Results:

5-2 (45-35, 1.0 game lead in NL West)

8-0 W vs. LAD; 2-0 W vs. LAD; 3-0 W vs. LAD; 5-0 W vs. Cin; 5-1 L vs. Cin; 2-1 L vs. Cin; 4-3 W vs. Cin

Well that was a pretty great week! Giants sweep the Dodgers, take over first place, and have 3 guys voted into the all-star starting lineup. Plus Matt Cain. Awesome. I think I will actually watch the all-star game this year.

The Giants still have a tough go before the break: 3 games in Washington and 3 in Pittsburg. Tough teams and hot weather. That said, the Dodgers are struggling and they are injured and it would behoove the Giants to put the boot to the neck (metaphorically) and put some distance between them and the Dodgers.

Hitter of the Week:

I got into it a bit yesterday on twitter with a Cardinals fan who is all bitter that Posey is starting the all-star game and not Yadier Molina. And he has a point…their batting stats are very similar, and Molina has the edge in WAR (due to his defense). But, watching the game yesterday, how good is Buster! His ability to hit with 2 strikes is amazing.

He hit .400 for the week, and you get the sense that with each passing day his confidence grows stronger and last year becomes a distant memory.

Pitcher of the Week:

After the first three innings of Saturdays game I gave this award to Barry Zito. Then he went and walked 6 batters, but he still managed to walk away with a pretty nice week. Keep it up.

Also, Madbum was nails against the Reds. Maybe his finest performance ever.

But, I am going to go ahead and give this to Tim Lincecum this week because we haven’t had much to highlight so far. Tim, thank you for shutting out the Dodgers…please keep it up and get it going!

Looking Ahead:

As I said, the road trip is tough: tough teams and tough weather. I’m looking for someone to spark the offense: Posey? Belt? Runs are going to be hard to come by, so someone needs to step up.

(-SB)