Henry Schulman
SFGate/San Francisco Chronicle
The Giants are the inebriate at the bar who cannot recognize that you and your sweetie want to be alone. They are bill collectors. They are street-sweeping trucks on the Nimitz, Birkenstocks and "Survivor."
They will not go away.
Fresh off Wednesday's supposedly fatal loss to Colorado, the Giants blew a three-run lead supplied by a Pablo Sandoval homer, yet stormed back to beat the Dodgers 8-4 on Friday night and trim Colorado's lead for the NL wild card to 2 1/2 games. The Rockies also blew a 4-1 lead Friday, but they lost 7-5 at Arizona.
"No one likes to give in, man," reliever Jeremy Affeldt said. "We've got a situation where some people are starting to count people out. You don't want to give up based on the fact that this game can change at any time."
Just ask Fred Lewis. He went from long-forgotten bench man to hero Friday when he hit a double over Manny Ramirez's head with two outs in the sixth inning to bring home Travis Ishikawa and break a 4-4 tie. Eugenio Velez followed with another run-scoring double.
Lewis' ball hung in the air a long time. A fleeter left fielder might have outraced it, but not Ramirez.
"I thought he had a chance at it," Lewis said. "I've got to take him out to dinner, I guess. I'm thankful he didn't catch it."
Aaron Rowand hit the Giants' third homer in the eighth against Chad Billingsley, who was pitching in relief, and Juan Uribe added an RBI single in the ninth to secure the Giants' 80th win, a plateau they last reached in 2004.
Velez also homered and singled with a bat that head trainer Dave Groeschner plucked out of Velez's bag with the promise that he would go deep with it on the game's first pitch. Groeschner was wrong. It took Velez eight pitches.
Velez narrowly missed the triple he needed for a cycle. His eighth-inning liner required a diving catch by right fielder Andre Ethier. Had it rolled past, Velez would have had three easily.
The Giants' bullpen also starred with 42/3 shutout innings in relief of Jonathan Sanchez, who was finished after allowing a two-run homer by Ramirez into the Mannywood section in left field and a solo shot by Rafael Furcal that tied the game in the fifth.
Sergio Romo struck out Russell Martin, Ethier and Ramirez in order over the seventh and eighth innings, Manny on three pitches. Affeldt struck out pinch-hitter Jim Thome with two on and two outs in the eighth.
Sandoval's three-run homer in the third against Vicente Padilla was his first this month and ended a drought of 60 at-bats without one. He entered the game in the throes of a .226 September amid some theorizing that he is tiring late in his first full season. Manager Bruce Bochy does not view that as the main factor.
"Everybody should get a little tired this time of year," he said. "As much as anything, he's getting a little anxious and a little pull-conscious. When you don't have success, you press a little bit. I've told him he doesn't have to carry the ballclub, just get back to getting a better pitch to hit. Just relax and have fun with it."
The Giants scored eight runs with the lineup that produced 19 in two games against the Rockies at home this week. Bochy said it "pretty much" will remain the permanent lineup against right-handed pitchers.
That is significant because Edgar Renteria is not part of it. Juan Uribe is the shortstop, Sandoval the third baseman and Ishikawa the first baseman.
 San Francisco (80-67) Won 1 | San Francisco 8, LA Dodgers 4 |  LA Dodgers (88-60) Lost 1 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Standings thru 9/18/09 | Recap: SF | LAD | Wrap | Gameday |
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