Goodbye Yellow Brick Road

Coming back from a middle inning commerical break, as a thrash cover of Elton John's Saturday Night's Alright (For Fightin') (intended to rouse multiple demographic groups) blared, the camera slowly panned over a moribund Chase club level section, illuminating an entire row of inanimate, unsmiling fans - reminiscent of an MVD seating area or a dentist's waiting room.

The embarrassing juxtaposition was funny enough, by itself, before Daron Sutton, in his best Brennaman vocce, solemnly intoned:

"Saturday night in Phoenix - you go to a baseball game. That's what you do."

Well, 32,147 did go, on Orlando Hudson bobblehead night, and saw our scarlet O'Haras whup the Nawth right good...oh, actually, as we eked out yet another nailbiter, 5-4, courtesy of  Scott Hairston's pinch hit 3 run homer in the seventh. 

Jose Valverde was credited with his tenth save, after yielding a barely foul Ray Durham rocket deep into the right field corner that would have tied the game. Later in the same AB, P. Grande yielded a 405 foot grande scorcher that barely missed putting his team behind for good, but found Chris Young's grande glove instead for the contest's penultimate out. Even better than good.

After David Wells outpitched Randy Johnson on Monday, the Arizona Chameleons have reeled off four straight since, against an impressive run of opposing starters. Peavy, Young, Zito, now Cain. Well, not the starters exactly; Tony Clark knocked Chris Young around, but Peavy, Zito and Cain dominated the D*Backs more or less as expected. Arizona's staff has kept their team in the game, affording teammates late inning opportunities to exact meaningful damage versus rival bullpens.

While Jake Peavy approached all time strikeout records, Brandon Webb quietly gave up just a pair over eight full innings. Livan, after a tough first frame, pulled his string on the Padres, allowing Tony Clark to take care of the rest. When Barry Zito scuffed the rubber, Doug Davis pitches his best game since Sept 5th, when he shutout the Dodgers. And on Elton John's favorite night, as Cain disabled his Arizonan brethren in Old Testament fashion with just one hit, Edgar Gonzalez, Dustin Nippert, Tony Pena and Jose Valverde limit the Giants to four runs, enabling Scott Hairston's off balance, one armed fly against Vinny Chulk to actually make a difference in the standings.

This 14-11 team now flirting with the division lead has still allowed more runs than they've plated. This, despite the fact that staff peripherals suggest an influx of runs based on current pitching performance (ie too many baserunners, too many homers, etc).

The good news is that, one month into the season, the newbies are in the game. Unlike previous Bob Melvin teams, when they're down 4-2 in the seventh inning, one gets a feeling the game's not quite over. Youthful foibles are balanced by good, often less noticed virtues. This paradox is perhaps most embodied by Carlos Quentin, whose cartoonish first pitch hacks have contributed to an all too visible .147 average. But he's somehow also walked four times in his last two games, scoring twice and batting in a run, by being considerably more selective later in the count. Chris Young, also batting under .200, not only catches Durham's threatening drive in the ninth, but makes such easy work of it(ie not diving) that the potential tying run on second (Winn) cant even tag up to third.

While focus has understandably been centered on the Stephen Drew, Tony Clark and Scott Hairston homers, attention must be paid also to Chad Tracy, Carlos Quentin and Miguel Montero for reaching base, morphing solo homers into three run difference makers. Perhaps the difference between the Giants and D*Backs was best captured by Montero's slow dribbler that agonizingly escaped the aged clutches of Ryan Klesko and Rich Aurelia. Or how, Alberto Callaspo, our second string shortstop, gunned down Giant runners at first all night like, well, a first string shortstop.

This team has a bench. Whether it has consistent, ready starters and a staff that can sustain its early excellence over a six month gauntlet are still open questions, ones we'll discuss shortly in our annual, end of April seasonal predictions.

(photo courtesy of Matt York/AP)