Giants 3 Blue Jays 2- Once again, we ponder what exactly the meaning of a save is when Brad Hennessey goes in the record books as getting one, yet he got it only because Randy Winn made an incredible catch at the fence to rob someone of a home run. Yes, a save, but did he earn it? Winn, btw, was playing leftfield as a defensive replacement for Barry and that brings up the topic du jour, which is whether Barry's noticeably awful defense is becoming more of a negative than his hitting is a positive. In other words, is Barry's D to the point where it's actually better not to play him because he could cost more runs than he could produce? To which the obvious answer is who the hell else is going to hit the ball?

Astros 5 A's 4 - We haven't been watching the NBA Finals that much but from what we've heard, LeBron is playing some other team and LeBron is down 3-0. Apparently, the problem is that despite what everyone keeps telling us, LeBron seems unable to score 120 points a game. Not that we're experts in basketball, but we think it could have something to do with the fact he occasionally passes the ball to people in the same uniform who are not him and they even sometimes shoot it. In fact, sometimes those people in the same uniform actually play on the court when LeBron is on the bench! Apparently, the team he is playing is quite good, but they don't talk that much about them. We think they're from Texas and one of them is about to marry some hottie from a show we never watch, but that's all about all we know.

Oh, and the A's lost in 11 innings after tying the game with a ninth inning home run.

Giants 9 Astros 1- On KNBR last night they had a long discussion about whether it was lame that Giants’ fans didn't bring a broom to last night’s game. Us? We think bringing a broom is one step below face painting. But it might have been nice to have brought one because the Giants did sweep the series with the Astros. It's up to you to decide which was the most improbable thing that happened during the game-- a Bonds-less offense scoring nine runs, Barry Zito pitching a good game, Bengie Molina hitting a triple, or Condeleeza Rice actually showing her face in San Francisco. We'll go with Condi showing up. The Giants, by the way, now have a nice little four game winning streak going.

A's 4 White Sox 0- The A's had gotten clobbered the past two games by the White Sox but this time their pitching came through as Chad Gaudin shut out the Pale Hose. The A's injury of the day was to Travis Buck who sat out with a bad elbow but it was his replacement, Hiram Bocachica, who got the big hit of the game with a two-run homerun.

Giants 4 Astros 0- Speaking of Giants starters who've been quietly having a good season, there's Noah Lowry who shutout the 'Stros to get his fifth win of the season. Lowry is 5-4 and has gotten a decision in almost every game he's pitched, a sign that he's pitched deep in every game. That's good. The fact that he's only 5-4 but with an ERA under three shows that he's just gotten some bad luck in his outings. Or more like bad offense. Last night, he got just enough offense to win, mainly courtesy of Big Money Molina who hit a little flair into centerfield with the bases loaded to score two. Props also go out to Ryan Klesko for some neat defensive plays and his first Splash Hit as a Giant.

White Sox 8 A's 5- We're going to channel White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen for this post and just say that the A's f----- lost because their usual f------ great pitching fell apart and the f------ lifeless Sox bats managed to get 14 hits. Quote for the day, however, goes to f------ Nick Swish who said this about the Sox lineup featuring batters with low batting averages: "we were last in everything last year, too. So what? We won the division and got to the ALCS. Stats are overrated in my book."

As the Giants and A's meet for their first series of the season and Barry Zito returns to his former stomping grounds, let's took a look at the games played on Ascension Day, the feast to celebrate Buffy's victory over Mayor Wilkins.

Giants 2 Astros 1-- Tim, Time, he's our man if he can't do it, no one can...

In a game sure to make Giants fans fall hard, the Enchanter enchanted. For the seven innings he pitched, his fastball was in the high 90s and his changeup danced as he struck out ten batters and gave up only two hits. The only run he gave up was after a walk, a stolen base and error, and a sac fly. On the other side, Roy Oswalt also threw down and had a no hitter going for 5 2/3. The only runs the Giants scored were fluky runs caused by Astros throwing errors.

The big question now is what to do about Russ Ortiz. He's all ready to take his place in the rotation but after this performance, the front office would have the fans in pitchfork mode if Timmmahh back down to the minors. It's like going back to driving your old, used Honda after test driving a Porsche.

Royals 7 A's 4- This game was so inspiring neither the Chronicle nor the Oakland Tribune didn't see fit to really run stories on the game. Which is what happens when you lose three-out-of-four to the worst team in baseball. They didn't even lose by a close margin-- they were pretty much out of it early. The A's are now 20-20 which is pretty amazing considering even the bat boys are on the DL.

Case in point, last night's games:

Royals 4 A's 3- The A's are so destined to play one run games that they can't even get past the lower than lowly Royals without it being white knuckle time. This time, the A's were up by a run and lost the game as the Royals scored two runs in the top of the ninth to win. Jack Cust, however, continues to be hotter than the Snorg Girl as he hit another home run in the eighth to give the A's a short lived lead.

Astros 2 Giants 1- Blah blah blah...great starting pitching...blah blah blah...no offense...blah blah blah...Giants lose... blah blah blah...great pitching wasted.

Jazz 100 Warriors 87- Stop us if you've heard this before, but after a back-and-forth game, the Warriors lost the game in the closing minutes as their offense was unable to score. Actually, it's amazing the Warriors were even that close as they had trouble shooting threes, Davis was held somewhat in check, and they let their emotions get to them again and racked up a flagrant foul and two technical fouls within minutes of each other.

If you take away all the excitement of the playoff run, it has to be said that all of this is as expected when they hired Nellie. Nellie is known for having his teams play an exciting up-tempo game and getting his team into the playoffs where he's good for an upset or two. But that's about it. When you hire Nelson and get his team to play Nellie Ball you get a team not geared for advancing far in the playoffs. Sooner or later, his team will run into a team like the Jazz-- bigger, better defensively, and coached by somebody who can match Nellie move for move-- and get eliminated. The Warriors got all that when they hired Nelson. But that's pretty much what we can expect to see over the next few years.

Giants 6 Astros 5- Many people will think Armando Benitez lost the game for the Giants when he gave up a two-run home run in the eighth and allowed the 'Stros to tie the game. We, however, think the blame should reside with us as we turned on the game just as Benitez came into pitch, therefore altering the time/space continuum and changing the karmic balance in which the game was being played. We apologize.

A's 5 Royals 4- Like the Giants, the A's had a lead going into late innings only to have their bullpen blow the save and allow the other team to tie the game. Unlike the Giants, however, the A's managed to squeak out the win in extra innings. Games like this could be the norm for Oakland as Huston Street and Justin Duchscherer are the latest to go down with injuries.

Hey, maybe the A's would be interested in Armando Benitez?.