Schmiddtie! My man threw a complete, one-hit, shutout tonight in Chicago! He's got his control and velocity back baby! And thirteen strikes out - woohoo. Offensively, our boys have still got to step up (we only scored one run tonight). These days, any win will do, whether it's by one run or a landslide, I'll take it!

Randy Johnson - this man just absolutely DOMINATES when he's on the mound. He pitched a perfect game against Atlanta, of all teams, with thirteen strikeouts and the last batter he faced, struck out on a 96mph cutter! For a 40-year old man, that is serious velocity and power! I was just so happy to see his teammates so excited for him - I feel like our Giants clubhouse just doesn't have that energy right now...

NEWS: Community Gatepath, the largest nonprofit serving individuals with disabilities in San Mateo County, will celebrate Community Night at SBC Park on Wednesday, June 23, when the Giants take on the Dodgers! It's a 7:15pm start time. The Centerfield Bleacher tickets will be sold for $11.00 each. For more info., feel free to contact info@gatepath.com

Sad statistic of the day - giants GIDP for Sunday's game = 2. that brings it to 48 double plays for the year, which is ten more than the total number of games they've played so far. David Bush of sfchronicle.com reports..."they're on pace for 205 - the ML record is 174." We're also the only NL team that has not thrown a shutout.

Nen - Damian Esper, a contributor to mlb.com, reports that Nen, once again, was sent home (S. CA) to take a month off from throwing and rehab. Apparently, he still felt pain in his throwing arm after some throwing/catching sessions. Esper has some cool tidbits in his "Odds and Ends" section... I was particularly scared to read about his report that "the giants have not had consecutive losing months since 96, when they were under .500 in each of the final five months in that season"... yikes.

More about Nen... Henry Schulman, Chronicle Staff Writer reports on Nen's passion for the game... ""It's just the passion for the game. I want to go out and play," he said, adding he will fight "until my body tells me I can't do it anymore."

Brian Murphy of the Chronicle solicited some thoughts about the Giants' pitching rotation in today's Brian Sabean show on KNBR. One of the key things Sabean mentions is how Reuter, Tomko and Hermanson have to get to the point where they can get through 6+ innings. They've consistently been strong for only about 5 innings, which is extremely taxing on our bullpen... Sabean goes on to say that no bullpen, regardless of how strong it is, could handle that load.

Also, Murphy brought up a great point - what do we do about Barry, considering these outstanding numbers: something like 54 walks w/29 intentional this year, so far. Maybe... he should be bumped up to the three-spot and force pitchers to face him in the first inning. Sabean reiterated that regardless of the lineup, Bonds will always be walked, but there may be some flexibility with regards to lining up Grisson, Bonds and Feliz in the future...

My humble opinion... I have always liked Feliz's stuff - his spirit, energy, skills. But, he gets way too 'hungry' with his ABs. It never fails, he will always swing at the first pitch no matter how horrible it looks. The good thing is he absolutely works the count, when he's focused.

Few notes:

I was at last night's game vs. the Phillies - arrived late but in time to see Pedro Feliz's second homerun which came back to earth, past the halfway mark up the LF bleachers! He'll see more ABs this year, as reported by David Bush, an SF Chronicle staff writer. Happy Birthday Felipe Alou!

Also, our winning Ace, Jason Schmidt hit his 3rd career homerun - the last time a giants pitcher hit a homerun was in September 2003 (Russ Ortiz).

Barry needs his rest - he was definitely not his strong imposing self at the plate last night and his swings/approach appeared really odd and off-balance with every AB.

Vida Blue - I was so excited to meet Vida Blue at my office yesterday afternoon! Absolutely a nice, easy-going, casual guy. He was assisting us with our Disabilities Awareness campaign in the public school system. He was an animated reader and was awesome with the 5th graders who were very receptive to our efforts. A big thank you to Vida!

Lucky 8 - I've always appreciated Yorvit Torrealba's energy and everything he brings to the game. For someone who hasn't seen much playtime yet, he was immediately HOT in today's game. He hit his first career grand slam with the first pitch he saw today! Then, goes on to hit the game-winning walk-off double in the 11th against the reigning World Championship Marlins. It was a huge win, all-around. And those pesky Marlins stayed in it, to the very end.

Rich Draper, from MLB.com reports that Bonds has 22 intentional walks this season. ..."Taking the bat out of a super-duper-megaslugger like Bonds does make sense. It's not cheating, not illegal. Besides, given an opportunity to swing this season, he has merely hit .463 with 10 homers, a 1.111 slugging percentage, 22 RBIs and a .526 mark over his last 18 games. Putting his walks into perspective, the second-ranking team in the Majors, Atlanta, has 12 intentional free passes..."

Also, MLB.com radio interviewed Felipe Alou recently. Alou reports that Nen has recently thrown the best he has in the past 18 months. Further, he went on to talk about Barry's mental discipline and recalls a stretch of time last season where Barry only received two hittable pitches within a week, and he sent both of those pitches out of the yard...

Community Gatepath All Stars
We didn't take home the win this past week, but we still looked like WINNERS out there! I'm breaking from tradition, to mention this loss, because I can't keep all this PRIDE to myself!

Highlights:
It was her time to Shine - T.H. brought in 3 runs on 3 hits, with 2RBI - But that's not all - She nearly went for the cycle, hitting a single, a double and triple - If we had one more inning of playtime, I'd bet my money on a homerun, given her hitting pace this season!

Offense:
C.C. hit a powerful single in the 5th inning - so powerful, she had enough time to stare at us in the dugout, and chat us up, BEFORE she safely reached base!
2B: Mitch, Teresa, Alex, Patty, John
3B: Teresa, Alex
*No Homeruns tonight, but our pitcher, A.L., nearly hit one out of the park in Left field (unfortunately, it was beautifully relayed in to home plate, preventing him from scoring a run, by a milli-second!).

Defense:
J.H. showed "mad skillz" as he nearly broke the sound barrier, leaping, fully extended (a witness says he was completely horizontal *he was the witness), into the stratosphere, making the play, catching our opponent’s absolutely mammoth hit out towards left centerfield.

Mitch: 2-4 (2B), 1 run
Teresa: 3-4 (2B, 3B), 3 runs, RBI (2)
Alex: 2-4 (2B, 3B), run, RBI (2)
Patty: 2-4 (2B), 2 runs, RBI (2)
John: 3-4 (2B), run, RBI
Nancy: 2-4, RBI
Chris (Pam’s guest): 2-4, RBI
Pam: Our #1 recruiting agent!
Mark (Pam’s guest): 2-3, run
Cathy: 1-3 (Additional defense notes: our Catcher made two crucial plays at home plate, preventing our opponents from scoring two runs!)

Woohoo - Friday night's 12-9 win over the Marlins was just what we needed! I didn't catch the game at all since I was volunteering at Community Gatepath's Annual Gala fundraiser at the Westin SFO, but rest assured, I was keepin up with the scores via cellphone. Dallimore and Feliz make me a believer again...

Still some concerns, though...sigh...
The Sacramento Bee's Marcos Breton expresses my frustrations well in his article dated Wednesday, 04/28/04, in which he states that the 2004 Giants have been dubbed as "Barry Bonds and the Seven Dwarfs."

"...Ask the Giants about how Bonds is batting near .500 and almost .200 points higher than the next-best hitter in the Giants' lineup, how Bonds' slugging average is higher than that of teammates Neifi Pérez, J.T Snow, Pierzynski and Alfonzo combined, and they get understandably uncomfortable."