SAN FRANCISCO -- The highlight of a cold, foggy night at AT&T Park came after the game, and not even on the field. Beyond the right-field wall, next to the Cable Car, stands a flag pole that has banners for the five teams in the National League West, arranged in order of the standings. It is rather inconspicuous, and many Giants fans may not have even noticed it was there.
Until Thursday night.
The video board showed a ballpark employee lower the flags and rearrange them, putting the black-and-orange "Giants" at the top, then wheeling it back up as the crowd roared.
The margin may be only a half-game, and there may still be 17 days left in the season -- and isn't it funny how 17 days seems like a long time when you're ahead, but a short time when you're behind? -- but it was nonetheless a milestone achievement for the Giants.
Their 10-2 victory over the Dodgers, combined with the Padres' 4-0 loss in St. Louis, lifted the Giants past the Padres in the standings. The Giants are alone in first for the first time since May 6. That's so long ago that the Dodgers -- you know, that dead-looking team that scored two earned runs in the series in San Francisco -- have been in first place more recently.
The Padres haven't been out of out the top spot since June 11.
"It's a good feeling, but we have baseball left," manager Bruce Bochy said. "It's a good feeling considering where we were two or three weeks ago. It says a lot about this club how hard they've been fighting."
On the morning of Aug. 29, the Padres had a six-game lead -- seven in the loss column -- with just 34 games to go. They'd have been safe if they'd simply played .500 ball.
Since then, the Giants have gone 12-5 and the Padres have gone 6-12. The Rockies, who also seemed dead 19 days ago, have won 13 of 18. They are now 2 1/2 games behind the first-place Giants.
The Giants won their fifth consecutive series, and sixth in the past seven. Three of those series wins have been against contenders: Colorado, Cincinnati and San Diego.
"You've just got to go out and keep winning series," said Aubrey Huff, whose three-run homer in the third put the Giants on top. "That's the deal. We lost the first one and had to come back. You just gotta win series. We're playing great baseball. We haven't been scoring a lot, but the pitching has kept us in it."
The Giants have a 1.61 ERA in September, and that's really the only number you need to know to understand how they have climbed out of this hole. The pitchers who had been in a collective slump in August all flipped a switch with the flip of the calendar.
Jonathan Sanchez, who is chronically inconsistent, has now allowed just two earned runs over 27 innings over his past four starts, including a 12-strikeout, no-walk, seven-inning masterpiece on Thursday night.
Everything seems to be going the Giants way, including the schedule.
The Giants have 15 games left, nine at home. The Padres have 16 left, seven at home. The Rockies also have 16 left, but only six at home. (The Rockies, incidentally, have a .408 winning percentage on the road.)
As for the opposition, there are two series left among the contenders, the Giants at Colorado next weekend and the Padres in San Francisco in the season's last weekend. Otherwise, the Giants have the Brewers, Cubs and Diamondbacks. The Padres have the Cardinals, Dodgers, Reds and Cubs. The Rockies have the Diamondbacks, Dodgers and Cardinals.
This weekend could be a big one for the Giants, who will host the Brewers while the Padres are in St. Louis and the Rockies are in Los Angeles.
Of course, even if the Giants do wind up on top of the NL West, all hope is not lost for the Padres and Rockies, because the Braves are doing a slow fade. They have lost nine of their last 14, and they still have seven of their remaining 15 games against the red-hot Phillies. The Padres are a half-game behind Atlanta for the wild card, and the Rockies are 2 1/2 back.
All that looking-ahead stuff is fun for the fans and the media, but a potential hazard for the Giants. Although all logic points to them winning the division, things can turn on a dime in the NL West.
Just ask the Padres, whose comfortable lead vanished amid a 10-game losing streak.
Or the Rockies, whose 10-game winning streak ended abruptly with a crushing series loss to the Padres.
"It's a tight race," Bochy said. "It's so tight right now, I don't think you get concerned with where you are as much as going out and doing what you are supposed to do, which is trying to win a ballgame."
