Giants Take Finale Against Mets To Finish 4-2 Road Trip

Coming off a sweep of the Marlins in Miami, the Giants were riding high into New York. But after being snake-bitten in the first two games this weekend, the Mets looked poised to sweep the Giants until Aaron Rowand and Brian Wilson saved the day. They say you always want to win the last game of a road trip heading back home. The Giants did just that and now head home to face the Padres having completed a 4-2 road trip against two very tough teams.

Citi Field, the Mets' new ballpark, has not been kind to the Giants, as they've gone 3-4 there the past two seasons. In this series, they were beaten by walk-off homeruns by two catchers the Mets initially didn't want, and today, a fly ball caught in the swirling winds cost Tim Lincecum his 5th victory of the season.

The Giants didn't play well at all until Rowand's HR today. They should have blown the game wide open very early on, as Oliver Perez walked a ridiculous 7 batters in 3.1 innings. But they blew many at-bats with runners on base. Dan Runzler had another shaky outing to cough up the lead, and he's now walked 9 batters in 12.2 innings. Even though winds were howling in New York today, there was no excuse for Andres Torres to misplay that fly ball off the bat of Jason Bay in the 7th inning. He should be used to the winds; after all, he plays half his games in San Francisco.

The Giants showed a ton of heart and resolve to rally late in the first two games of series and to grind out the win today, and it was only fitting that their toughest player, Aaron Rowand, came through with the biggest swing of the bat of the game. What a 180-degree turn for Rowand this season! As Mychael Urban put it a couple of days ago, Rowand is finally starting to play like a $60 million player. He's played fantastic defense so far, and he's become the Giants' best clutch hitter, not only with the homerun in the 8th inning today, but also the blast off of Leo Nunez in the first game against the Marlins. He went through a new fitness regimen and fine-tuned his swing during the offseason, had a blistering-hot spring training, and he's carried over that hard work and success into the regular season. In 17 games, Rowand has 17 RBIs and even though he's not a prototypical leadoff hitter, he's helping this team tremendously with his bat. The most impressive aspect of this team is hard they fight and how tough they are to beat. We haven't seen this type of fortitude in a Giants team in a long time. This is how champions play; it's very reminiscent of the 2008 Phillies.

Some final thoughts:

*Pablo Sandoval is in a deep slump, and his average is now down to .282. The most concerning part of this stretch is that he's swinging through a lot of fastballs. Maybe some home-cooking with help him out. He always hits well at AT&T Park.

*Someone tell Todd Wellemeyer to trust his stuff and throw strikes instead of messing around by walking people. He allowed 3 runs on only 2 hits, but he walked 5 batters. He has tons of movement on his pitches and if he's around the zone, he can be effective.