Mercury News
Finally, the Giants started living up to their marketing slogan. Now they have to keep it going, and hope it's not too late.
Brad Penny helped to pull his new teammates out of the fetal position, taking a shutout into the seventh inning as the Giants beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 7-2 Sunday at AT&T Park.
Giants manager Bruce Bochy went with a "strap-it-on" strategy, canceling pregame batting practice and barring players from using an indoor cage. His offensively challenged team responded with 15 hits, including Juan Uribe's two-run home run in the second inning.
The Giants avoided being swept, and combined with Colorado's loss at San Diego, they climbed within 4½ games in the wild-card standings with 19 to play.
Tim Lincecum will be on the mound today to greet the Rockies, who arrive to begin a last-gasp series — the final three games between the clubs this season.
The Giants will need a sweep, but as their flood of TV ads suggests, yes, "They're in this thing."
It doesn't matter if fans, reporters or opponents believe the slogan. It only matters if they believe it within the walls of the home clubhouse. And there were many indications over the previous two days, after getting outscored 19-4 in a pair of losses to their archrivals, that their belief had eroded.
Before the game, Lincecum acknowledged what nobody else has been willing to say — that the Giants seemed to be giving up. He hoped to be a spark today in his return to the rotation, but he also hoped Penny could provide that same spark against the Dodgers. "He's that kind of guy," Lincecum said. "He likes to rile people up in the dugout. We've been pretty lax the last couple days. It's time for someone to kick us in the butt and remind us, 'Hey, do you realize it's September? This is when it counts.' " Penny changed from cowboy boots to spikes and came out kicking. He had only one strikeout through six innings but stayed economical with his pitches and didn't pay for a mistake until Russell Martin hit a two-run homer in the seventh. "Every game, we can't afford to lose," said Penny, who downplayed any satisfaction at beating his former team. A Los Angeles columnist subsequently chided him for giving a politically correct answer. "I'm not politically correct and you know that," said Penny, smirking. "I'm honest. "... I guess there's a little bit (of satisfaction), but we can't lose too many games. I'll face them again five days from now. I'm better when I'm emotional, but all that stuff's done." With slumping veterans Aaron Rowand and Edgar Renteria out of the lineup, Travis Ishikawa had three hits, Andres Torres worked a bases-loaded walk and Freddy Sanchez lined a put-away two-run single in the sixth inning. The Giants knocked out Chad Billingsley after four innings and defeated him for the first time in five starts in San Francisco. The ballpark had been swamped with Dodger blue in the late innings the previous two nights, but the atmosphere was different Sunday. The fans even sustained a familiar chant — "Beat LA." And with their season on the line, Penny and the Giants complied. "This was a must-win for us," Bochy said. "We knew what was at stake for us today." There's more of the same today, when Lincecum will pitch without restrictions. The Giants weren't in a pennant race last season, when Lincecum won the franchise's first Cy Young Award in 41 years, so it's hard to conjure a more important start in his short career. "Every game's a 'get' and every inning is big," Lincecum said. "We made up a game today and we'll have to jump off this and use it as a springboard." Said Penny: "It's huge. We've got the best pitcher in the National League going tomorrow, and I can promise you they know that as well." From: MLB.com
 LA Dodgers (85-59) Lost 1 | San Francisco 7, LA Dodgers 2 |  San Francisco (77-66) Won 1 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Standings thru 9/13/09 | Recap: LAD | SF | Wrap | Gameday |
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