Oh, correlation/causation fetishists must have enjoyed that one. Freed from the tyranny of two players who weren't playing anymore, the Giants' offense was unstoppable. Without Aaron Rowand and Miguel Tejada, the Giants played with a passion they haven't had for months. Or it was all a big coincidence. Whatever.
The third run was the one the Giants weren't getting in August. Bunt, bunt, bunt, bloop. The Giants can't score a lot of runs even when they're Padreing opponents like a normal team, but when you take the fluky bloops away from them ... man. That's where the real ugliness was over the last month. The Giants were awful and unlucky. Dig that .162/.289/.247 line with runners in scoring position and two outs. That's for the season, by the way. Over the last month, the Giants have been worse.
I'd love to think this is the day the Giants woke up. Today is the first day of the rest of the season, in which the rest of the season has a bunch of Giants wins and Diamondbacks losses. I'm just not sure that there's enough time. In theory there is -- if the Giants could go from four games up to six games back in a month, the reverse can happen. Stranger things have happened in baseball. Just not that often.
But if it does happen, it started here. Madison Bumgarner reminded everyone that the Giants still have an embarrassment of starting-pitching riches. He had one of those games he used have in Augusta, where we'd have no choice but to stare at the minor-league box score the following morning. We'd look at eight shutout innings, with five times as many strikeouts as walks, and dream about what he could possibly do in AA. It's so amazing to watch him do it in the majors. Doesn't get old. And he's still at an age where he's probably still into Twilight and Nintendos and crap. Imagine what will happen when he matures!
Today's win isn't going to matter much if the Rockies continue to ninety-three their way down the tubes. It's probably not going to matter much at all. But for a day, it's nice to not be grossed out by the Giants. The only thing that would have made this game more satisfying is if Carlos Beltran and Brandon Belt were responsible for all of the scoring. Oh, well. At least we've confirmed that Keppinger's bat is unstoppable. I hope the Giants offer arbitration to him and Fontenot both. It'll be nice to have the infield depth behind Freddy Sanchez (if he can lift his arm above his waist again.)
Right now, though, it's time to just sit back and party like it's December of 2007, when the Giants were last Rowand-free. They were also terrible back then. Let's hope we can have one without the other.