Arizona    82-61   …        Two-of-three is plenty good..
GIANTS  75-68  7 GB    Two-of-three ain't good enough..

Yesterday
Giants lost to San Diego, 3-1, failing to sweep the series.
Arizona beat Colorado, 5-3, taking two out of three on the road.

Tuesday
Giants defeated San Diego, 6-4, while Arizona lost at Colorado, 8-3.

Today
Giants have the day off; they return home to open a three-game series against Los Angeles Friday. The third-place Dodgers are now closer to the Giants than the Giants are to Arizona.
Arizona returns home to open a four-game stand against San Diego.

Last Night's Game
Matt Cain pitched his usual outstanding ballgame, but Aaron Harang was just as good, and by now most of us know what that means. Hang another tough loss--his 10th-- on Cain, who allowed five hits and struck out seven. Long balls were the order of the day: the Giants' entire offense was rookie Brett Pill's second homer in two games, while San Diego knitted two Cameron Maybin hits and a Will Venable homer into three runs. Venable also threw out Pill at the plate on an inning-ending double play in the seventh that started as a potential sac fly from Pat Burrell. So it goes in these declining days of September.

Tuesday night, Brett Pill made the most of his first major-league at-bat, belting a two-run homer off Wade LeBlanc to highlight the Giants' win. Shades of Will Clark? Well, let's not get too excited here. 26-year-old rookies aren't exactly the hottest prospects in the game, and while Pill has been tearing it up in Fresno all year and sure deserved the callup, lots of guys have brought gaudy-looking PCL stats to the majors and never made it. Still, when you look at the five solid innings pitched by rookie starter Eric Surkamp, who won his first big-league game, and 31- year-old rookie Justin Christian's fine night in center field and the leadoff spot, you wonder if maybe the Giants shouldn't have entertained the notion of a youth movement some time ago. It's hard to believe these guys could average less than 3.4 runs per game!