Week 5: East Coast Swing

I have finals to study for so I'll try to keep this brief...

• Giants went 4-2 this week, sweeping the Marlins in Florida and squeaking out an ugly win today in New York to avoid being swept themselves.  The Giants won on both Lincecum starts, but he failed to get the win in either one of them, thanks to defensive and bullpen meltdowns.  On Tuesday, the Giants survived two three-run shots thanks to a game tying homerun with 2 down in the ninth from Aaron Rowand and a 12th inning rally.  On Wednesday, Sergio Romo preserved a shaky 3-1 Giants lead in the 8th by escaping Zito's bases loaded 0 outs jam without giving up a single run.  On Thursday, Cain's stellar pitching allowed the Giants to cruise to a series sweep.  Two consecutive walkoff losses would dampen the Giants' roadtrip in New York, but the Giants rallied for a win today, despite blowing a 4-0 lead and trailing 5-4 heading into the 8th.  Rowand hit a 2 run shot that put the Giants up for good and Wilson solved the bullpen problem himself, recording a 5 out save with 5 strikeouts.
• More good news: Dodgers still suck.  The pitching continues to be a problem, as Kershaw got lit up by Milwaukee on Tuesday, giving up 7 runs in just 1.1 innings, and Charlie Haeger could not record a single out in the first inning last night against the Rockies.
• Padres are still on top of the NL West, but the Giants were able to pick up a game on them today thanks to Pedro Feliz's (Remember him?) game-tying sacrifice fly in the 9th inning.  Giants are now half a game back in the NL West and will play the Padres at home in a 3 game set on Monday.
• Surprise: Scott Olsen (who??) almost pitched a no-hitter for the Nationals (What??) on Thursday, lasting 7 innings before giving up his first hit.  The Nationals would go on to win in the bottom of the 9th despite blowing a 2-0 lead.
• Bigger Surprise: Livan Hernandez is now 4-1 with a 1.04 ERA.  WTF?
• Sign that the end of the world is coming: Nationals are tied for second place in the NL East and only two back of the Phillies.
• Ubaldo Jimenez is now 6-0, and going for his 7th win against the Dodgers as I type this.  Dodgers are currently leading 1-0 in the 7th, however.
• Brad Lidge is back - recording his first save of 2010 today.  Question is: will we see 2008 Lidge or the Pujols/injury-scarred Lidge?
• UPDATE: Dallas "GET OFF MY MOUND" Braden has just thrown a perfect game in Oakland against the Rays.

Other news:

• Sharks made it to the conference finals.  Seriously.  No joke here.  They wrapped up their series against Detroit at home last night with a remarkable performance from goalie Evgeni Nabokov despite his horrific play in Game 4.  They will await the winner of the Chicago-Vancouver series.
• Awesome quote from my SI calendar: "Bayarmaa Tsogtbaatar, Mongolian beach volleyball player, on how she expects her country to fare at this week's Asian games: "Beach volleyball in Mongolia is very difficult, because we don't have any beaches." "
• Oil spill still uncontained in the Gulf of Mexico.. BP is in some serious trouble.
• Iron Man 2 is out.. I haven't seen it though...