SFist Jon is taking the day off, so in honor of the Giants playing the Washington Nationals, SFist has the pleasure of announcing that White House Spokesperson Tony Snow will be filling in for the day

Giants 5 Nationals 0- First off, in regards to Barry Bonds, I cannot comment on something that is part of an ongoing investigation. Now, some people say the Giants' season is failure but I would like to disagree. If you look at it that the Giants are in last place, yes, you could say that things aren't going so well, but if you look at it in terms of what the season's goals were, we have to say the Giants accomplished them. In fact, I would like to say that when the "lunatic fringe" says that the team isn't very good, it is merely emboldening other teams when they play the Giants and that we should support our players. Clearly, the goals for the season was to have Barry break the Home Run record and to highlight their young pitching staff. The Giants have accomplished that. Yes, they have lost a bunch of games, but it's nearly impossible to play an 162 game season without losing a few games. What you are seeing, clearly, is the birth pangs of a new Giants team and we ask for everyone's patience while Brian Sabean continues his surge of young players to rebuild the Giants.

A's- I can neither confirm nor deny the results of the A's game as it could explain to the A's opponents as to what they are doing.

Last night out in the center-left bleachers, each time Barry Bonds came to bat, the crowd rose giddily to their feet. The stands brimmed with grins and shouts of encouragement and nervous energy. Mitts were pulled on and pounded in anticipation. With each pitch thrown to him, photoflashes flared all about the stadium like Chinese New Year firecrackers.

In his first two at-bats Bonds hit a double and a single. The crowd applauded appreciatively after each. It was far better than seeing the oh-fer-three Barry of the night before. The lead flipped back-and-forth between the Giants and the Washington Nationals as the two pitchers had their offerings slopped all around (and out of) the park.

Then: Bottom of the fifth, one out, no one on, everyone on their feet, all eyes on one man.

Three separate sounds essayed from the crowd when it happened.

At the crack of the bat, there was a beat of silence. A collective breath drawn in. Could it be?

Giants 3 Nationals 2- The Giants won a game in extra innings. We repeat, the Giants won a game in extra innings. Will wonders never cease? In fact, according to our unscientific methods, we see that the Giants are actually 1-60 in extra innings games this season. Okay, we exaggerate but it does seem like the Giants get in their fare share of extra inning games and lose every single one of them. But not only did the Giants win in the 11th, they were down by a run and rallied in the 10th as Randy Winn scored on a Bengie Molina single as B-Money once again came through in the clutch. Winn also won the game with a bases load single in the 11th. Lost in all this extra inning madness (and the Bonds circus) was yet another massively awesome start by Tim Lincecum who held the Nats to one run in seven innings. At one point, the Enchanter had runners on second and third with two outs and Ryan Zimmerman up. As Kruk, Kuip, and booth guest Frank Robinson discussed just how dangerous a situation it was, especially for a rookie, Lincecum struck out Zimmerman, causing SFist to break into tears as we realized the Kid was going to pitching for us for at least four or five more years, or at least until the Yankees sign him when the Giants have to give him up because too much of their budget will be tied up with Zito.

Oakland 9 Rangers 7- And speaking of extra innings, the A's won in the lucky 13th after blowing a seven run lead. Yep, that's right-- a 7-0 lead. This game sounds like a hoot too. The A's scored six runs in the 1st inning all with two outs but then the Rangers inched their way back, run by run, until they finally tied it in the ninth as Michael Young hit a home run off of Alan Embree. The Rangers, btw, did all this while also striking out twenty times. The A's finally won it in the 13th as Mike Piazza and then Mark Ellis singled in runs. The hit that started the rally, by the way, was also the first hit the A's got since the fifth inning- a total of seven innings without getting a hit.

The festivities surrounding the All Star Game, however, are a whole other matter. We're excited for the parties for which we are not invited, the FanFest and the Home Run Derby. Sadly, baseball's All Star Game will probably not include football players throwing money around at strip clubs and then getting involved in shoot outs, but whatevs. Maybe something exciting could happen at Centerfolds?

For those interested in the events for this weekend, we have the details after the jump. And if you can't attend, maybe you can catch the hoopla at Justin.TV which will be doing their thing all weekend.

So with the passing of the trade deadline, we have the answer to this weekends' big Giants' question-- wave the white flag or go for it. We're going for it. Unfortunately, we're going for it with the same team that is currently enjoying an eight-game losing streak. So unless Sabaen can somehow pull off a Benitez for A-Rod trade (Sabes?) , the question out there is what if anything can the Giants do to get off the schneid? Well, here's something to ponder, something that for whatever reason isn't really being discussed even though it should, and here it is; Fire Felipe. Like right now before it's too late.

Why? Well, first off, desperate situations call for desperate measures and this is a pretty desperate situation. Extremely desperate. As in how could it not be more desperate desperate. And it's not that crazy.

We're not here to get into a discussion of Felipe's game-calling skills, as we don't think that's the damning evidence for whatever's ailing the Giants. Nor is the pitching carousel or often baffling lineups and substitution patterns or the lack of situational hitting or smart baseball. Those are all concerns but not what we think should be Felipe's downfall right now. Instead what we're talking about is the Giants maddening pattern of winning a few, then losing a few, playing well for a few games, then stinking up the joint for a few. That shows a lack of intensity, a lack of consistency. That's what we think is the damning evidence.

For further proof just dig their amazing ability to play down to the level of their competition. See current eight game losing streak, mainly at the hands of the last-place Nationals and Pirates. In fact, here's their record against some of the worst teams in the NL-- 1-5 against Philadelphia, 1-6 against the Pirates, 0-5 against the Nationals. Against the seven teams with the worst winning percentage in the NL, the Giants are 15-26.

That, dear readers, is fairly craptastic. And the responsiblity for that can only fall in one place, with Felipe.

Well, that wasn't what we were hoping for. Yes, the Giants did indeed lose their first game of the big road trip, 8-6 to the Washington Nationals. We haven't seen a road trip start off so badly since a camping trip we took years ago in which on the first night of the trip, we hit a deer (true story. The deer, luckily, was only dazed). And after being in first place a mere seventy-two hours ago, the Giants now find themselves in third.

We're okay with this loss, actually, even if this does mean they now have the phrase "two game losing streak" attached to them. Why? Because they found themselves down 7-2 early on and still rallied to make a fight out of it. In fact, down 8-6 in the ninth, they got the first two base runners on only to not doing anything about it, something we'll just ignore because it gets in the way of our story. In other words, they're still showing fighting spirit. We like fighting spirit. Mad props go to Ray Durham for hitting two home runs, one from each side. Ray-Ray is as responsible for the Giants turn-around as anyone.

Of much bigger concern is the Bearded One, Matt Morris, who sucked again, giving up seven runs quickly and as a commentor on McCovey Chronicles put it, didn't fool anyone with his "79 mph breaking ball without movement.." Morris started this season slowly then started putting it together and just when it looked he was going to be a great #2 pitcher, he lost whatever mojo he had and regressed. So far, if we'd have to compare the bust that is Matt Morris, we'd have to say he's not quite a The Island level bust, but so far more along the lines of Superman Returns. As for the New Guy, Shea Hillenbrand, he's a whopping 3 for 15 so far which even us non-statheads know isn't that good. He's already gotten on the bad side of various Giants' fans not just for not hitting, but for making the last out with runners on last night. Hildy is giving us flashbacks not to AJ Pierzynski, but to Sir Sydney Ponson, another Sabaen pennant race trade that didn't work out. Ponson is on our "Dead to Us" list after he mailed it in during Game 2 of the 2003 Division Playoffs.

Today's pitching matchup is Lowry (5-6) against Pedro Astacio (1-1).

Quick little side note on the 'Nats-- a number of residents who would ordinarily support them, refuse to wear their baseball hats due to the presence of a big "W" on it. "W," of course, is almost a verboten letter in certain climes due to it being attached to a certain simian like President.