Giants 5 Dodgers 4 in Los Angeles

The Giants were able to win tonight without having a great game from either their starting pitcher (Russ Ortiz) or Barry Bonds. This is a great thing for the Giants because they have been relying on excellent starting pitching and Barry Bonds heroics to carry them to most of their victories this season. Tonight it was Barry's supporting cast that came up big in their first sweep in LA since 2002.

Ray Durham & Bengie Molina had the biggest hits of the night and each finished with 2 hits and 2 RBI.

Starting pitcher Ortiz was lucky to allow just 3 runs in his 5 1/3 innings as he put 11 men on base (8 hits, 1 walk, and 2 hbp)

But the Giants relief pitching continued a recent streak of success. The Giants relievers combined to allow just 2 hits in the 3 2/3 innings they came in for and Armando Benitez is now 7 for 7 in save opportunities this year with his ERA dropping to 2.16 after tonight.

Barry Bonds had an uneventful night by his standards going 1 for 3 with an intentional walk and 1 run. The intentional walk was an interesting play though. It was only his 4th of the season and it makes me wonder if Bonds is going to start getting walked like this again (this was not a normal IBB situation) now that everyone can see what he can still do with the bat. This time the IBB backfired in a big way as Bonds as Durham and Molina got hits and Bonds ended up scoring.

The Giants now sit on top of the NL West and only the Red Sox, Indians, and Mets have fewer losses than their 8. This is huge stuff for a team that not too many were giving any chance of success coming into the season and for a team that started the year 2-7. The Giants have now won 8 in a row and 10 of 11.

As good as things are going for the Giants one must be concerned with their overall poor offense and the fact that they only have 2 more runs scored than allowed. They will no doubt need to improve the offense somehow to keep winning.

The pitching is looking pretty good on the other hand. Only the Mets have allowed fewer runs so far this year.