As a lifelong Dodger fan, ordinarily I would hate to see the Giants win. But it should be obvious that the Dodgers aren't going to win this thing, especially after getting swept by a bunch of guys in purple shirts. If the Giants can actually win the division by *winning games*, instead of by relaxing at .500 while the rest of the division finds new ways to lose every week like The Team That Kroc Built, then more power to 'em. Have fun getting whooped in the first round. It's humiliating to be beaten by the Giants, and the rest of the division deserves to be humiliated after an embarrassment of a season like this.

The beauty of the NL West title chase - for a Giants fan hoping for a mini-miracle - is that with everyone playing everyone else, somebody is guaranteed to win and someone is guaranteed to lose, so there are definitely teams that will gain and teams that will lose, every day. So yes, there is a chance - still small, the Giants are a big 5.5 games back, but much larger than, say, a week ago - for the Giants to win the West if they can continue to stay hot.

I don't know that the Giants would get "whooped" in the first round - this Dodger fan obviously haven't been watching the Giants lately. With Schmidt and Lowry pitching extremely well lately, along with a aforementioned great bullpen, if they can continue it into the playoffs - something that seems likely - the Giants are up two games in a five game series. That would leave it up to Cain and probably Hennessey to win one of the next two to win the series or, if they lose both, return to Schmidt in game 5 to win the series.

And even if the Giants come out of Schmidt/Lowry with only 1 win, Cain has been very good so far and he's been doing it mainly just with his fastball, he should be that much tougher mixing in more of his curve ball, and Hennessey has been alternately hideous and dominating. Calling them a coin toss as to results, that brings us to 2-2 with Schmidt pitching in Game 5. I'll take those odds.

With Feliz not hitting well for two months, I think that the Giants will have to bring Bonds in once he is ready and medically cleared by his doctors. While it is nice that Linden has picked up some of that slack with some hot hitting of his own, he simply cannot compare with a (presumably) healthy Bonds.

That would make a possible lineup of Winn, Vizquel, Snow/Niekro, Bonds, Alou, Durham, Alfonzo, Matheny, (I would swamp 3 and 6 but I assume this is what Alou would do) which would be pretty good 1-6, adequate to OK 8th, with only a subpar 7th, unless Alfonzo can turn hot in the playoffs as he did in 2003, in which case the Giants would have a good lineup not just against LHP but also RHP.

But first, Bonds has to be activated off the DL and it has been so long that I'll believe it when I see it.

The Giants have done it before, and can do it again.

If the Padres manage to play .500 over their last 26 games - and, after all, they've managed to play .500 over their first 136 - I don't see how the Giants have much of a chance. They'd have to play nearly .700 ball over their last 26 (18-8) to even tie the Pads.

The Giants haven't been nearly that good over any similar stretch of games all year. The best they've managed for any run of 26 games has been 15-11, and they only got that mark thanks to their current six-game winning streak.

Bonds' return sounds impressive. But teams can pitch around him if he hits well, and get him out if he doesn't.

Anything's possible, but I wouldn't bet the house or even the laundry room on the Giants making the postseason.