Post-game thread: Carlos Beltran 1, National League 0

There's a sick part of me that thinks it would be funny if the Giants kept winning, and Carlos Beltran didn't hit a lick. Totally ledéed it. Made us long for the days of Jose Guillen stumbling around in right field. Oh, the talk radio. Oh, the internets. Oh, the talking heads. It would be funny. Kind of.

Of course, the caveat is that the Giants would have to keep winning for that to be funny. As is, it's refreshing to see the Giants win in their own inimitable style. Hey, they tried to win by one run. Rowand hit a double-play ball, but the Phillies started throwing it around. Ryan Howard lollygagged the ball around the infield. He lollygagged his way down to first. He lollygagged in and out of the dugout. You know what that made him? Overpaid.

It feels mighty good to beat the team with the best record in the league, and it feels really good to do it in their own park. Take away the name and the history -- if this series were against Nationals, Expos, or Senators, it would still feel pretty good. But then you add in the history?

 

Yeah, that makes a series like this feel just a tidge better.

The obvious caveat: the Giants didn't hit against Cliff Lee and Roy Halladay. Yes, I know the joke is that the Giants didn't have a problem with those two pitchers last year, but they're really, really, really, really good. Really, really, really, really, really good. The Giants faced Kyle Kendrick tonight. He's like the Guillermo Mota of the Phillies, and the Giants didn't exactly slap him around.

The double-reverse rejoinder to the caveat: the Phillies did hit against Matt Cain and Tim Lincecum. Rather, they didn't hit so much. A weak, nauseous Lincecum still gave the Giants six scoreless innings, and where most teams have to trot out something like the remains of Jeff Juden for the seventh inning, the Giants are well set up for the middle innings. Didn't even have to use our Javier Lopez; I got to say it was a good game.

If the Giants had won on a Carlos Beltran something-or-rather, it would have been pretty exciting. It would have been an obvious storyline -- the one-man cavalry. As is, Beltran had the Huff game and Huff had the Beltran game. I don't really care how they divvy it up, as long as someone gets the hitting talent.

This doesn't mean a thing for next week. Four games! And it doesn't really mean a thing for the playoffs, should these two teams get there and meet again. No Lee, no Halladay, not enough Beltran, more Zito than the Surgeon General recommends ... it wasn't a true representation of the two teams' strengths. But it sure feels pretty danged good to take that series.