Perseverance is a wonderful thing. Every team goes through ups and downs in a season and has to fight through the slumps to get back on track, especially if they are going to make the playoffs. The Giants have persevered through a slow re-start after the all-star break and have climbed their way back after loosing ground the the Rockies. Thanks to a three game series sweep they are once again tied for the wild-card spot. Surprisingly they have fought their way back thanks to their bats, not something you would have expected from this Giants team. If they can continue to win games when they don’t get great pitching then they have a good chance of holding on to this wild-card spot.

The best news for Giants fans is that their team that just swept the Rockies is about to get a shot in the arm when they get Freddy Sanchez back Wednesday (according to the team’s official site report) who helps out both defensively and offensively. On top of that there is word coming out of the Giants organization that Randy Johnson might be back in time to help out the Giants’ struggling relief pitching in the home stretch of the season, although he may not be back in time for the Giants’ last series with the Rockies which starts September 14th, he will hopefully be back in time to help them get some W’s in the last few series of the season.

Team/Player Photos: San Diego Padres v San Francisco Giants on May 13, 2010

The key to the Giants run at the post season right now is their veterans, who started the second half of the season slow despite the strong play from the team’s younger players but have turned it back on as of late (see Edgar Renteria’s grand slam in the last game against the Rockies). If Renteria, Rowand, and Molina can keep their offensive numbers up in this last month of the season the Giants have a very good chance of holding on to their wild-card spot.

The main question mark around this team right now, however, is can their young players keep playing at this level as the pressure of the playoff race intensifies in late September. One small concern that has started to germinate in my mind has been the batting of Pablo Sandoval, although he is still hitting the ball well and has a great batting average for the month of August he seems to be swinging for the fences too often. Going back once more time to this last game against the Rockies Sandoval went up to bat in the 6th with 1 out and runners on first and third when the Giants were still down 2 runs and he strikes out trying to hit the ball into orbit. Considering there was no one on first a double play shouldn’t have been a big concern of his, just making solid contact would have most likely scored a run, but he wanted to be the hero and hit the ever loved long ball, got impatient and instead of just taking what the pitcher game him he tried to force the issue, that mentality needs to change if he is going to continue to be a big part of the Giants offense. Hopefully some of the veterans such as Sanchez, who knows what it takes to win ball games, can help him with that.