I've written a lot of dumb things in my time, but I'm really, really, really glad I didn't write a "What's wrong with Madison Bumgarner?" post last week. Thing would have aged like a Nehru jacket. But I was worried about Bumgarner -- not his stuff, but the idea that he was tipping pitches, which could have been something that made him wonky for a few starts as he adjusted.
So welcome to Giants baseball, American League. Eight runs, three wins, and a bunch of triple-A hitters celebrating as you wonder what in the hell happened. And while all of you smartasses who joked about the Giants winning on a catcher's interference call tonight were wrong, they did win on a Chris Stewart RBI single, which is statistically rarer.
As always, the news of a winning streak is tempered with a player leaving because of injury, but hopefully Pablo Sandoval is okay. The good news is that the Giants have all sorts of players who can fill in -- Miguel Tejada, Bill Hall, I'll bet Rowand could play some third -- so they'll be just fine.
It'd sure be swell if the Giants could win while scoring a bunch of runs, but I guess it's tacky to look for style points. Over the past 22 games, the Giants have scored more than five runs once. They've averaged 2.7 runs per game during that stretch. They went 13-9.
Giants baseball. Again. We'll all have a good laugh about this in 2015 when Buster Posey, Joe Panik, Gary Brown, Brandon Belt, and Pablo Sandoval all make the All-Star team. Right now, it's more of a nervous chuckle, and it can turn to rage at the first scoreless loss. But if there's anything more frustrating than rooting for this team right now, it's rooting against them. Not a bad spot to be in.