Aaron Rowland
Giants: Don’t give up on us yet
By A.J. Hayes
The San Francisco Giants may still be 10 games under .500 and play like a recreational softball team in their home yard, but after last weekend’s series win on the “road” in the 510, the club was whistling an optimistic ditty that sounded an awful lot like the old David Soul ‘70s hit, “Don’t Give up on Us Baby.”
Despite several tube socks full of calamities this season – several not involving Barry Zito – that left the Giants lugging a 36-46 season record at the schedule’s midway point, San Francisco somehow found themselves only five games out of first place in the National League West.
That fact, along with the Giants first two wins over the Oakland A’s since last May, had the clubhouse buzzing with excitement Sunday afternoon.
“We’ve had our struggles no doubt about that,” said Giants manager Bruce Bochy. “But nobody is out of the race for the division. We feel we’re still in this thing.”
San Francisco centerfielder Aaron Rowand, who had yet to scrub the lamp black from his face following Sunday’s 11-1 throttling of the white bucks gang, told me exclusively:
“This division is up for grabs, there’s no reason why we can’t jump in the mix and be a part of it. We’ve had some really good games and we had some really rough games. But were capable of being much better than we are now. Everyone in here truly believes that we have an opportunity to be in the mix when September comes around.”
There, two people officially affiliated with club orange and black went on the record with pennant race talk and weren’t whisked off by the guys in the CATS van.