Week 8: Posey, Cain spark San Fran renaissance; Doc paints perfection in Florida

• A 5-1 week places the Giants back in the realm of competence as the Giants finished off a sweep of the Diamondbacks with a thrilling come-from-behind win that featured a 2-run 9th-inning rally and a walkoff hit from outfielder Andres Torres.  Offense highlighted the final two innings, but it was the defense that set them up - Schierholtz and Sanchez threw out key runners (highlights here and here) trying to take an extra base, keeping the game within reach.  Lincecum had a bad day on Wednesday and the Giants needed a 3-run rally in the 7th inning off former Giant Tyler Walker to overcome a semi-poor start from Zito on Thursday, but the bottom of the rotation rose to the occasion.  Wellemeyer preserved his job status with two quality starts at home to start off and end the week, Sanchez held the Diamondbacks to one run in 5 innings in a 12-1 rout on Saturday, and Cain topped them all with a dominating one-hit shutout of the Diamondbacks on Friday.  Other notes:
• Perhaps the headline of the week, if not Cain's one hitter, should be the call-up of long awaited prospect Buster Posey - tasked with providing a stimulus to an oft dormant offense.  The result? Two three-hit games (highlights here and here) and 4 RBIs.  When can we start calling him our savior?
• Andres Torres appears to have turned a corner, seemingly becoming the leadoff hitter the Giants desperately need.  Torres batted .417 this week, scored 9 runs, and stole 2 bases.  His season average is now at .307 and he currently leads the team in both doubles and stolen bases.  Combined with apparent resurgences from Freddy Sanchez and Pablo Sandoval, the Giants have a very solid 1-2-3 punch in the top of their lineup right now.
• Aaron Rowand continues to struggle - I believe that it's time to bench him.  The Giants need to put Torres in center and Schierholtz in right.  This gives them their optimal lineup of: Torres (CF), Sanchez (2B), Sandoval (3B), Huff (LF), Uribe (SS), Posey (1B), Molina (C), and Schierholtz (RF).  Schierholtz has done well at the plate this year and his defense in right field - especially that cannon of an arm - cannot be understated.  Perhaps Rowand will regain his stroke again with some time off.
• Of course, the other big story: Roy Halladay, who I've always thought of as a workhorse rather than a no-hit type pitcher, etched his name in history with a perfecto - 27 up and 27 down in Miami against the Florida Marlins.  (Let's not forget the effort of his counterpart Josh Johnson either - he pitched 7 stellar innings himself, giving up just one unearned run.) It's the second perfect game this month (the other being Braden's perfect game in Oakland on Mother's day).  This a bit of a surprising statistic, considering that there have only been 20 perfect games in over a century of baseball.  In fact, 3 of those perfect games have actually occurred within the last year (see Buerhle vs. Rays last season).   Coincidence?  Maybe...
• Not really sure what to say about this.  Joe West  (if you remember, he also called out the Yankees and Red Sox for taking too long during games - I completely agree with him on that, but I'm not so sure about this.) comes under fire again after ejecting Buerhle and hotheaded manager Ozzie Guillen for arguing two questionable balk calls.  Heck, even the announcer called him out, saying that he "deserved a suspension."
• The Nationals survived a 9th inning scare on Friday with some wild pitching from Capps, who gave up 4 singles to start the inning but retired the next 3 to preserve the save.  That didn't save them from dropping the next two games against the Padres, however; the Pads still hold the division lead, 2 games over the Dodgers and 2.5 over the Giants.
• Santana throws 8 shutout innings - and loses.  Brewers countered with a complete game shutout from Gallardo and two-run walkoff homerun in the 9th to win it.
• Greinke gives up one run, loses.
• Max Scherzer made the most of his 5.2 inning start today, striking out just about everybody he faced (14 to be exact) without giving up a run.
• Pujols hit 3 homers today, perhaps his "slump" is finally over.
• Perhaps the catch of the year: http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=8476941
• How to hit a game winning homerun: http://losangeles.angels.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=8527779
• How not to hit a game winning homerun: http://losangeles.angels.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=8493341
• Squirrels are evil.  Not only have they attacked neighborhoods, now they're trying to invade our national pastime.  They must be stopped - join the war, end the terrorism.

Other news:

• Another Lakers-Celtics matchup for the NBA finals... it's getting old guys, just about anybody else would've been less boring.
• Blackhawks took a 1-0 lead in the NHL finals on Saturday... hard to get interested in though, now that the Sharks have choked again.
• Heartwarming story of a boy and his childhood hero........ wait, what? Ochocinco?
• Jet + fast = awesome.
• Iron Man 2 was good, but not as good as the first one.
• Season finale of Chuck was AWESOME.  Can't wait for next year.
• Tomorrow is Memorial Day.