NL West

The San Francisco Giants are still in the playoff chase, even after Monday’s mind-bending loss.

Really, could the gem that Jonathan Sanchez pitched have been wasted any more painfully that it was against Colorado in the series opener?

Could an apparently inspiring win have been lost any more quickly?

For the past few weeks or so, the Giants starting pitching has been the subject of much criticism. The blame for the Giants' dismal 12-15 August record has been placed upon this quintet.

The hitting was doing fine: Sanchez, Sandoval, and Torres were heating up, and Guillen, Burrell, Huff, and Uribe were providing jolts of offense here and there. But on Monday, the hitting fell silent. The Giants managed to get just four hits, and nine different Giants struck out at least once.

For eight innings it looked like the same old story was writing itself. "Rockies fall flat on the road," "Rockies leave bats at Coors Field...again."

Fans haven't been hesitant to point to the player or the plan that keeps the San Francisco Giants from soaring to the top of the NL West and well past the field in the wild-card race.

As it turns out, though, most things that fans insisted the Giants do to get things going have been done and things haven't gone very well at all in the last month. The club is on the verge of falling out of the division race and has to keep pace with the Philadelphia Phillies, a tall order, to win the Wild Card.

The Arizona Diamondbacks begin a three-game series against the San Diego Padres at Chase Field tonight. These two teams met a week ago at Petco Park with the Padres winning the first two games of the series before dropping the finale.

The Diamondbacks' win in that third game marked their first win this season in San Diego. Since that time the Diamondbacks went on to take two out of three from the San Francisco Giants while the Padres were swept at home by the Philadelphia Phillies.

It's been a very, very long season for the Los Angeles Dodgers.

With everything that's been happening in Dodgertown recently, most Dodger fans are at the point of exhaustion that they're ready to throw in the white towel. Yet there's still 31 games to be played in the 2010 campaign, and more drama continues to build.

Matt Cain is the 2010 stopper. Lincecum was the go-to guy last year; whenever the Giants had a losing streak, he would stop it; which is actually not surprising at all, considering that he pitched behind Joe Martinez and Randy Johnson for a good part of the season, and he was a Cy Young winner.

These Colorado Rockies are the girlfriend who keeps breaking up with you, only to say that she made a mistake and asks for you back. You know she is going to break your heart again, but you have to take the chance.

Losing two out of three in Denver after winning four in a row has left the Los Angeles Dodgers in disbelief and dismay.

Brandon Webb and the Diamondbacks finally have something to look forward to.

Webb is expected to make a September return and pitch for the bullpen.

Brandon Webb hasn't pitched since April of 2009. Since then, he has been making a push to return from shoulder surgery performed in October of last year.

On Saturday, the 2006 NL Cy Young award winner was ecstatic after throwing a simulated game that "went so well."