effort is what counts here. The Giants played some airtight baseball this weekend, won the series without hitting, and proud we are of all of them.
While it's certainly disconcerting to watch the Giants flail at the plate, it helps to remember the offense is underperforming, even compared with the lowest of expectations. Yes, Omar Vizquel is hitting like Ichiro! in his prime, and we can't continue to expect that. But that's the only hitter really hitting over his head. Mike Matheny is not a good hitter, but he's also not a .150 hitter. Feliz certainly has his flaws, but he's going to hit over .240, and he will eventually slug a homer every once in a while. Ray Durham has been consistent enough over his career to earn my trust through his ugly slump. For about three more games, that is. Maybe two.
The Giants have been absolutely lucky. They've limited teams with runners in scoring position, and done it so drastically it would be silly to continue to hope for the same luck going forward. They've been lucky that the three hitters not in a slump have all been hitting consecutively in the batting order, with a guy slumping his way to a .450-OBP right in the middle. They've been lucky in several other ways, but this isn't the real team, either. Weird stuff can happen in a sample of 11 games, and it's just as likely for the Giants to hit .320 for a week as it is for them to hit .220.
We'll know more about the state of the team in three or four weeks. A week with 10 extra-base hits from Durham would have us all cursing someone else. Feliz whapping a homer in every Coors Field game would do the same. The Giants have been very lucky to ride a slumping offense to a winning record, but I really don't care. Because while the small sample size of 11 games can mess with our perceptions in a hundred different ways, at least the team is winning. I'll worry about what underlying truth is behind the numbers when I need to.