Giants 5, Dodgers 3

Dodgers almost created more deadline headaches for me, but Luis Gonzalez's doubleplay grounder in the eighth and Rafael Furcal's game-ending grounder in the ninth siphoned off any chance of a comeback a la Saturday night against Pittsburgh. They say this Giants bullpen is supposed to be horrible, but frankly, I didn't see it tonight. Giants reliever came in with a combined 11 consecutive scoreless innings, and although an inherited runner scored off Brad Hennessey (wonder if he's related to Jill, ex of Law & Order and now of Crosing Jordan, probably not), the Dodgers still didn't score off a Giants reliever tonight -- even though Hennessey and closer Armando Benitez were far from impressive. The Dodgers also scored just four runs in nine innings of the Giants' bullpen in their three-game sweep of the Jints up North a couple of weeks ago. ... One thing I have to look into tomorrow is this sudden tendency by Russell Martin to throw the ball into center field. He has done it in each of the past three games now, all in the first inning. He did make a perfect throw down in the sixth inning tonight to nail Randy Winn trying to steal, so I don't think we're looking at any kind of a Steve Sax/Steve Blass/Chuck Knoblauch/Mackey Sasser/Mark Wohlers sort of thing just yet. But hey, it's worth an early note tomorrow, at the very least. I mean, it IS three games in a row. Interestingly, each time has been with the other team's leadoff hitter trying to steal or advance on a wild pitch. That could suggest Russ is trying to rush the throw because he knows he's dealing with fast runners. Winn is a fast runner, too, but he's not Dave Roberts or Chris Duffy.