Turn off the oven. Put those sharp objects away.
I got a frantic call from jbox tonight just after the Padres loss. He's very worried about our Magic Number not moving today. Our Magic Number sits at 8 as the Padres take the biggest jock punch in the history of jock punches from the Rockies, while the Giants come back in the ninth against the effing Nationals who seem determined to frustrate anybody that roots for them. I tried to talk jbox down, and I'm hoping it worked. We'll see by tomorrow.
There are now 12 games left in the season. Two more against Colorado. Three at Arizona. Four home against San Francisco. And three more at home against the Dodgers.
The Giants also have 12 more games. Two more against Washington. Three in Colorado. Four in San Diego. And their final three at home against Arizona.
Worst case scenario. The Padres don't win another game for the rest of the season. The Giants would have to go 5-7 the rest of the way and four of the wins would have to be at San Diego. I'm not saying that the Giants aren't capable of sweeping the Padres at home. I'm just wondering how likely it is that the Padres can't even stumble across four or five wins over the next two weeks. The sweep is the very worst case scenario. Jbox is fixated on that. He thinks that's the most likely scenario over the next two weeks.
Let's get away from the gloom and doom. Let's say the Padres only manage .250 or 4 wins the rest of the way. The Giants would have to go 9-3. Heavens to Betsy the Padres go .500 the rest of the way. In that case, the Giants could only afford to lose one game. Keep in mind the Padres have no teams in front of them with winning records. Keep in mind Adam Eaton and Jake Peavy will be pitching in at least 4 and up to 6 of the remaining 12 games. We're looking at half of our remaining games being pitched by our two aces.
Me, I stand by my initial prediction of locking it up by Monday. It really doesn't seem out of the question to me. We'd have to knock 6 off of our Magic Number by Sunday. It would take some winning and a few Giants losses, but is a lot more likely than the Padres failing to win any games from here on out.
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