Giants were World Champs for a reason

The San Francisco Giants (80-70) beat the Colorado Rockies (70-79) 8-5 tonight to capture their fifth win in a row. Pablo Sandoval had the big night, hitting for the cycle. Sandoval has had a great, comeback season after having a subpar year last season. I realize the Giants are a longshot for this season, but I want to talk about last year.

Now, people have been ragging about the Giants lately. But what particularly has stood out is when people have said the Giants weren't the best team last year or "just got hot at the right time." But, it's really not worth a lot of words since the Giants won the World Series. As I have blogged about before, in baseball you have to have a darn good season to make the playoffs, if you make it you have been consistent all year and deserve to be there.

If the Giants weren't the best team, how come nobody beat them in the playoffs? If they just got hot at the right time, how come teams didn't keep them from the playoffs? For example, they split the season series with the Phillies, who were widely regarded as the "best" National League team. There is a quote from long-time Ohio State football coach Woody Hayes that I often like to use in these situations: "The best team always wins: everything else is excuses." The Giants have the rings and the trophy and that means they were the best team last year. Case closed.

National League wins second straight All-Star Game

The National League defeated the American League tonight 5-1 in the Major League Baseball All-Star Game in Phoenix. It was the second straight All-Star win for the NL after a long winless streak. Prince Fielder of the Milwaukee Brewers (49-43) had the decisive blow with a 3-run home run in the 4th inning. Fielder was a deserving recipient of the game's MVP Award.

I have long felt that baseball has the best of all the All-Star Games in professional sports. The players are competitive and look like they are actually trying to win. This year was no different, with the exception of a few players like Derek Jeter who claimed to be injured and didn't show up despite playing in his team's most recent game. Stuff like that just isn't acceptable; I know I wrote my last blog about Jeter's 3000th hit and what a moment was -- I stand by that, but it doesn't make it right for him to stiff the All-Star Game.

Anyway, the All-Star Game was an impressive display of pitching by the National League. It was cool to see Brian Wilson of the World Champion San Francisco Giants (52-40) get the save and look pretty impressive in doing it. I also enjoyed Pablo Sandoval's RBI double in his first All-Star appearance.

I'm glad the National League won to give it home field advantage for the World Series, particularly for the possibility of my World Champion Giants reaching the Fall Classic for the second straight year. It's dumb that the All-Star Game decides home field advantage, but it will be a plus that I'll be happy to see the Giants have should they advance to the World Series again.

Sandoval out with fractured hamate bone

The World Champion San Francisco Giants (13-13) beat the Washington Nationals (12-14) today at Nationals Park 2-1, but that was not the story of the day. Third baseman Pablo Sandoval (.313 avg., 5 hr, 14 rbi) will be out 4 to 6 weeks with a fractured hamate bone in his right hand. This is really a tough break because Sandoval was off to a great start after working hard in the offseason to get into better shape.

The Giants have been rather putrid on offense lately and this only makes matters more difficult. It's actually pretty remarkable that the Giants are at .500 right now as well as 3-2 on this current road trip with how poorly they have been playing on offense at times. That is once again a testament to the pitching staff. I don't think everyone will stay cold forever, though. Andres Torres will hopefully be off the disabled list before long and Mark DeRosa shouldn't be out too long either. I think the team will be in the race throughout the summer.

Jonathan Sanchez was all over the place today, but only gave up one unearned run in five innings of work. Sanchez surrendered six walks, including four in the first inning, and hit two batters. He only gave up two hits, once again proving that his stuff is electric but that control is the central issue. Hopefully he works on that and is able to more consistently locate pitches.

Brian Wilson sure made things interesting in the bottom of the 9th, walking two and hitting another batter to load the bases. Wilson struck out Adam LaRoche on a 3-2 pitch to end the game. Just another day at the office, I suppose.

World Champion Giants take 2 of 3 in Denver

The World Champion San Francisco Giants (10-8) took 2 of 3 from the Colorado Rockies (13-5) at Coors Field in Denver this week. I was impressed with the way the Giants won the first two games. I still feel good about the series overall, even though they got hammered today -- can't win them all. Matt Cain had an off day today it seemed, but Tim Lincecum and Jonathan Sanchez were lights out in their starts. Pablo Sandoval seems to be reverting to his 2009 form, which is a good omen of things to come. I'm excited about this team and still think the Giants should be considered favorites to win the National League West this year.

Giants drop Game 5, series goes back to Philly

The Philadelphia Phillies defeated the San Francisco Giants 4-2 tonight in Game 5 of the NLCS. The Giants still lead the series 3 games to 2. Game 6 is Saturday in Philadelphia with the start time yet to be determined (it depends on the outcome of Game 6 of the ALCS tomorrow night). Roy Halladay had a strained groin and seemed to be in trouble every inning for the Phillies but he gutted out six innings and had just enough to earn the win. The Phillies did most of their offensive damage in the 3rd inning, scoring three runs off Giants ace Tim Lincecum who suffered his first postseason defeat.

The Giants' defense let them down in the 3rd inning as Pablo Sandoval missed third base on a bunt attempt by Halladay that would have resulted in a double play and Aubrey Huff misplayed a groundball that ricocheted into center field and allowed two runs to score. The offense had some chances in the first inning as well but Phillies first baseman was able to snare a ball that Huff hit right on the screws for an out. If not for that play, the inning could have been a lot bigger than it was with the one early run the Giants did get. It's bad luck on that play, but part of baseball at the same time.

I thought Halladay showed a lot of heart tonight. It was clear he didn't have his best stuff, but he still only gave up two runs in six innings which to me shows a lot of character. And to find out after the game that he strained his groin in the second inning only makes his performance more impressive.

Cody Ross continues to be the frontrunner for NLCS MVP as he doubled in another run to push his RBI total to 5 for the series. He just seems to keep coming up with big hits in big situations. Let's hope he continues to swing a hot bat in Philadelphia.

I'm still optimistic about the Giants. They have already won in Philadelphia in the series and have Jonathan Sanchez and Matt Cain to pitch Games 6 and 7 against Roy Oswalt and Cole Hamels. Hopefully Game 7 isn't necessary, but it's nice to know that Saturday isn't an elimination game. I can hardly wait to see what happens. Game time should be just before 6 p.m. MT if the Rangers close out the Yankees tomorrow and just before 2 p.m. MT if the hated Yanks force a Game 7 in Texas for Saturday night. Speaking of the ALCS, it resumes tomorrow night. Here's the details:

Game 6 -- New York Yankees (Hughes) at Texas Rangers (Lewis), 6:07 p.m. MT (TBS, Rangers lead series 3-2)

And in another sports note, did anyone else notice what kind of beat down #1 Oregon (7-0, 4-0 Pac-10) put on UCLA (3-4, 1-3 Pac-10) tonight? The final score in Autzen was 60-13. The Ducks look really good and really fast. They are going to be tough to beat. I'm not a big Oregon fan per se, but their team sure is fun to watch play.