One down, two to go!

San Francisco Giants: 4
Los Angeles Dodgers: 2

Strong pitching, clutch hitting and some strong defense kept the Bums from grabbing their first NL West title in years last night.

This makes me happy!

The Astros also won, mainly because the bloody Rockies played six rookies as starters. Why bother showing up if you're going to do that, huh? So we remain tied for the wild card.

If we win these final two games against the Rat Bastards, there will be a one-game playoff against the Dodgers at SBC Park. Gee, why does that sound familiar?

Tonight's match-up:

SF Bret Tomko (11-7, 4.19 ERA, Right)
LA Elmer Dessens (2-6, 4.46 ERA, Right)

BEAT LA!
BEAT LA!
BEAT LA!

GO GIANTS!!!

(Insert a whole lot of swear words here)

Los Angeles Dodgers: 7
San Francisco Giants: 3

After the top of the ninth, that score was 3-0 SF. Yup, our deleted, deleted bullpen gave up seven deleted runs while only getting ONE deleted out!

Hermanson? You're fired. For impersonating a closer. You walked three batters in a half-inning.
Ransom? You're fired. For impersonating a shortstop. When you are practically handed a game-winning double-play ball, you're supposed to catch the deleted thing, not look at it and say "oh look, a baseball on the ground, how pretty!"
Franklin? You're fired. Giving up a grand slam on your second pitch of the game is not making the Penguin happy.

Felipe Alou? you're the genius who pulled Devi Cruz to put in Ransom! Retirement is looking pretty good right now...

So, the fate of the Giants now rests with the Colorado Rockies. We need to win tomorrow, and have the Rockies win their final two games against the Astros to get the wildcard.

Since the Rockies appear to have gone into "roll over and die" mode, I'm not holding my breath.

Car-dodging bicycle sold separately.

Go to the toy aisle of any store. All the dolls (or "action figures") come packaged with one or two "accessories." Barbie has her purse, The Hulk has a big rock, Space Ghost has little cards and a desk. If someone were to go to the toy store and buy a YOU action figure, which one or two little objects would be in your package with you? Furthermore, what outfit would you be wearing, and what action would you perform when they pressed the little lever on your back?

The gridlore action figure is wearing faded jeans, a convention t-shirt, and a Giants cap (not removable). It comes packaged with a book and a can of Coke. The wire rim glasses are tinted and come with Real Smudges(tm) When the little button is pressed, it quotes rules and setting information for Traveller (Over 500 different phrases!)

Well, it's down to this.

Tomorrow, the Giants have to beat LA. And the Rockies, who appear to be far more interested in their fall vacation reservations than playing baseball, have to beat Roger Clemens and the Astros.

If that happens, we get a one-game playoff to determine the wild card.

Our entire season rests on the Rockies. This is making me physically sick that we have to depend on a bunch of scrubs who have given up.

At least we have Jason Schmidt going for us.