Results:

2-4 (61-47; 2 game lead in NL West)

7-2 L @ Phi; 2-1 W @ Phi; 4-1 W @ Phi; 4-3 L @ Cin; 7-2 L @ Cin; 9-0 L @ Cin

This week started off so great. A series win against the best team in the NL. A trade for the best hitter available. A four game lead in the division and the chance to pad it before facing off against Arizona with the opportunity to really bury them in early August. And then it all went to crap. Now the Giants are heading in to this series against the D-Backs fighting to stay in first, having acquired yet another over-the-hill middle infielder, and having been swept by a team who they should have handled and forced to trade us their catcher. Nothing is easy with this team. Welcome to the Giants, Carlos and Orlando. More on trades later this week (hopefully tomorrow), but now on to the awards.

Hitter of the Week:

Pablo Sandoval: 2 home runs, a .320 average, and at times the only guy who seemed to have any life in the lineup. As great as getting Beltran is, I really hope Pablo gets hot and has a huge final two months. That would be so, so nice!

Pitcher of the Week:

Duel winners this week: Matt Cain and Tim Lincecum. First, they both won their starts. Second, they both won against the Phillies. Tim won his coming off an illness which garners bonus points. Third, they continue to annoy the heck out of Charlie Manuel and that is fun to watch. I love that there is some kind of mojo they seem to have against the Phillies, even though they are such a lefty heavy lineup. They also both go in the Arizona series starting today, so hopefully they keep up their good (not great,  wink wink) work.

So, here we go. Three with Arizona for the division, four with Philadelphia for NL bragging rights, and then three with the upstart Pirates. All are in SF but these are some big games. The schedule gets a little lighter after that, but that’s a long ways off in baseball time. Go Giants!

(-SB)