With NL West Lead, Giants Host Brewers For Three-Game Set

First place in the NL West ... for the Giants? I'm immediately reminded of a postgame thread I saw at McCovey Chronicles, in which the Giants and Padres bickered over who would take the NL West. Neither team seemed to want it. Looks like the Giants have changed their tune at this point, and Friday night's opener to the three-game series against the Brewers at AT&T Park should shed some light on whether or not they intend to keep it.

Almost everyone seems to be playing well right now for the Giants. Matt Cain looks like one of the best pitchers in baseball, Timmy is throwing strikes and Jonathan Sanchez is flat out dirty. During the 2-1 series win over the Dodgers, the Giants seemed to struggle on the hitting front — that is until Thursday's 10-2 blowout over their hated rivals in which Aubrey Huff hit a three-run homer, Jose Guillen hit a two run homer of his own, Buster Posey belted in a solo shot while Freddy Sanchez had three RBI of his own.

It's one of those rare occasions you get to type about Giants hitters doing something good without a "but then ..." at the end of it. 

In game one, Madison Bumgarner takes the mound and is trying to turn his own luck around. He's 1-3 in his last nine starts, losing his last outing while allowing only one run and striking out four over seven innings. He's 5-5 with a 3.28 ERA in 15 starts.

The first (and only) time he played the Brewers was on July 6th, pitching eight shutout innings, allowing three hits and walking three with five strikeouts in the Giants 6-1 victory.

The Brewers don't have a whole lot to play for right now. They're not in the playoff hunt, which either means they'll roll over or they'll make thousands and thousands of Giants fans cry. One or the other.