Week 4: A Passing Grade

• The Giants have passed their litmus test - a 9 game stretch featuring three of last year's playoff contenders - the Cardinals, Phillies, and the Rockies.  The Giants took two of the first three against all three opponents (though the bullpen and Velez really blew it on Wednesday, costing Lincecum a much deserved win), going 6-3 in the stretch.  This bodes well for the Giants, who look to make the playoffs for the first time since 2003.  Lincecum will lead the team into Florida on Tuesday (Wellemeyer's start to be skipped to prevent Lincecum from getting too much rest - Wellemeyer pitched 2.1 innings in relief in a loss today) for a three game series, and they'll head to New York for a three game weekend series after that.  Notes:
• Zito continues to roll, as he limited the Rockies to two runs in 8 innings on Saturday.  For the second game in a row, he brought the AT&T crowd to their feet, as fans filled the stadium with chants of "BAR-RY! BAR-RY! BAR-RY!"
• Jonathan Sanchez was wild today, walking 5 batters, and was unable to pitch past the 5th.  Medders came in for "relief" and promptly allowed both inherited baserunners to score.  The troubling issue here is whether Sanchez is headed toward another May slump - his career ERA in May (5.54) is over 2.5 points higher than his career ERA in April (3.01).
• Speaking of Sanchez-es, Freddy Sanchez is expected back soon, while Aaron Rowand returned to the lineup for the first time since being hit in the head by Vicente Padilla.  Hopefully, the return of Sanchez will give the Giants a much needed offensive boost.
• Huff hit another homer today (albeit a useless one) and now has 4 on the year.  Huff has always been a slow starter in his career, so hopefully this is a sign of good things to come.
• Don't test Schierholtz's arm.  Here's why.
• The Pittsburgh Pirates snapped a 22-game losing streak in Milwaukee (yes, 22 games.), thanks to more struggles from Trevor Hoffman.  Ronny Cedeno led off the 9th with a game-tying homerun and Ryan Doumit put the Pirates on top for good with a grand slam to end their misery in Milwaukee.  Hoffman would proceed to blow a second straight save against Pittsburgh the following day, prompting a temporary change in closers in Milwaukee and putting his quest for 600 saves at a standstill for now. Latroy Hawkins will most likely manage closing duties for the time being.
• The A's snapped a 4 game losing streak against Toronto yesterday, but they have certainly fallen from their quick start.  They are now 13-13, having gone 1-5 this week, but they're still only half a game back in an AL West where nobody seems to want to take control of the division.  Look for the Mariners to make a move now that they have Cliff Lee back... although, they're going to need their offense to do better than it has of late.  Mariners starters tossed 26 scoreless innings this weekend, and yet they lost all three games.
• Ubaldo Jimenez is now 5-0.
• Tuesday was a good day.  Why?  The Dodgers lost not once, but twice!
• Astros and Orioles still suck.
• Lidge is back - he'll be eased back into the role, however, despite Ryan Madsen's self-inflicted anger tantrum injury.
• Padres stay hot, winning 5 of 7 and holding their ground atop the NL West.
• Greinke remains winless this year, despite throwing 8 innings of 1-run ball today.  The Royals offense was shut down by Wade Davis and the Rays bullpen.  Evan Longoria's homerun accounted for the only run.  Meanwhile, Jaime Moyer won again, despite holding a 5+ ERA, and now is 3-2 on the year.  I wonder how pissed Greinke must be.

Other news:

• Sharks performed admirably this week in the second round of the playoffs.  In Game 1, the Sharks got to rookie goalie Jimmy Howard early, scoring 3 goals in a span of about 90 seconds in the 1st period, and managed to hang on for a 4-3 win.  In Game 2, the Sharks won another game by the score of 4-3, but this time they played from behind, needing to overcome a 3-2 deficit in the third period; 10 power plays as well as 43 faceoff wins out of 69 faceoffs allowed the Sharks to dominate play throughout the game, while Joe Thornton chose an opportune time to score his first goal of the playoffs, giving the Sharks a 4-3 lead 12:37 into the third period.  Overall, however, it was the other Joe - "Little Joe" Pavelski - that proved to be the hero on both nights, scoring two goals and notching an assist in both contests.  He became the first player since 1992 to have three consecutive multi-goal games in the playoffs, the first player since 1996 to get three points in three straight playoff games, and now leads all of the NHL with 9 playoff goals this year.  (Check out this awesome Pavelski commercial by the way.)  San Jose will now head into Detroit with a 2-0 series lead, looking to put an end to their playoff ineptitude.  (Highlights from the first two games here and here.)
• March madness will now consist of 68 teams instead of 65.
• Tiger Woods is struggling.
• Only two more weeks of school left for me, I'm actually not really looking forward to summer since nobody gets out of school this early except Berkeley kids...