(By e.Chang)

The Week That Was:
Won 0, lost 3 against the Mets
Won 3, lost 1 against the Padres

47-51 for the season; 4th place in the NL West.

The Week That Will Be:
Mon: Off
Tue: All-Star Game
Wed: Off
Thu: Off
Fri: home against the Diamondbacks
Sat: home against the Diamondbacks
Sun: home against the Diamondbacks

Baseball isn’t real life and we know this. Instead, it’s kind of like an opera— the characters on stage engage in a performance that reflects some aspects of reality back to its audience. The time frames are compressed, drama is exaggerated, but if we squint hard enough, we can almost see the shadow of a reflection of our own lives playing out on the field. Baseball doesn’t give meaning to our lives—we give meaning to baseball, which in turn makes baseball meaningful to us.

Which is why what happened Saturday night almost made this entire season worthwhile.

The Giants raised Tim Lincecum since we was a pup on the farm. He was young, skinny, unorthodox, had a goofy smile and destroyed on the mound, bringing home two straight Cy Young Awards. Timmy was our kid and we loved him. And then, as they tend to do, things started to go wrong. In August, 2010, Timmy started five games and lost all of them. This is weird, we thought. Should we worry or is this something we can ignore? Let’s ignore it. Two months later, Timmy brought home a World Series championship, and all was right with the world once again.

Then in 2012, things hit the fan and splattered all over the wall. At this point last year, Timmy’s record was 3-10 and had the worst ERA in baseball. By the end of the season, Timmy pitched himself off the post-season starting rotation and sat in the bullpen. When he did pitch, he pitched well, but it was awkward seeing him in a secondary, diminished role. Maybe he’ll become a killer closer, we said. This is the reinvention of Timmy, we said. And we said those things with the false exuberance of the pep talks we gave to our laid-off friends, or to the mirror.

Things have been a bit better this year, but instead of expecting a dominant performance, we now just hope for a decent one. The Timmy with the swagger of youth was gone, our expectations of him were lowered, and the once unthinkable was thought: who can we get if we trade him?

Throughout the game, my brother-in-law kept asking why Timmy was pitching so well. I thought he sucked now, he said. Yeah, but he’s been better this year, I said. In the 7th inning, my brother-in-law said, the Padres have no hits. What? No way, I dismissed. It was true—Timmy was pitching a no-hitter after seven innings. And it was probably around that time when we all stopped our conversations, turned up the volume, and started to get religious. We needed it, the no-hitter. We wanted this kid, Mr. Tim Lincecum, to show us that, damnit, we can still do it. And when Hunter Pence snatched soul-crushing disappointment from mid-air and buried it in his glove, he showed us that we’re not doing it alone and we have people who have our backs. And when Buster Posey bear-hugged Timmy, we were all embraced.

Much of life just plain sucks—Sallie Mae is still gonna send her bills, rent isn’t going to come down, and heartbreak is one ugly fight away. A no-hitter thrown by a millionaire pitcher for a billion dollar baseball team isn’t going to change any of that. Hell, we had Barry Zito remind us of this just yesterday. But squint harder and we just might see a baby being born, straight A’s on a report card, or one year without having a drink. Timmy may not be in a Giants uniform next year or at the end of this year, but on Saturday night, he reminded us of who he was and who we might be, and that is why we love baseball.

*****
At the All-Star break, the Giants are in 4th place with a 43-51 record. For the Giants to reach 90-wins, they’ll need to finish 47-21. That’s a .691 winning percentage. That’s going to be, well, tough. This being the NL West, the Giants may not need to reach 90-wins for a playoff spot, but we can't count on the entire division to stink it up the rest of the way.

Also, expect trades.

But let’s worry about all that after the Break. For now, the Giants will be sending four players (yep, Bochy managed to get Sergio Romo in!) to the All-Star Game in New York, and we get a chance kick back and enjoy the Mid-Summer Classic and pretend that it matters. Also, Yasiel Puig of the Dodgers didn’t make the All-Star team, so cheers to that!