I can't wait for the torture to stop but I'll miss it when it's gone

Despite scoring a week's worth of runs (16!) in two games I think we all ought to remember what got the Giants here in the first place, and that's run prevention. Only FOUR runs allowed in those same two games! That's what winners are built from. The Giants allowed FIVE runs in the two games previous to those two, with all too predictable results, namely back-to-back losses. In the two games previous to those two, they gave up SIX runs, and you know what happened--they won both games. OK, so my thesis needs some polishing. In the two games previous to those two, they gave up ELEVEN runs. And lost both. You see? There's a masters degree in their somewhere, I can feel it.

Eric Surkamp is one of those guys that even on his best days will fail to inspire confidence or even joy. He's a soft-tossing southpaw, not his fault that he clung to his umbilical with a changeup grip (left-handed, natch), and as a result he relies on mesmerizing hitters with slowballs and slower balls. Breaking stuff, too. Looks like he has major-league whatchamacalit, I forget the arcane term the scouts down in the Sally League use, but he's got it. Something to do with alligators--or was it kudzu? (It sounds like schadenfreude but with a French accent.) The South is a mystery. I think he should invent a pitch and call it the "Surkie." It starts out like a curveball but morphs into a changeup as it crosses the plate. I will say I saw a lot of weak contact last night. The Padres got six doubles on infield grounders, but NO RUNS. That's what I'm talkin' about!

Pablo Sandoval hit a home run on a ball that was low and outside, out of the zone, and he had to lunge for it. Yet it soared majestically into the LF bleachers (he was hitting left-handed). Strange dude, that Pablo. Generations of ballplayers are trained not to swing at such shite, but this guy comes along and gets homers with pitches like that. It's a poverty-in-Venezuela thing, as a child you get cat wishbones to gnaw on for major holidays, so when you see choice cuts of prime rib you pass. "No thanks, I'll suck the marrow out of these tiny, brittle bones instead! Delicious!" Now there's a thesis.

--M.C.