GIANTS      88-68    ...          Magic number: 6.
San Diego    87-69     1 GB    Need a great game from ace Latos.   
Colorado     83-73     5 GB    Could be eliminated tonight.

Yesterday
Giants were idle.
San Diego lost to Chicago, 1-0.
Colorado lost to LA, 3-1.


Today
Giants host Arizona; 7:15 at the 'Bell. Jonathan Sanchez faces Rodrigo (7-14, 5.04) Lopez.
San Diego goes with their best, Mat Latos, against Chicago tonight.
Colorado hosts LA. The Rockies are in desperate trouble now.

The Final Final
It'll be Sanchez, Bumgarner, and Lincecum against Arizona, followed by Zito, Cain, and Sanchez again for the San Diego series. That is, unless the Giants manage to clinch a little early. Tonight's opponent, Lopez, has started three games against the Giants this year, with a loss and two no-decisions. He pitched best in the game he lost, but Matt Cain pitched a lot better. Sanchez has been excellent in his two starts against the Diamondbacks, as has Bumgarner. Lincecum is 1-1 in four starts, but his best outing against them came just three weeks ago.  Overall the Giants are 10-5 against Arizona.

Looking ahead (if we dare), the earliest the Giants could clinch this thing would be Thursday night, if they sweep the Diamondbacks and Chicago sweeps San Diego. That is extremely unlikely. If the status quo maintains, the Padres would hit town Friday  with a chance to force a tie by taking two of three, and to win it outright with a sweep.  It appears they'll have Latos ready for Saturday's middle game, with Cain opposing. We'll keep our eye on the ESPN schedule, because this is likely to be the only meaningful action of the season's final weekend. Everything else has been decided, except for some of the playoff positioning.  

Notes
Carlos Zambrano did his best to beat the Giants a week ago, and he did the same to San Diego last night, but this time he got the win... Philadelphia just clinched the NL East, and Atlanta moved ahead in the wild-card race... St Louis won last night to stave off elimination for another day... The Texas Rangers, who have never won a postseason series, will most likely oppose the AL East winner in the opening round... For the first time since 2007, Tim Lincecum does not lead the major leagues in strikeouts. He trails the leader, Anaheim's Jared Weaver, by only nine, though... Pat Burrell has 17 homers in only 268 at-bats, a rate of one per 15 AB or so... Albert Pujols leads the league in runs, RBI, and homers, but Carlos Gonzalez leads in total bases and slugging... Philly's Jayson Werth has 45 doubles... Brian Wilson's 45 saves lead all of baseball.