Stewart's home run a tableau of joy; Huff back on track?

It was really a beautiful scene, a tableau of pure joy, when Chris Stewart made his triumphant return to the dugout after circling the bases with his first major league home run Tuesday night.

There was Guillermo Mota, checking in with Manager Bruce Bochy at the edge of the dugout, raising his index finger as if to make sure he had it right: first home run, right? Bochy, with what looked like a boyish grin, nodded his head, affirming what everyone knew. Mota, raising his long, spidery arms to give Stewart a high-five, and lingering afterward to take in, with a wide smile, the crowd's roaring approval.

And the deep,warm, affectionate embrace inside the dugout that greeted Stewart was special. There wasn't the typical razzing or yucking that accompanies a first home run for most. This was an outpouring of appreciation -- from grizzled veterans and fresh-faced youngsters alike -- from teammates who understood what a comrade in arms had gone through: knocking around for 10 years as a pro just hoping to get a shot at the big leagues, keeping his head down, biding his time on the bench and in the bullpen.

It was a chance for the Giants to circle around a teammate who'd taken some wounding shots from Giants fans and critics. Stewart, 29, one of a tandem forced into regular action after the star catcher, Buster Posey, went down, has been one of the weak links in the lineup, therefore a target of abuse.

But, teammates know how much heart a player leaves on the field, and the emotional display was a vote of confidence, a public endorsement, an affirmation of Stewart as a true teammate.

Stewart wore an ear-to-ear smile, more sheepish than exultant, as he made his way into the dugout, as if he wasn't used to the glare of attention. But, the backup to the backup catcher, who is hitting .223 in 94 at bats this year and .211 in 142 lifetime at bats, has had some key moments for the Giants in his spare playing time.

Who can forget his game-winning 11th inning squeeze bunt against the Padres last month? Just a couple days ago, he had a big run-scoring single off Roy Oswalt to break a scoreless tie, a line drive single on an 0-2 pitch -- a shoulder-high 93-MPH fastball that the veteran thought he could blow by the light-hitting Stewart.

It wasn't a hanger that he hit for the home run: he wheeled around on a 93 MPH fastball that was boring in on his hands.

And, of course, there's been his spirited defensive play. It's no wonder that he's become the personal catcher for Tim Lincecum, who appreciates his pitch-blocking skills.  And what an arm he has! What catlike reactions from such a big guy! His defense has consoled us as we've suffered through his insufficiencies at the plate and wondered aloud if Ramon Hernandez, the Cincinnati Reds' good-hitting catcher, is available.

Stewart's home run brought home the joie de vivre, the deep unity of the Giants that remains despite the troubled patch they've gone through. While some of us have wondered if the acquisition of Carlos Beltran messed with the Giants' team chemistry, they have showed in the few wins they've mustered lately that the true character of the ream remains: the least likely sources strike at the least likely times.

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With Beltran down, the Giants were absolutely flat in Monday's 5-0 loss to the Pirates in the series opener. It seems like the team takes a day to get over big blows to their roster before perking back up.

They had more life Tuesday, as they returned the favor in a 6-0 shutout behind the awe-inspiring stuff of 22-year old left hander Madison Bumgarner (7 innings, 0 runs, four hits, one walk, 10 strikeouts) that may start prompting comparisons to another wicked slider-throwing lefty who turned hitters into corkscrews, Steve Carlton.

While Stewart provided the emotional uplift with his home run, and Bumgarner gave another glimpse of his golden arm, Aubrey Huff's three-hit game had more long-term implications for the season. If anybody is needed down the stretch -- with Beltran or without -- it is Huff.

Huff got the Giants on the scoreboard first with his RBI double in the fourth inning, a low line drive that barely cleared the glove of shortstop Ronnie Cedeno but was hit so hard that it skipped to the edge of the warning track before center fielder Andrew McCutcheon got to it.

Huff added a sixth-inning home run to stretch the lead to 3-0 -- another real nice swing on a pitch that has been beguiling him, the change up -- and a single that contributed to the Giants' three run eighth inning. He could have had four hits -- and another RBI -- if his hard-hit bouncer headed up the middle hadn't been deflected by starter James McDonald right to the shortstop.

Huff's over-wrought, wrenching swing has produced as many ground balls to second base as Darrell Evans used to hit foul-ball home runs. Many fans' delight in Huff's red thong antics has long ago been replaced by bitter recrimination over Huff's season-long failures and Bochy's abiding faith in the veteran.

Bochy's reliance on veterans is a source of deep angst among those fans who remain vocal (who knows what the silent majority feel?). And, as Bochy has banished young player after young player back to the minor leagues as he prepares for the pennant drive -- even as the Giants lost nine of 11 -- the frustration has mounted.

But Huff's performance on Tuesday was a reminder of what he could mean to the Giants in final stretch. The skepticism runs deep. He'd vowed to get back on track after his three home run game in St. Louis in early June, and he did for a bit: he hit .291 that month, though hit only one more home run all month. And then he reverted in July with a malodorous month, hitting .229 with one home run and only seven RBI.

While fans remained stuck on that July performance, Huff began to show signs of life toward the end of the month, and over his last 13 games, he has hit .347 (14-for-40) with a .409 on base percentage.

If he keeps it up, maybe he'll make fans forget Brandon Belt -- for now.

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Beltran injury scare raises question: Could SF win without him?

I have nothing against Carlos Beltran. I hope he leads the Giants to a pennant, and adds to his legend as a down-the-stretch superman. And I certainly hope Beltran comes through this injury scare with no real health impact.

I believe he can be an exciting feature to the Giants lineup, once the team gets past this awkward beginning. If this wrist/hand pain turns out to be serious, it would be seen as a colossal loss, just another in a string of bad fortune that has befallen the world champions.

But the possibility that an injury could force him to the sidelines for an extended period, raises the same question the Giants have faced all season as they've seen so many key components go down: Could they  can win without Beltran?

Why wouldn't they? The Giants continued to win when Buster Posey went down. Ditto, with Freddie Sanchez. And they were 16 games over .500 before Beltran joined them.

The driving thrust, the character of this team has never centered around a single star. Getting one, in fact, seemed to upset the natural order of the Giants' plucky, whimsical, even random style of play.

Wouldn't it be ironic if the Giants get back to a place that had worked for them up until the trade deadline? Relying on a bunch of underwhelming yet plucky hitters, a roll call of misfits and castoffs, even less equipped than last year when they had Posey and Sanchez (not to mention Jose Uribe and Edgar Renteria)?

They leaned on the old reliables -- the unheralded, the role players, the little guys -- Sunday in their 3-1 win over the Phillies to avert a sweep and win for only the second time in 10 games.

-- It took Chris Stewart, the backup to the backup catcher with a .220 batting average, to lift the Giants out of their fog with his fourth-inning bases loaded RBI single -- on an 0-2 pitch, no less, a shoulder-high 92 MPH fastball off Roy Oswalt;

-- Light-hitting shortstop Orlando Cabrera provided what proved to be the game-winner in the fifth with his sacrifice fly to center field. It was a real determined at bat: after being knocked down on the first pitch, payment for a ground rule double he'd hit earlier, Cabrera worked the count to 2-and-2 before driving an eye-high 93 MPH fastball deep enough for the run;

-- And Jeff Keppinger, the scrappy second baseman who just keeps on peppering hits all over the place -- four more Sunday -- drove in a critical insurance run with another sacrifice fly ball in the sixth for a 3-1 lead that the Giants never relinquished.

The featured star, Beltran, did contribute to the fifth-inning rally with a scorching line drive single off the right field wall, but continued to have disappointing at bats:

He hit a squibber back to the mound off a first-pitch change up into a double play to end the first inning; he went down on a three-pitch strikeout in the third (after taking a first-pitch 92 MPH fastball right down the middle and fouling another off his hands, he chased a curve down), and left Andres Torres stranded at second by chasing a fastball way out of the strike zone with a swing that broke down half way -- the swing that might have aggravated his wrist.

Let's hope Beltran gets a clean bill of health, but also that he comes back more fully integrated into the Giants' zeitgeist.

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In his last start, Tim Lincecum masterered Chase Utley as if he were a schoolboy. Sunday, Lincecum gave up a couple hits to Utley (and took a bat off a knee to boot) but put the Cruciatus spell on Ryan Howard, baffling him with his assortment of pitches to strike him out three times.

Lincecum got Howard on a split finger change up in the dirt in the first inning with a runner on first; put him down with three straight fastballs, the last on a belt-high 91 MPH heater, to end the third with a run already in and a runner on first; and in the fifth on a perfectly placed 83 MPH split below the knees to leave Rollins stranded at first, and for good measure, got a lazy fly out in the eighth, again with a runner on, and again on an 83 MPH split.

On that last at bat, Howard had a two-and-oh hitters count, but still had no chance against Lincecum. I suppose he could claim a moral victory by getting wood on the ball.

Suffice it to say that Lincecum neutralized the middle of the order by taking Howard's bat out of his hands. As a matter of fact, Giants pitchers overall limited him to a measly single in 12 at bats in three starts (he sat against Madison Bumgarner). And Howard came in to San Francisco hot: In the previous six games he'd gone 10-for-26 with four home runs and 10 RBI.

Lincecum also cooled down Hunter Pence, who'd gone 7-for-13 in the first three games of the series, horse collaring him with an 0-fer: a grounder to short (a nice backhand and strong throw by Orlando Cabrera), an easy grounder to third, then a smash down the third base line backhanded brilliantly by Pablo Sandoval, and then a hard hit grounder that went through Aubrey Huff ruled an error.

In all, the top six hitters in the Phillies lineup -- the heart of the order -- went 3-for-22 (.136) against Lincecum.

It's that kind of dominance, on top of the stellar yet unrewarded performances of Bumgarner and Cain in the series, that gives the Giants their long-range hope against the Phillies if they do meet up again this year in the post-season.

It's a cold fact: Giants have been flat since Beltran deal

There's no getting away from it: Since Carlos Beltran has joined the Giants, the team has been disjointed, flat, dispirited, cold, bewildered -- however you want to describe it.

And since Hunter Pence joined the Phillies, well, they have been unstoppable. They've got the swagger of a champion, while the Giants appear aimless and ineffectual.

The Giants have lost eight of 10 games since Beltran arrived.

The Phillies have won all eight games since Pence moved over to Philadelphia, and nine straight overall.

Since joining the Phillies, Pence has gone 11-for-30 (.367) with two home runs, seven RBI and five runs scored.

Since joining the Giants, Beltran has gone 10-for-41 (.244) with no home runs, one double and two triples and two RBI.

In the first three games of this series, Pence has crushed the Giants, going 7-for-13 (a .538 average) with two home runs and four RBI.

Beltran has been barely an afterthought in the series, now 2-for-11 with a double, no runs and no RBI.

It is as stark a contrast between the trade deadline fortunes of the reigning National League Championship Series foes as you can get. It begs the question of whether team chemistry was spoiled for the Giants, who though clamoring for that big bat in the middle of the lineup, were doing just fine before he came.

For the Phillies, team chemistry was less of an issue since their lineup was already pretty solid (the Phils are sixth in runs scored; the Giants 16th in the N.L.), and Pence's addition was less critical to them than Beltran's was to the Giants.

But, given that the Giants were bound and determined to add a bat, the next question is: Could the Giants have obtained Pence? Who did General Manager Brian Sabean pursue the most aggressively between the two? Did Sabean not see the appeal of a younger (by six years), yet established star under team control for another two years?

Did Sabean recognize that the right handed Pence might be a much better fit in AT&T, where the left field wall is much more inviting to right handers than vast reaches that lefties must contend with? Did he see that Beltran, in 138 at bats, has zero home runs at AT&T?

The Phillies gave up two top prospects, 19-year old first baseman, Jonathan Singleton (hitting .282 in Single A) and one of their top pitching prospects, 21-year old Jarred Cosart, along with a throwaway minor league pitcher and a player to be named later.

Could the Giants have offered Zack Wheeler, who is rated higher than Cosart by Baseball America, and someone deep in their minor league system? Maybe the Astros wouldn't have jumped at Tom Neal, but maybe the Giants wouldn't have had to part with Gary Brown either. The question is: did Sabean even make a push, or was he so set on getting a rental player whose cost would be subsidized by the Mets?

Or was Sabean given orders to stay away from Pence because of the potential pay day that he will likely get in arbitration over the next two years? 

Of course, we'll never know if Pence would have injected the same kind of energy in the Giants if he'd come to San Francisco. He's surrounded by so much muscle in the Phillies lineup that the only task for him was to complement the big boys, add a bit of spice to the already boiling pot, provide protection for Ryan Howard.

If Pence had come over to the Giants, expectations would have been off the charts -- as they have been for Beltran -- for him to take charge of revitalizing a moribund offense. Who knows how he would have responded? Beltran has provided a few big hits, but overall, he appears to be suffocating in the stifling conditions of the Giants offense.

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Saturday offered a microcosm of the divergent paths the two players -- and teams -- have gone:

In the first inning, Pence came to bat with runners at first and second with two outs, Matt Cain having just struck out Howard on an explosive shoulder high fastball. Pence didn't wait around, swatting Cain's first pitch into right field to drive home Jimmy Rollins and sending Chase Utley to third, where he would score from on a passed ball.

That was all the offense the Phillies got and all that they needed.

Beltran, who went 0-for-4 against Cole Hamels, had one big chance to get the Giants back in the game. He came up with two runners on and no outs in the bottom of the fourth. Aaron Rowand had singled sharply to left, and Jeff Keppinger hit a hard ground ball through the middle for another base hit.

The moment was begging for drama. The Giants, in such dire need of a lift, had rarely set the table so ideally for Beltran. This was the spot he'd been acquired for: in a tight game, where one big hit would evoke the sense of destiny that championship teams ride. But Beltran was gone on three pitches, all slow breaking stuff that Beltran could not measure or time.

Beltran's strikeout took a lot of air out of the park, and it only seemed inevitable when Pablo Sandoval hit weakly into a double play, swinging at Hamels' first pitch, a floppy changeup below his knees on the outside corner of the plate.

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Sandoval wound up with two hits, a line drive single up the middle on a high changeup, and a solo home in the ninth to break up Hamels' shutout.

Both hits came with two outs, after Beltran had made out. And it solidified my view that the order should be flipped, and for good: Pablo should hit third and Beltran cleanup. If Pablo hits third, it gives the Giants three chances to get base runners on base ahead of Beltran. Pablo is a .300 hitter; Beltran is more of an RBI guy (though he hasn't shown it yet as a Giant).

Though the Giants did get two runners on ahead of Beltran in the fourth, it seems unlikely that Beltran will get many opportunities with multiple runners on base much if he continues to hit third. The top of the order just hasn't produced consistently enough to think that will change.

It seems that Bochy is hitting him third because that's Beltran's preference, just as it is his preference to play right field, pushing Nate Schierholtz into left field (possibly messing with his mind, being shoved aside so cavalierly after doing so well all season).

Now, I don't know if there's a correlation, but since Schierholtz was moved over to left field, he'd gone 3-for-24 (before his pinch hit single Saturday that kept an eighth-innng "rally" (two runners on, hoo-hoo!) alive but was killed a moment later when Rowand popped out meekly to second on a fastball on his hands).

Beltran, though, has acquitted himself nicely in right field, so there has been little reason to move him based on his defensive performance. He made a beautiful throw to third that should have nailed Chase Utley by10 feet for the third out, but Sandoval inexplicably dropped it. Utley's run -- on Eli Whiteside's passed ball -- proved decisive after Sandoval hit his ninth-inning, two-out home run.

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All this is not to lay the blame of the Giants' troubles on Beltran's shoulders, nor is it to denounce the trade that brought him here.

Beltran could well come up big and ultimately provide that spark that leads them through the dog days of August and beyond.

But, it's obvious that the Giants have not responded to his acquisition -- yet. In their 8-1 win over the Diamondbacks Thursday, the Giants offense did appear to relax. Cody Ross and Aubrey Huff, hitting lower in the lineup, played good supportive roles, and fed off the middle of the order.

But overall, they've done worse (marginally and in a small sample, it should be said) with Beltran than they were without him:

Since Beltran arrived, the Giants are hitting .231 (81-for-351), scoring 23 runs (2.3 runs per game). That includes the one-game eight-run, 12-hit "outburst" to salvage the series finale with Arizona. Before his arrival, the Giants were hitting a lofty .241, scoring 372 runs (3.63 per game).

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To salvage the final game of the series, the Giants need to get by Roy Oswalt, a tough customer at AT&T. In the last three years, he's 2-1 with a 2.35 ERA, allowing only a .175 batting average.

The Giants would do well to rest Aubrey Huff and give Mark DeRosa a start: DeRosa has the best numbers among Giants against Oswalt: He's 13-for-29 (.448) with five doubles and a home run in his career. Huff is only 3-for-12.

Beltran has a good history, too: 10-for-27 (.370) with two doubles and a home run.

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Not to look past the series finale, but the Giants have the Pittsburgh Pirates coming in at a vulnerable point: They've lost nine in a row, spoiling any thoughts of a Cinderella season, and their pitching has been at the center of their collapse.

They've been outscored 75-34 in that span. So, maybe the morose and listless Giants can get healthy off the Buccos.

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It was gratifying to hear Jon Miller school KNBR radio fill-in Kevin Lynch the other day when he asked Miller, who'd just described Cliff Lee's shutout, "was that a complete-game shutout?"

Now, I have nothing against Lynch, and don't wish him ill and understand he's a mere football beat writer for the San Francisco Chronicle. But he raised a topic that has been irritating me for the last several years, and was happy to hear Miller correct him.

"Ah, well, a shutout is a complete game, so there's no need to say complete game if it's a shutout," Miller said. "I once said complete-game shutout, and got a call from Tom Seaver, who said, 'that's redundant!' Seven innings of shutout ball isn't a shutout, it's seven innings of shutout ball. But a shutout is by definition a complete game."

But then the esteemed and mellifluous Miller earned a big fat demerit when, only minutes later, he proceeded to talk on the pre-game show about a complete-game three-hitter. Again: that is redundant!

If you pitch a three-hitter, that is a complete game. If you don't go the distance, you are not credited with a three-hitter. Just think, are there any no-hitters that weren't complete games? No. I wonder how many pitchers have given up no hits but didn't last the full game? Whoever they are, they aren't in the record books as no-hit wonders.

Eight-run outburst salve to the wounded soul

Ok, the death watch is over. The Giants have a pulse.

And the rest of us can stop panicking. The Giants' 8-1 win over the Diamondbacks Wednesday afternoon was salve to the wounded soul, a draught of calming medicine for those worried that San Francisco was sinking into the Bay.

Instead of snapping, the Giants snapped a five-game losing streak

Granted, it was just a matter of salvaging the final game of their three-game series with the upstart Snakes to avert a sweep. And they've got the Phillies in town for the next four nights, so we don't know if the light we see is the end of the tunnel or a Hummer careening our way.

But, the way the Giants put together their swings, assembling not one, but two, four-run rallies, resurrected the notion that the Giants are still the World Champions who won't go away gently into the night.

"It's been a while since we had innings like that," Boss Bochy said in his post-game press conference. "We're capable of that and we will do it more consistently. It's going to take innings like that to win, we know that."

Bochy said he'd only expected to use the 3-4-5 combination of Pablo Sandoval, Carlos Beltran and Orlando Cabrera for one game. But after the unprecedented offensive outpouring (it was the first time this year at AT&T they scored more than six runs), he said, "I'l revisit it. Cabrera did a nice job in the five spot. It was nice to have somebody there swing well, help finish the deal like he did."

Finishing the deal, or cashing in on opportunities, has been a problem most of the season for the Giants and had come into full display during their five-game slide, Aubrey Huff's failures with runners on base personifying the team's frustrations.

Bochy, who does not typically tip over to the hyperbolic, said that Wednesday's game was the "biggest game up to this point. We had to stop the bleeding and (Ryan Vogelsong) did the job."

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Vogelsong, indeed, added to his growing legend with another high quality performance featuring a crackling, moving fastball, a sharp-breaking curve and a cutter that broke late -- all causing late, awkward and feeble swings.

He struck out Henry Blanco on a roundhouse curve to end the second and strand a runner at third base when it was still a scoreless tie. In the third with runners on first and second, by way of a walk and a hit batter, Vogelsong added another out pitch to his repertoire: a perfect peg to second base to pick off Willie Bloomquist to end that threat.

Though he wobbled in the fourth after assuming a 4-0 lead, with another walk and hit batter, Vogelsong escaped unscathed, once again using Blanco's vulnerability on the curve, this one eating a little dirt as Blanco flailed away.

Vogelsong got two of his seven strikeouts in the sixth, his last full inning, painting the corner with 93 MPH heat to freeze Arizona star Justin Upton (who may have still been a touch hesitant after taking a fastball off his tricep earlier); and blowing a 92 MPH fastball by the D-Backs' phenom, Paul Goldschmidt, who'd made a statement in the first two games by collecting his first hit off of Matt Cain and then his first home run off of Tim Lincecum. But on this day, the rookie got schooled.

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But, the Giants had received a superb outing from Lincecum a day earlier, and he was tagged with the loss -- because he had no support from his lineup. So, Bochy's statement that Vogelsong "did the job" to "stop the bleeding" was not exactly on point.

It was unmistakably the offense that pulled the team from the brink. Can you imagine if they'd lost? They'd be nursing a six-game skid with the scorching Phillies coming to town having won all six of their games since the Giants beat them in the rubber match of their last series.

The way the Phillies tore through the Pittsburgh Pirates and Colorado Rockies this last week (outscoring them a combined 40-21), it looked like they'd taken the Giants series as a challenge to redouble their efforts (aided by the addition of former Astros star Hunter Pence). Already extra motivated to repay the Giants, they might have been poised to exploit the Giants in a time of weakness.

Visions of the San Diego Padres' 10-game losing streak a year go, en route to their late-season collapse, came into view. Recriminations were beginning to fly: the Beltran/Cabrera/Keppinger deals were messing with team chemistry; they'd blown their shot at acquiring game-changing center fielder Michael Bourne; they needed to sit Huff in favor of Brandon Belt, and all the rest.

Another loss would have brought the pressure cooker to a full boil (or optimum steam), especially one in which the offense lay listless and unresponsive like a former cardiac patient.

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It all started with a single by Andres Torres to lead off the third inning, the kind of spark the Giants could depend on all last year but have clamored vainly for all season.

But even before Torres could even contemplate using his speed on the base paths, Keppinger was ripping a line shot past third baseman Cody Ransom to send Torres to third. It took seven games since Beltran's acquisition, but finally, the top of the order had set the table for the middle guys.

And what a sight to see: Pablo tomahawking a shoulder-high fastball into right field for one run, and Beltran, on the first pitch, stroking a line drive single to left center field for another run.

You could finally breathe, my gentle, suffering Giant fan. It wasn't just a 2-0 lead, it was catharsis. They would not get another hit in the inning, but they'd make two productive outs for two more runs.

Their second four-run outburst may have been more impressive because it was the big guns -- Sandoval and Beltran -- who started the rally with a pair of nicely placed singles, and the supporting cast who provided the knockout punch.

The first punch was landed by Cabrera, Bochy's stunning choice as the No. 5 hitter, which lit up the blogosphere with outrage:

"Cabrera hitting 5th? This is insane!" -- Ajax.

"Cabrera is the protection for Beltran, huh? Dang, this team is impossible to watch on offense, but that is just pathetic" -- Noway.

"Cabrera hitting fifth is a new low for this team." -- JPorny.

"Who would pitch to Beltran if they could escape thru Cabrera? Maybe it's just Bochy's way of keeping the line moving." -- me.

"Dear Bruce Bochy, Orlando Cabrera is not a No. 5 hitter, nor has he ever been in his career." -- Gotheem.

Actually, the genius of Bochy's move comes in two explanations. First, Cabrera had the best lifetime numbers against Diamondbacks' starter Jason Marquis, 8-for-24 (.333 batting average).

More important, Cabrera has as much experience, if not more, than most hitters on the Giants' roster as the No. 5 hitter and has acquitted himself just fine throughout his career: In 538 lifetime at bats as the No. 5 hitter, mostly when he was on the Expos, he's had 142 hits (.264 batting average) with 35 doubles, 10 home runs and 61 RBI.

So, when he stepped to the plate with Sandoval and Beltran on base, Cabrera might have been Bochy's best option. And when he scorched one into the corner to score both runs, Bochy had to feel quietly satisfied at the brilliance of the move.

Then, there was Aubrey Huff, looking a bit more relaxed as the No. 6 hitter, rapping one down the line for what could have been extra base hits but was knocked down by Goldschmidt. No matter, it was one of two hits for the maligned veteran, a beautiful pick me up, only made better by Cody Ross' bases clearing double to the gap and an 8-0 lead.

Bochy will have to tinker with the lineup for Thursday's opener against left-hander Cliff Lee, replacing Torres with Rowand. It's too bad, though understandable. You'd like the same guys to get back out there to keep that momentum going. But, as Bochy said, they've done well against left-handers with Rowand in there.

Who's to question Bochy's lineup moves after his sly maneuvering Wednesday?

Are we seeing the slow demise of the Giants?

This may be the slow demise of the Giants, or it could be a mere blip, a phase that they'll get over.

But after losing their fifth game in a row, it was not the Giants who looked like the reigning World Champions Tuesday night. They didn't even look like the first place team.

It was the upstart Arizona Diamondbacks with the energy, the resilience, the timely hitting, the dazzling defense, the luck and pluck, and yes, the dominating pitching that defines a winning club.

The Giants? They had the look of a has-been team playing out the string: Desultory, sagging, aging, luckless.

Let's take a look at the desultory. The Giants had just taken a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the fourth on a Pablo Sandoval RBI double to the gap in left center field, following base hits by Jeff Keppinger and Carlos Beltran. The newly acquired missing pieces to the puzzle had finally combined efforts to start a rally, and Sandoval had cashed in, or at least made a withdrawal on the account.

With runners and second and third and the infield playing back, all No. 5 hitter Aubrey Huff needed to do was to hit a ground ball anywhere to get another run in. But, it would have been nice to get that big hit, the one that puts a stamp on the game, rebuffs the audacious challenger.

All season long, the Giants have waited patiently for Huff to get untracked, to recapture the spirit of 2010 that made him one of the most beloved members of the squad of misfits and castoffs.

Here's what I wrote July 14:

Huff was instrumental in lifting the Giants into believing they could make a run last year -- and was unquestionably the heart of that team, red thong and all. He was one of my favorites, and I still have hope that he will straighten out his swing, starting with an opposite field stroke. I'd sacrifice home run power if he were to simply focus on driving in runs with alley-to-alley extra base power. 

But, it appears that when the burdens and pressures of championship ball were right before him, he has wilted. His slide last year coincided with the Giants' earnest run for the title, and continues to this day as the team plays under the glare of national scrutiny.

It has almost been a year to the date since Huff began his slide on Aug. 5 last year. Since then, he has hit .242 (141 hits in 582 at bats) with 16 home runs and 70 RBI.

And last night, when the Giants needed the big hit -- in the midst of a four-game losing streak, with the Diamondbacks clambering to catch them in the standings, in a moment that could have consecrated the newly enhanced lineup -- Huff shriveled before our eyes.

His doom was foretold on the 2-1 pitch. It was a change up that faded low and away, what would have been ball three, putting Huff in a good hitter's count. But because he is having trouble keeping up with major league fastballs, Huff must start his swing earlier.

And so, when the 84 MPH change of pace came, he could not avoid swinging, could not hold up, and now the count was 2-and-2. From there, Huff was in a pure defensive mode, and two pitches later, he grounded meekly back to starting pitcher Daniel Hudson, who was able to hold the runners and get his out.

Huff couldn't even produce a rollover ground out to second base that he has done so much to sear into our consciousness all season.

Still, the Giants had their best two-out clutch hitter to fall back on, right? Nate Schierholtz, who had pushed his way into the starting lineup with his string of unlikely, dramatic hits, his stroke so graceful that you wondered if he could finally blossom into the star that his athleticism promised.

Schierholtz, though, looks tired, as if the rigors of every day play just isn't his thing. He entered the game mired in a 4-for-30 slump, and even the dire need in front of him could not speed up his bat against Hudson's 95 MPH offerings. On four pitches, he was gone, Nate headed for an 0-for-4 night with three strikeouts, and the Giants' spirits ebbed as low as could be.

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As if on cue, the one big mistake that Tim Lincecum made all night, came in the very next frame, the top of the fifth.

With a runner on, Lincecum fell behind the hulking rookie, Paul Goldschmidt, two balls and one strike, and tried to muscle a 94 MPH fastball by him. Either he didn't know the kid's wheelhouse, or missed his target -- I think it was the latter; it looked as though Chris Stewart had to reach back to get the pitch. But it was a big swing, an unmistakably impressive introduction to the two-time Cy Young award winner.

Under most scenarios, a 2-1 deficit in the fifth should be seen as nothing more than a challenge to fight and scrape back. But the Giants appeared stunned and panicked. As if they now had their backs against the wall, and had been hoping that Lincecum could hold up a 1-0 lead.

It is a snake-bit team, a team dreading the fall of the next shoe.

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That shoe fell in the bottom of the sixth, when, with Keppinger on base with a walk, Beltran hit a drive toward the corner in right field. It was a rocket on a low arc, but Justin Upton made like Superman and Baryshnikov, flying, almost ballet-like, both legs suspended several feet above ground as if running through the air -- and catching it while still soaring and just before crashing softly into the fence.

Upton, the rising star, the center of this Arizona team, had snuffed out the bid by the aging veteran to whom the Giants have turned their hopes. Upton would later put an exclamation point on his performance with a two-run home run off of reliever Ramon Ramirez to put the game away, 4-1, in the eighth inning.

But, maybe it was superfluous. Maybe the Giants' spirit had already been killed.

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The Giants are at risk of entering what could be a fatal part of their season. With a four-game series against the Phillies next, who will be motivated to avenge last-week's series loss at home, the Giants can ill afford a loss today.

If they don't watch it, if they don't somehow muster some ill-defined something -- is it confidence? Is it concentration? Determination? -- they could be staring at the kind of losing streak from which it will be hard to recover.

But they have to face Jason Marquis, who is having a rough season but can always be counted on to be tough on the Giants.

So, it will be interesting to see if Boss Bochy can do anything to shake up his lineup. I expect Brandon Belt to be in today, either for Huff at first base or Schierholtz in left field.

If he were truly open-minded and daring, Bochy would drop both Sandoval and Beltran in the order. Here's why. They cannot continue to be table setters for the fifth- and sixth-place hitters; they cannot rely on Huff and Schierholtz to drive them in.

How about taking the pressure off Huff and Schierholtz (or whoever is in the 5 and 6 hole) and hitting them in front of Sandoval and Beltran, who would use their run-producing skills to bring the Giants back to life.

Baffling strike zone led to Cain's demise

Matt Cain had a few words for home plate umpire Tony Randazzo as he departed Monday's game in the sixth inning -- nothing too disrespectful, but more than what the stoic leader of the Giants starting rotation typically has to say about an umpire's strike zone.

Cain's precise, orderly and efficient performance against the Arizona Diamondbacks had collapsed in a heap in just a matter of minutes, a rally built on parade of singles and a walk, marinated in a stew of frustration.

Cain's pitching line portrays an unacceptable performance -- 5 1/3 innings, eight hits, five runs, three walks and five strikeouts in the Giants' 5-2 loss -- but, in this case, truth lies somewhere between statistics and facts on the ground.

Let's just say, if he had gotten a few of the calls that went against him, the hue of Cain's performance, and possibly the outcome of the game, would have been a shade brighter. And the typically unflappable, reliable and steady Cain wouldn't have gone all combustible on us.

Here's how that sixth inning unfolded:

Cain couldn't blame anyone but himself when he gave up a leadoff single to Justin Upton: it came on an 0-2 pitch, and though it was not a bad curve, he left it up above the knees and over the plate, and Upton, the hottest hitter in the game, jumped on it for a line drive single to left. An 0-2 hit is inexcusable, even to the hottest hitter in the game.

Who knows? That may have unsettled Cain, a perfectionist at heart. But immediately, Cain's frustration came through against the next hitter, Chris Young. He threw a knee-high fastball on the corner on the first pitch that Randazzo missed, and again on the third pitch en route to a four-pitch walk. Cain, who rarely shows emotion on the mound, was almost beside himself at the hand Randazzo had just dealt him.

The seeds of Cain's frustrations actually were planted an inning earlier. You could see through his body language that Cain could not believe two of Randazzo's calls that led to Ryan Roberts' walk to lead off the fifth inning. A one-out jam-job single to left by Gerardo Parra on a perfectly placed fastball on his hands added to the frustration, so there were two base runners that Cain felt should not have been out there.

After a sacrifice bunt, he pitched around Willie Bloomquist -- a move borne out an inning later -- to load the bases. He came back to snuff out the rally with a big strikeout, getting Kelly Johnson on a beautiful change up, keeping the Giants' 1-0 lead intact.

But in the sixth, his exasperation began to boil over. Immediately after the walk to Young to put runners at first and second with no outs, Cain paid for it on the first pitch to Miguel Montero, who singled through the hole on the right side to tie the game, 1-1.

Cain thought he had the next hitter, Ryan Roberts struck out on a front door cutter, knee high and on the inside corner, but Randazzo wasn't buying, Cain, once again showing shock and disbelief.

At this point, I'm surprised that pitching coach Dave Righetti didn't pay a visit to the mound to get Cain to regather himself -- if he was watching what I was watching. He didn't, and Cain didn't. The next pitch, a 91 MPH fastball, he left up and over the plate, in a t-ball location. Roberts obliged with a line drive RBI single for a 2-1 lead.

Cain recovered to get the rookie slugger Paul Goldschmidt, who'd hit him hard twice, to strike out, and jumped ahead of Gerardo Parra 0-and-2. But he couldn't put him away, and wound up giving up an insulting seeing-eye slow roller through the right side. It got past a diving second baseman Jeff Keppinger, who'd been bunched over toward the bag in double play depth, and the Diamondbacks now led, 3-1.

Both runners moved up on Carlos Beltran's ill-advised throw to the plate, a key to Cain's ultimate fate, because one out later, Willie Bloomquist jumped on his first pitch for a line drive single to center to drive in the final two runs of the rally, ending Cain's night.

It was strange to see Cain go right after Bloomquist after how carefully he pitched to him in the fifth. He pitched around him to load the bases, and escaped that jam by striking out Johnson. He could have employed the same strategy in the sixth. But the fact is, Cain's head wasn't screwed on properly at that point, driven to distraction by the confounding strike zone of Tony Randazzo.

A tinge of buyer's remorse; team chemistry tested with new additions

Maybe the Giants should have just phoned in a forfeit Sunday against the Reds. It would have been the same result (9-0) , and they could have gotten home earlier to decompress from a draining, fruitless weekend in Cincinnati.

You hate to think that the clubhouse chemistry has gone out of whack, but the immediate effects of the Giants' big acquisition, Carlos Beltran, certainly coincided with a disjointed performance against a Reds team that was on its back after a four-game sweep at the hands of the middling New York Mets.

Of course, even a Ruthian or Bondsian weekend from Beltran may not have been enough for the Giants, at least in the final two games of the series, when they were outscored 16-2.

Beltran had several opportunities to put the Giants on top in Friday night's 13-inning 4-3 loss; Saturday, a big hit could have drawn the Giants closer at several points in their 7-2 loss, but by the end of Sunday's 9-0 loss, his seventh-inning single to right was consequential only in the fact that he would not be coming home in an 0-for-12 slide.

As it is, Beltran will return to San Francisco as a Giant for the first time Monday in a 2-for-17 funk since his trade. Before he was brought over from New York, Beltran had already been mired in a 4-for-18 slide, so he may be in the midst of a verifiable slump (6-for-35 in his last 10 games, dropping from .293 to .278).

He seemed pretty vulnerable to slow stuff away and curves down and in, and come to think of it, he never quite got around on the rare fastball they threw him. And, the Reds' Dusty Baker had a particularly sadistic habit of bringing in tough lefties to turn him over to his weaker right side whenever he needed a big out.

Don't worry, though! The Giants brought in reinforcements! Orlando Cabrera! Who is having exactly the same kind of offensive season as their other aging, declining shortstop. And meanwhile, the Giants let center fielder Michael Bourn (.303, a major league leading 39 stolen bases) get away to the Braves.

And the Arizona Diamondbacks dealt for Jason Marquis, who just kills the Giants, in time for a head-to-head three-game series just as they drew to within two. Marquis, who is slated to start against the Giants on Wednesday, threw a five-hit shutout against the Giants in April. Recently, he's stunk up the joint (26 1/3 IP, 32 H 16 ER 13 BB for a 5.46 ERA), but he has used AT&T, his favorite ballpark to pitch in, to get out of funks before.

This should be a time of fervent anticipation and high expectations as we head into the final third of the season.

Instead, the swirl of changes on the Giants and around the league has only brought about apprehension, confusion, and maybe a tinge of buyer's remorse. If the Giants could have chosen between the 34-year old Beltran, who is on his way out at the end of the season anyway, and the Astros' Hunter Pence -- younger by six years, hitting .306, and under contract for the next two years -- wouldn't the smart money have been on Pence?

The Phillies, who rebounded from their series loss to the Giants with a three-game sweep of the Pittsburgh Pirates, landed Pence for a pitching prospect who was lower on Baseball America's list of top prospects (by six slots). Could the Giants have nabbed Pence for Zack Wheeler? Did they blink first, relinquishing the best moves to the Phillies and Braves?

Bourn would have been a dynamic addition: he would have given the Giants a bona fide leadoff hitter, a game-changer both on offense and defense. The Braves gave up a middling outfielder, Jordan Schafer (.240, with 15 stolen bases) and three minor league pitchers, but none are off-the-chart prospects. In fact, they held onto their top four pitching prospects.

Could the Giants have offered center fielder Thomas Neal, hitting .295 at AAA Fresno, and maybe a pitcher or two from their system for Bourn -- even after they had landed Beltran? Did General Manager Brian Sabean work that angle hard enough?

I can't imagine he is satisfied with his current leadoff situation. They are left with the antithesis of a leadoff hitter in Aaron Rowand (.293 on base, two stolen bases) pairing with a confused and overwhelmed Andres Torres. Too often already, Beltran came up in the Reds series with two outs or leading off an inning -- because the bottom two or three slots in the lineup are combining with the leadoff slot to create a vast desert of opportunities.

Instead, they got Cabrera to add "stability" at shortstop and bring in post-season experience, though that's been worth only a .228 batting average (34-for-149). If you take what he's done since his first post-season performance in 2004, he's hit .188 (17-for-90) since.

And now that they've got their big "slugger" in the middle of the lineup -- remember, Beltran has only 15 home runs, and AT&T isn't going to exactly beef up his numbers -- the Giants will see whether high expectations for him will mess with their psyche.

Without Beltran, they had to find a way to win, often relying on the least expected ways to win, from the least expected sources: think Chris Stewart's squeeze bunt, or Nate Schierholtz' half-dozen two-strike, two-out game-changing base hits.

With Beltran, will they find themselves putting too many expectations on him to come through for them? And if he doesn't, how much air does that take out of the offense?

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There should be little doubt that Zito has made his last start for the Giants, unless he's needed in an absolute emergency.

Whatever he did to turn himself around for those first three starts after his long rehab stint, Zito has returned to form: a fastball that hovers around 84 MPH, a changeup that may get up there six or eight miles slower (ideally, you want a difference of 10 MPH) and hangs out over the plate, and a curve that has been rendered moot by his inability to command the first two.

The only good thing you could say about his performance Sunday was that he didn't give up a three-run home run.

But now that he is presumably going to the bullpen, what role will he play? As KNBR's Marty Lurie asked during the 13-inning Friday night affair, who would we rather have go long in an extra inning game: Zito or Guillermo Mota, who has become quite effective in long roles? Could you imagine Zito holding the Reds down for two and two-thirds innings, as Mota did?

Perhaps they can just use him for mop up relief, to spare Mota, who has done that job, too. But, work would be rare indeed if you could just hold Zito out for mop up duties. Whatever role he plays, he's taking up a roster space that could otherwise be used for a utility guy off the bench.

It appears an unsolvable problem, given the magnitude of Zito's contract. No one will take him. The Giants will only use him in an emergency. And they're doomed to suffer the consequences of his batting practice sessions.

Here's hoping that the Giants employ the phantom injury again, send Zito back to the disabled list, and hope they can stretch it out until the September call-ups. Or maybe, in a daydream I had as I watched him struggle Sunday and as one of my readers, Ernie Nackord, suggested, Zito will finally come to his senses and understand that his career is kaput, that he is holding on too long, and call it quits.

He may feel that he is obligated to pitch out the remainder of his contract. The worst of it is that he may feel he needs to continue pitching so he can collect his paycheck. Could he work out a settlement? Too far fetched, I'm sure. It doesn't hurt to dream, and contemplate all options.

Edgy Giants retain edge over complacent Phils

When Ryan Howard loped casually after Michael Martinez' errant throw that bounced into foul territory behind first base Thursday night, allowing Giants catcher Chris Stewart to score all the way from first, it all became clear again why the Giants beat the Phillies in the playoffs last year.

And why the Giants retain an edge on purportedly the best team in the major leagues.

Yes, they do have the best record in the majors. But, against the Giants, at least, the Phillies have the look of a team that believes it is still owed, still entitled to, the respect of a World Champion two years after the fact.

They couldn't stomach the notion that the Giants were the better team last year, that they actually beat them to take the Phillies' place as the reigning National League and World champions. Howard epitomized the disbelief in his refusal to accept the final call in Game 6, a third strike painted over the outside edge of the plate by Brian Wilson.

Replays clearly show that the pitch was spot on and home plate umpire Tom Hallion's emphatic call -- the upwart thrust of his right arm so apt, so in tune with the moment -- was justified. By no means was this Eric Gregg and Livan Hernandez, circa 1997.

And here was Howard on Thursday night, jogging after the errant throw, coolness rather than urgency in his stride. One run had already scored from third, and third base coach Tim Flannery, picking up on the vibe, waved Stewart home. Howard's throw arrived just a bit late, and the hustle play earned the Giants a gigantic lead by their standards, 4-0, which they never relinquished en route to a 4-1 win.

Now that the Giants just beat them two out of three in their home park, in front of their 179th straight sellout crowd -- breaking the Phils' streak of nine straight series victories -- now, are they convinced that the Giants are for real?

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The Phillies' fans booed lustily at Carlos Beltran as he strode to the plate in the first inning, scorned wooers left at the altar, indignant that he'd been shipped to a team beneath their regard, plucked out of the Big Apple right out from beneath their noses and handed to the team that torments them.

The Phillies apparently were unwilling to do what the Giants did: part with their top pitching prospect, Jarred Cosart, who ranks 45th among Baseball America's top prospects, six notches below Zack Wheeler.

But the Giants reminded the Phillies of their greatest need: an offense that can solve the team they expect to face again in the playoffs.

After the Giants' 2-1 win Wednesday on the shoulders of Matt Cain's brilliant seven-inning outing, a Philadelphia sportswriter deftly observed that it "reinforced a lesson the Phillies learned last October: Everything can be rendered meaningless if they do not find a way to hit San Francisco pitching when it counts."

And after the Giants' 4-1 win Thursday behind Tim Lincecum, who apparently got extra motivation to pitch after being heckled earlier in the series by fans, mocking him for the illness that kept him from pitching in the first two games, another writer opined: "If anything, the Giants held a mirror up the Phillies and showed them their most glaring blemish -- the need for another productive bat, preferably from the right side."

Philly.com asked readers to weigh in. Are the Giants better than the Phillies? Some still clung to the idea that the Giants are doing it on a wing and prayer:

"Honestly, I have no idea how the Giants are any good. Don't get me wrong, their pitching is unbelievable (but the Phillies and Braves are just as good). Their lineup is what completely baffles me. They are so bad and yet they come through with clutch hit after clutch hit. I'm still in shock that they won the World Series last year. I thought the Rangers would destroy them. I guess they are legit, but I still can't believe my eyes." -- Penfold18.

For others, the truth is slowly dawning on them:

"Our aces will need to throw shutouts because our lineup against their best starters appears overmatched. We look nursing home old at the plate. ... The Phils could wind up with the best record in baseball, win the East; however, the Giants are clearly the better at the little things. Plain and simple, San Francisco is better." -- Fan74.

Another had a straightforward strategy on how to dispose of the Giants in the post-season:

"Gotta root for the Braves to knock the Giants out of the NLDS. That's our only hope." -- Jeff1818

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Lincecum's mastery over Chase Utley was pure sport, an utter phenomenon to behold.

Three times Utley came up with runners in scoring position -- in the first, third and fifth innings -- and each time, Lincecum overmatched him with his exotic assortment of offerings. The look on Utley's face was pure bafflement every time he walked dejectedly away from the plate.

Utley had a chance to strike first in the bottom of the first with a runner on third with one out -- he didn't even need a hit; just a ground ball to the middle infield would have sufficed -- but on a 2-2 fastball up, he could only muster a pop up to short. Lincecum took care of that first-inning threat by striking out Howard on a beautiful slider.

In the third, the Phils, down 1-0 on Pablo Sandoval's home run, mounted a one-out threat when pitcher Kyle Kendrick slapped a single to right and Jimmy Rollins drew a walk. Lincecum got a break when Michael Martinez' drive to deep center was flagged down by Andres Torres.

There was Utley again in a spot to deliver. But he immediately found himself in a two-strike hole on a pair of devastating split finger changeups, the first right down the middle till it dove eight inches out of sight; the second a nastier version that sank into the dirt but induced a swing.

Then Lincecum proved genius when he threw a 91 MPH fastball belt high right by a shocked and frozen Utley for a called third strike to end the threat. Utley, who entered the series having hit .313 dating back to June 3, looked awed at the pure cunning of a fastball down the middle.

Finally, in the fifth, Lincecum wobbled a bit with a pair of walks, and up came Utley with two outs. He fell behind Utley 3-and-1, but in a reprise of the third inning sequence he got him again: a belt-high splitter that jolted downward for a swing-through strike, and then a nasty payoff splitter that ate dirt -- it bounced at least six inches in front of the plate, for crissakes! Utley, utterly confounded, couldn't lay off on a pitch that would otherwise have loaded the bases, and there went that threat.

Utley, one of the most accomplished hitting second basemen in the history of the game -- he has a lifetime batting average of .293 with 184 home runs in the middle of a career that may take him to the Hall of Fame -- is now 2-for-23 against Lincecum, an .087 mark.

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It was rather satisfying to see the Giants win without an offensive contribution from Beltran in his debut.

Beltran went 0-for-4, appearing at the mercy of Kyle Kendrick's change up with a pair of strikeouts. He never had a chance to show his run-producing assets, hitting each time with the bases empty. Three times, he led off an inning to no avail.

But, no matter. The players surrounding him in the lineup appeared at ease -- the intended effect of a new offensive shot in the arm, right?

Pablo Sandoval had his leadoff off-field home run down the left field line in the second to give the Giants an early lead; and Aubrey Huff and Nate Schierholtz paired up for a nice two-out rally in the fourth: Huff with a blast off the right field wall for a double -- now wouldn't that be something if he responds to his new role as a supporting cast member?

And Schierholtz came through in yet another two-strike, two-out spot. He'd fought through eight pitches, breaking his bat on two successive pitches at one point, before stroking a payoff slider down the middle just over the glove of a leaping Utley.

"He has become a specialist in two-strike situations," said TV color man Mike Krukow. "That might be my favorite two-strike at bat of his."

And in their two-run seventh -- the one with Howard acting miffed that he had to run down an errant throw -- the only hit of the inning came on a beautifully executed one-out hit and run single barely through the hole on the right side of the infield by Stewart, the Giants No. 8 hitter and backup to the backup hitting .206. Schierholtz raced around to third, setting up the Phillies' defensive implosion.

It came on pinch hitter Aaron Rowand's grounder to Martinez' back hand. It's not clear that he could have gotten a double play, and he was playing back, so a run would have scored (a puzzlement: why hadn't Charlie Manuel drawn the infield in, down 2-0 late in the game? Was it hubris? Thinking that a third run was no big deal, even in the late innings against the best relief corps in the National League?).

But Martinez booted it, then threw wildly over the 6-foot-5 inch Howard, the ball bounding toward the restraining wall beyond the dugout. At the point that Martinez uncorked his throw, Stewart was just arriving at second base. But Flannery, seeing Howard's indifferent retrieval, brought the catcher scurrying around third and toward home as if on a run-scoring single, and as if the game was on the line.

That run captured the soul of the Giants: an edgy, slightly insecure, often underachieving team that savors the opportunities when they appear, seizes the openings, slight as they may be. There is no self-satisfaction on this team. No sense of entitlement.

The price to become a true power: a deal with the devil

So, this is what a deal with the devil looks like. A true Faustian Bargain, where Joe Hardy goes to Washington D.C. to steal a championship from the Damn Yankees.

Sending off what could be a centerpiece to the Giants future -- golden-armed Zack Wheeler -- for what is likely to be a two-month-plus rental, Carlos Beltran, unquestionably qualifies as a deal with the devil.

Is this the price the Giants have to pay to become a true national power? It's the age old conundrum that has puzzled baseball executives through the ages: If you have a chance to win it all now, what are you willing to sacrifice?

Detroit Tiger fans still lament the deal that brought Doyle Alexander from the Atlanta Braves in an attempt to go all the way in 1987, but fell short when they lost to the Toronto Blue Jays in the playoffs.Fans were left to witness from afar John Smoltz' Hall of Fame career unfold over the next 21 years, clinging only to the memory of their 1984 World title.

It is certainly a departure for general manager Brian Sabean, typically covetous of the home grown talent that he has cultivated so well over the past dozen years: risking the future for the promise of instantaneous success.

And it's a departure from the cost-conscious, bargain hunting method with which he put together his band of misfits of last year.

Nothing's guaranteed in baseball, but right now it is a bold, brash pivot for the Giants into terrain traditionally occupied strictly by powerhouse franchises like the Yankees, Red Sox and Phillies: a splashy trade-deadline move to secure a strong position heading into the final months of a season.

It was painfully obvious that they were desperate to solidify their offense for potential rematch showdowns with much more heavily equipped Atlanta and Philadelphia in the post-season.

If Beltran helps lead the Giants into the post-season, though, that won't be enough: they probably could have done that without him.

It's what he does in October that will determine his historical place in Giants' lore.

It could come down to a half dozen crucial at bats that Beltran takes in the post-season to determine how good a deal this was. If he ultimately carries the Giants to another World Series title, any success that Wheeler has down the line can be explained away.

If the Giants fall short, however, fans will be watching Wheeler's progress through more than jaded lenses.

For now, the Bay Area is abuzz with anticipation. The idea of having a legitimate power and RBI threat to complement the dominant pitching staff has been what fans have cried for virtually all season -- at least since Buster Posey's season-ending injury.

Sabean should have secured his place as among the best general managers in the game with last year's World Championship, but remains still unloved by his own fan base. Maybe this move will finally elevate him into the kind of status that the Pat Gillicks and Dallas Greens of the game won from their fans.

Maybe the national media will finally take the Giants more seriously now that the West Coast boys have added the biggest bat on the market, dipping right into the Big Apple to add a centerpiece marquee player to the middle of their lineup.

And, they did it right under the nose of the Philadelphia Phillies, who made their own bid for Beltran, and who will have to pitch to him Thursday night in the rubber match of the series (against the Phillies' starter Kyle Kendrick, Beltran has a .316 history -- 6-for-19 with one home run).

The Phillies' Roy Halladay is probably wishing the Phillies made a stronger push for Beltran: the Giants' new right fielder has a long history of success against him, hitting .333, with 14 hits in 42 at bats, two HRs and 10 RBI.

Watch for that key matchup in the upcoming four-game series in early August in San Francisco, and of course, if they indeed face each other in the post season.

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The ripple effects of the trade were more like aftershocks.

Beltran is starting in right field, moving Nate Schierholtz over to left in what may turn out to be a brutal competition for playing time among Nate, Cody Ross, Aaron Rowand and Andres Torres.

We'll see whether Beltran is cut out for the vast depths of right field; perhaps after having to roam so much ground on his 34-year old well traveled knees, he'll put in a request for a transfer to left. Taking Schierholtz out of right field appears to be a downgrade on defense.

Early rumors had the Giants releasing Pat Burrell and sending Brandon Belt back to Fresno.

That is now thoroughly discredited. Burrell is on the disabled list until Saturday, and could not be released until then. The Giants announced this morning that they released second baseman Bill Hall to make room on the 40 man roster. They will likely perhaps send Burrell to Fresno for a rehab stint before deciding what to do with him.

Belt remains on the roster, and Emmanuel Burriss gets the demotion, probably the most natural move to make. Burriss was a backup to the backups, and even then he wasn't the most steady on defense and provided little on offense -- though he had some clutch hits to become a strand, thin though it was, in the mosaic the Giants are weaving.

A Belt demotion would have taken some of the glow off the Beltran deal, so the Giants tamped those rumors down fairly quickly.

Fans want to see Belt supplant Huff; a large and loud contingent certainly believe that Boss Bochy has wrongly limited Belt's opportunities as Huff continued to flail at the plate. Belt's dramatic return just a week ago -- it seems so long ago -- hitting a home run and game-winning double against the Dodgers, was rewarded with a spot on the bench, an outrage to many.

The Giants appear to want to give Huff some more time to buck up, hoping that with less pressure to be the Big Guy he can relax and settle into a more secondary role. It will be interesting to see how long they go with him if he continues his relentless drive for the record number of grounders to second, but Bochy and Sabean seem convinced that Huff can return to form, even though the numbers show that Huff's troubles began last August -- when the heat was on.

Even Pablo Sandoval can stand a little support: he's gone 2 for his last 19 in the last six games, dropping from .315 to .298, and has gone without an extra base hit in the last seven games.

A word on Burrell as he awaits his fate: He would be missed. He was a critical component to last year's run to the World Series, provided a great veteran presence in the dugout and clubhouse. The swagger he brought to the team gave them a bravado they hadn't previously had. He was like John Wayne riding a horse across the Montana ridge as he rounded the bases on each of his majestic home runs.

But it's been clear that he has had no place on the Giants this season; he's lost some bat speed, and the magic -- the power, the clutch hits -- he provided last year just hasn't been there.

Losing Burrell would be more upsetting to the team's chemistry if he is on the active roster. So, it may be that the Giants ease him out of the picture at some point before he could return to the active roster.

In offloading Wheeler, a question remains: do they have anything else they'd be willing to deal from their farm system in another deal that brings a catcher over? Short of prized outfielder Gary Brown?

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Matt Cain's shutdown job against the Phillies should not be overlooked by the news of the day. He was absolutely stifling in a much-needed outing after the Giants' abysmal performance Tuesday.

Phillies Manager Charlie Manuel, quoted in the Philadelphia Inquirer, had an interesting take on the difference between the Matt Cain who'd never defeated the Phillies in a regular season game and Wednesday night's version:

"He was very aggressive. He threw more fastballs than I thought he'd throw, but he also had good command... He's changed his arm angle. It used to be higher. He dropped it kind of like three-quarters, and the ball gets harder to see."

Here are the big moments in Cain's crisp performance (7 IP, 1 R, 0 ER, 4 H BB 1 SO 1) in Wednesday's 2-1 win:

-- In a two-out threat in the bottom of the second -- on a single to left by Raul Ibanez and a walk to Domonic Brown on an eight-pitch at bat -- Cain fell behind No. 8 hitter Carlos Ruiz two-and-oh. Just when it looked like he was pitching around the dangerous Ruiz with pitcher Cole Hamels on deck, Cain slipped a tantalizing curve in, getting Ruiz to ground out harmlessly.

-- He retired Chase Utley, who has owned him in the past (7-for-15 with three HR, seven RBI), on an easy fly out after giving up a two-out double to Michael Martinez in the third inning.

-- Yet another jam, with a runner on second and two outs in the bottom of the fourth, Brown put up another tough eight-pitch battle to draw the count full. On the payoff pitch, Cain blew high heat right by by the young slugger, a 92 MPH fastball up that he couldn't resist.

-- He treated the meat of the order, Utley and Howard, to his whole repertoire in the bottom of the sixth.  Cain had Utley off balance with a slider on the outside corner, a belt high curve and a changeup for a groundout to second base. Cain fell behind Howard 3-and-1 before unleashing a 94 MPH fastball -- his best of the night -- that Howard fouled weakly, and then an 89 MPH cut fastball that got in on the handle and induced a weak grounder to first to end the inning.

-- In the seventh, Cain's attempt to catch a short pop fly -- he's more aggressive on pop flies than any other pitcher on the Giants' staff -- led to the only run against him. But, after giving up an RBI single to Brown -- off a bad hop at first base -- Cain closed the threat down by getting Ruiz to go after another curve to ground neatly into an inning ending double play.

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It was difficult to watch the Brian Wilson-Ryan Howard faceoff in the ninth inning without thinking of the clinching strikeout in the NLCS. I still am amazed that Howard and Phillies fans contend that final pitch, a cutter over the corner, was not a strike. It was clearly over the outside edge.

On this night, Howard took the count full, with Wilson working the inner and outer edges of the strike zone before finally retiring him on an easy fly ball to left. And, yes, it was on a cut fastball.

Who is this Vance Worley kid, anyway?

Who is this Vance Worley kid, the Philadelphia Phillies' starting pitcher opposite Tim Lincecum tonight?

For one, he's a dirtbag. Well, Dirtbag, which is the unofficial nickname for Long Beach State University's baseball team, the 49ers. For another, he's got a mohawk to rival the Giants' Brian Wilson, and he wears glasses that give him an intellectual look to go along with his linebacker body frame (6-foot-2, 235 pounds).

A third round draft pick of the Phillies in 2008, Worley is a Northern California kid: a 2005 graduate of McClatchy High in Sacramento, named that year by Baseball America as Northern California's top pitching prospect. He was drafted by the Phillies in the 20th round that year but opted for Long Beach State.

After making his major league debut with five appearances late last year (1-1, 1.38 ERA), Worley has burst upon the scene this year virtually out of nowhere to post a 6-1 mark and 2.01 ERA.

Worley was up and down earlier this year between AAA LeHigh Valley and Philadelphia, sent down for a third time after a disastrous start in late May against the New York Mets when he gave up 12 hits, eight runs, five earned, in just three innings. At the time, Phillies Manager Charlie Manuel said he needed consistent work, and wasn't getting it up in Philadelphia.

Manuel sent him down with the message that he would be back. "We'll see you shortly," Worley recalled Manuel telling him, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. "You're a part of this team. You'll be back."

Worley, who turns 24 in September, took it in stride.

"There's things I need to work on anyway," Worley told the Inquirer. "It's been a work in progress. I'm fine with it. I know what I need to do. I'll be back in a start or two."

Three weeks later, he was back, and apparently, he worked out whatever kinks he had. He wound up replacing Roy Oswalt in the rotation. Oswalt went on the disabled list in late June after a disastrous month (1-4, 5.81 ERA).

Worley's been a revelation since then. He's gone 4-0 in six starts with a 0.94 ERA (4 earned runs in 38.1 IP, giving up only 21 hits with 16 walks and 29 strikeouts), defeating the Cubs, Marlins, Mets (twice) and Red Sox.

Worley's name has been raised in trade talks centering around the Houston Astros' Hunter Pence, though Manuel came out yesterday to insist his young starter wasn't going anywhere.

Fans appear to be riding the crest of Worley's success with some trepidation. He's described as not having great stuff with any of his pitches, but has had good command. Here's what one fan wrote this week about him in the Broad Street Journal, a Phillies fan blog:

"None of his pitches are spectacular, but they are all solid and he seems to be willing to throw all of them in any given count. His lack of a top tier pitch made scouts overlook him as a top of the rotation guy. Can he sustain this control? I don’t think so, but it will be fun to find out. I have a feeling Rube may sell high on him. I would trade him for Pence if given the opportunity."

Before his start against the Red Sox, Worley sent someone to get fellow Sacramento Valley (Woodland) ballplayer Dustin Pedroia's autograph on a ball, but the second baseman declined.

"He wouldn't give me one until I met him," Worley told the Associated Press. "Then I threw one up and in on him so I probably won't get it now."

Worley got Pedroia's attention when he threw a high-and-tight fastball in the first inning before striking him out. He went on to win, 2-1, in what the East Coast media was hyping as a preview to the World Series.

“He had great mound presence, and we were all very impressed,” Pedroia said. “It’s really good for a kid that young to have a presence like that on the mound. He’s going to be a good one.”

David Ortiz took an 0-for-4 that night, striking out and flying out twice against the rookie.

“Did that guy just come up or something? Man, because he looked pretty good to me,” Ortiz said of Worley. “He had decent stuff, and it really looks like he’s been around for a long time.

“They’ve got four big starters here, right? Well, he looked like one of them out there tonight. He really looked comfortable. It’s obvious that he’s listening to those big starters over there. It’s rubbing off on him.”