Weeks 9 and 10: Sweep Revenge

• Giants went a nice 8-5 during the past two weeks, thanks mainly to a sizzling Matt Cain who went 3-0 and lowered his ERA to 2.05.  At this rate, he's beginning to put his name back into Cy Young consideration. They began week 9 with a 3 game set against the Rockies.  Lincecum failure to keep his end of what was supposed to be an epic pitcher's duel with Jimenez and the inability of the Giants offense to back Barry Zito's stellar start caused the Giants to drop the first two games of the series.  They followed that series up by taking 2 out of 3 from Pittsburgh; Lincecum finally began to snap his funk, throwing 7 good innings and giving up 3 runs.  Giants could certainly have done better in Cincinnati - they won the first two games of the four game set but dropped the other two, failing to make much off Harang and blowing a late lead in a game where Wellemeyer left early due to injury.  But, we should be satisfied - splitting a road series with a division leader isn't bad at all.  To conclude week 10, the Giants exacted sweet revenge on the crosstown rival A's, sweeping the series and making up for three-game sweep they suffered in Oakland a month ago.  Lincecum, Zito, Cain provided excellent starts - three LQS (Lincecum-Quality Start: defined by me as 7+ IP, 2 ER or less, and a 4:1 K:BB ratio), I might add  - and the Giants offense provided just enough to overcome a semi-shaky bullpen.  
• Zito earned his first win against the A's this weekend.  With this win, Zito now has a win against every team in the MLB.
• Buster Posey, despite his 0 for 4 today, continues to impress, and hit his first major league homerun on Thursday - a second decker.  He's got a cannon for an arm too.
• With Wellemeyer injured, Joe Martinez is expected to pitch in his place on Tuesday against the Orioles.  If you remember, he's the pitcher that got a concussion last season after taking a line drive at his head.
• Wilson did it again on Saturday.  He protected a 1 run lead by escaping a bases loaded, 1 out situation in the 8th inning and worked 1.2 innings for the save.  I think the broadcasters sum it up nicely after the game here.
• Huff has done very well since his poor April; he hit two two-run homers (one two) today to back Cain's start and has raised his average to .300.
• Golden Tate?  Seriously?
• Oh yeah, the Angels swept the Dodgers too.  It was a good weekend.  Giants now sit just half a game back of the Dodgers in the Wildcard and 1.5 back of the Padres in the NL West.
• Galarraga's spoiled gem shows that a perfect game requires a total team effort, and that includes the umpire too.  Galarraga got an apology and a new car though, so all is well.
• Diamondbacks dropped 10 games in a row, including 3 straight in walkoff fashion, before finally walking off themselves in a 9th inning comeback against Manny Corpas.
• Jose Bautista continues to surprise everybody with his early season success.  He has 18 homeruns for the Toronto Blue Jays, good enough for 2nd most in the majors behind Cabrera's 17.  Looking at his career track record...... WTF? (Dare I say steroids?)
• With the Red Sox heating up, the AL East has become one scary division.  They arguably have four top-ten teams in the majors: the Rays and the Yankees continue to stand on top but the Halladay-less Blue Jays have been a nice surprise and the Red Sox sit just 4 games back.
• Awesome headline: "Jimenez wins 11th as ERA rises to 0.93"  When your ERA rises to 0.93 for your 11th win of the season, that's pretty damn amazing.  Jimenez was "roughed up" a bit on Friday, however; he gave up 3 runs in a rain-shortened win over the Blue Jays.
• Greinke finally wins a game.  He's now 2-8 on the season.  Yes, 2-8.  Some of those losses were his fault, but come on, 2-8???  How can a team possibly screw their pitcher over that much?
• Here's why you shouldn't throw a fastball down the middle to a guy, even if he's never seen a major league pitch in his life:  Daniel Nava hit a grand slam on the first pitch he saw from Joe Blanton, becoming just the second player to do so on their first MLB pitch.
• We nearly had a double-no hitter in Chicago today; both Gavin Floyd of the White Sox and Ted Lilly traded no-hit innings until the 7th, when Chicago scratched out two hits and a run off Floyd.  Lilly would lose his no-hit bid in the 9th thanks to a Juan Pierre single, but Marmol's excellent relief work would work the Cubs out of a 2nd and 3rd, nobody out jam to preserve the 1-0 win.

Other News:

• Lots of headlines in college football:
• Nebraska leaves the Big 12 for the Big Ten.
• Colorado joins the Pac-10.
• Many other teams (including Oklahoma and Texas) might leave the Big 12 for the Pac-10 - we could potentially have a Pac-16 superconference by 2012, with two subdivisions consisting of the 8 original teams (UCLA, USC, Cal, Stanford, WSU, Washington, Oregon, OSU) and the 8 newer teams.
• USC caught cheating.  Numerous wins forfeited, including some from 2004.  Two year ban on bowl games.  Loss of numerous scholarships.  Cal, by default, is the 2004 Pac-10 champion (YEAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!), even if the conference refuses to recognize that.
• Jeremiah Masoli released by the ducks.
• Giant sinkhole in Guatemala.
• Lakers down 3-2 to the Celtics.  Just one more and the Baby Killers will be defeated.
• College rhetoric sucks, the readings make no sense and neither do my essays.
• Karate Kid was nice, but I expected more comedy, not Jackie Chan actually crying - touching scene though.