SAN FRANCISCO - Scott Eyre admitted that he and LaTroy Hawkins were standing in the outfield the other day talking about their offseason plans.
Then suddenly it hit them: "Oh yeah, the pennant race."
Despite the fact that the Giants have been unable to string together any sort of stretch of consistently good baseball all season, here they are just five games out of first place.
"You don't realize you are only five or six games out when you are 11 games under .500," Eyre said.
But after a 5-4 victory over the San Diego Padres on Tuesday night at SBC Park, the Giants have taken the first two games of this critical series against the division leaders, taking a couple steps toward making the improbable happen.
"I always knew we had a shot, but a long shot," manager Felipe Alou said.
With 18 games left, the Giants still need to play better baseball than they have played for any 18-game stretch all season, most likely winning 13 or 14 of the remaining games to have a chance.
And the Giants still have significant personnel issues, with Moises Alou, J.T. Snow and Jason Schmidt all questionable because of injuries. For now, those absences seem to not matter quite as much as the presence of one man: Barry Bonds.
"It's unbelievable to see what he does," Noah Lowry said. "He brings a new energy and that's going to help us." Bonds also gives the Giants a baserunner more often than not. In his four trips to the plate Tuesday - before he had to come out as a concession to the cold weather and his achy knee - he had reached base three times, on a single and two walks.
The Giants scored the tie-breaking run on Ray Durham's sacrifice fly following Bonds' fifth-inning single. They added an insurance run on Lance Niekro's RBI single in the seventh, an inning that started with a Bonds walk.
That run turned out to be huge after Robert Fick's homer against Armando Benitez in the ninth.
Bonds isn't going to play today, though, as the Giants go for the sweep, with rookie Matt Cain starting against Woody Williams.
"These games were huge for us," Lowry said. "We need to win every series. To take the first two, especially against San Diego, is big for us. But now we need to keep going. Now tomorrow is the biggest game of the year for us. Every game we play is the biggest game of the year." Lowry picked up the victory Tuesday even though he is clearly not the same pitcher as he was in August, when he allowed just three runs in five starts.
He gave up three runs in the first two innings, and the Padres had a runner in scoring position in each of his first five innings. In his past three starts he has allowed 11 runs, although he's persevered well enough to give the Giants a chance to win each game.
After the Giants fell behind 3-1 in the second, they pecked away for a run in the second and one in the fourth, each coming home on RBIs by Mike Matheny. Matheny leads all National League catchers with 57 RBIs.
NOTES
Alou reported significant improvement in his strained groin Tuesday, leaving open the possibility that he might be able to return to the lineup this season. He underwent an MRI exam that showed only a strain.
Snow, who strained his left hamstring Monday night, told Conte he was feeling worse Tuesday.
Snow is scheduled to undergo an MRI.
Schmidt threw in the bullpen for a second consecutive day, although he didn't throw at his normal bullpen velocity. The Giants are still leaving open the possibility that Schmidt will be able to take his next turn in the rotation, which would be Saturday If Schmidt is not able to pitch Saturday, the Giants will give the ball to Matt Kinney, manager Felipe Alou said. Kevin Correia appears to have lost his spot on the depth chart with his shaky performance Monday night.
Correia lasted one-third of an inning, allowing three runs. Correia said that he didn't have any problems with the shoulder injury that struck him in his previous start, but he just couldn't find his mechanics after more than a week off.
Feliz is going to do some work in right field. Now that Bonds is back, left field is not as available as it once was for Feliz.
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