Give 'em Some Stankeye!

I only caught the last inning of the game today thanks to work, but I didn't really need to see the thing live to know how it was all going to go. The Giants finally found a way to beat the big, bad Petco Park monster in a four-game series last September, but with the new season dawning it's time to hit the reset button on their luck in San Diego's home park. The Giants lost 3-1, and the hope of any late-inning heroics could be counted on to die on the warning track.

The game followed the usual Petco Park formula: the Giants didn't hit at all and the Padres squeaked out a few runs on assorted dinks, doinks, and absurdities. Sure enough, San Diego's three runs came on a sac fly, a bases-loaded walk, and a comebacker that Madison Bumgarner bungled. No hard shots, no towering bombs. Just a bunch of crappy bleeders. So it goes.

The Giants thankfully play just one more game in San Diego on this trip before heading home to face the Cardinals. A win and a split would be nice, but it's Petco here and, honestly, I wouldn't bank on it and I frankly don't really care. I'm just assuming at this point that the season starts when the Giants get back to Mays Field and receive their World Series rings. Everything else thus far has just been exhibition.

--As loathe as I am to recount the ugliness that transpired at Dodger Stadium this weekend, one moment in particular just really turned me into Angry Paulie. In Sunday's game, with the Dodgers leading 7-3 in the eighth inning, the Giants clawed back to within three runs and then loaded the bases for Miguel Tejada. The team had just strung together several very patient, gritty at-bats against Dodger reliever Matt Guerrier. Guerrier wasn't sharp at all and ended up walking the bases loaded. With two outs and Guerrier having control problems, the next batter would probably want to take a strike and not go hacking away at anything, right?

Not in Tejada's mind. Tejada, true to mindless-swinging form, swung away at a first pitch at his shins and popped out to shallow right field. End of threat, and end of game, essentially. End of any hope that Paulie would refrain from breaking several objects when he got home.

Many culprits were to blame for the Giants' series loss this past weekend to the Dodgers. There was Jonathan Sanchez flubbing a routine comebacker to give up a lead. There was Buster Posey striking out with the bases loaded and nearly killing a Dodger fan in the process. There was Aubrey Huff falling down a lot in the outfield. Tejada isn't solely to blame, obviously, but based on his unimpressive showing early on and in the Spring, my skepticism over his ability to contribute looks justified. Swinging away like a clueless doof in that situation certainly didn't do much to change my mind.

-I've said this before on this blog, but it bears repeating in light of recent events. If you're the kind of hopeless degenerate who would actually attack or fight somebody else based upon your allegiance to a sports team, you should probably just swallow the stuff under the sink right now, because there's no hope of you ever being a useful member of society.

This disgusting story is yet another example of pathetic, peabrain morons taking a silly sport way, way too seriously. Obviously not all Dodger fans are lowlifes like the ones that brutally attacked a Giants fan the other night, but it is worth mentioning that this is hardly the first time this has happened at Dodger Stadium. Chavez Latrine, indeed.

Here's hoping for a swift and full recovery for that fan who lies in a hospital bed as we speak. When the Dodgers come into San Fran next week, Giants fans get to show that they are the vastly superior fanbase by refraining from such violence and keeping their taunts limited to some well-timed chants of "Ya Bums!" and the occasional "Dodgers Suck!" Which they do.