Nasty Surprise

Well, that sucked.

When I checked the pitching matchups for the Braves series on Tuesday, it listed Horacio Ramirez, Kyle Davies, and John Smoltz as the probables for this series. I was a bit more optimistic than I would normally have been, because the Giants would miss Tim Hudson and Jorge Sosa.

Uh, no.

I got a rude shock when I first tuned into yesterday's 5-4 extra innings loss to the Braves after I heard Dave Fleming utter the name, "Smoltz". This, I took to mean that Smoltz had something to do with the current game, and I further projected that it may even mean that he was pitching in the current game, seeing as how that's his job and all.

Egads.

Upon verifying that yes, Smoltz was indeed pitching in that game and had made the start, I realized it was Wednesday. The schedule had Smoltz slotted in on Thursday. Wednesday is not Thursday.

After coming to the conclusion that if Smoltz was pitching on Wednesday, it was highly unlikely that he would pitch again on Thursday, I took step to ascertain which Atlanta Braves pitcher would start for them on Thursday.

Tim Hudson. Gr-r-r-r-reat.

Not that it matters, anyway. I wrote back on July 25th (when the Giants were seven games back) that the Giants had to close the gap on the Padres to around three games before the month was out, because their August schedule was too tough to hope to gain any ground, and because the Padres would win some games sooner or later.

Well, the Giants didn't close the gap as much as I figured they'd need to, the Padres did go on a five game winning streak, and the Giants are beginning to stumble through their August schedule. They are now 8.5 back, and facing Tim Hudson.

I'm not really bitter, but I had quite a few heated discussions with people over the last few weeks about the Giants chances to come back, with people calling me different sorts of names when I expressed that the Giants had little to no chance. Most of this took place when the Giants were anywhere from 7.5 to 5.5 games out, a week or more ago.

This team is capable of being competitive on a given day, but is not playoff worthy. Miracles do happen, but I'm not going to waste anymore keystrokes on the Giants "playoff chances" this season.