Renteria's slam propels Giants into WC tie; Brad Penny joins club; Jermaine Dye?

When Edgar Renteria comes to the plate with runners on I always find myself doing the same thing.

I have my head in my hands and I'm pleading "just please don't hit into a double play."

So when Renteria came up with two outs and the bases loaded in the seventh yesterday I was sure he would find a way to blow it.

After all Pablo had struck out looking the inning before. Molina struck out when he pinch it. Velez struck out too.

The G-Men seemed doomed to fall two back of the Rockies - not an insurmountable hole but devastating nonetheless.

But Renteria laced a 1-0 pitch down the left field line that had a chance from the moment he connected and had me screaming "no way!" over and over again in an otherwise quiet, dark bar in the middle of a lazy, hot Sunday afternoon.

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There don't seem to be a whole lot of dramatic, exciting moments like that for Giants fans of late but what a week of big homers it was.

Ishikawa, Molina and Renteria's late-inning heroics are not the norm for the black and orange but sure provided a big lift.

Renteria, like Zito is making a chunk of change and his struggles this year have been frustrating. But like the resurgent lefty, Edgar has been playing through it, and has a laundry list of injuries to boot.

For every 0-for-4 or infield single to short I've bemoaned the fact that the Giants don't have a better option to spell the ailing Renteria.

But he is one of the few Giants with a wealth of postseason experience and success, and despite his unassuming demeanor, seems to be at the heart of the clubhouse and as you may remember was the first guy out of the dugout when Pablo was nearly hit in the finale of Dodgers series.

Sometimes it's the little things, yesterday it was a big one.

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SI.com was the first to report that Brad Penny had cleared waivers and was on his way to San Francisco (albeit to Philly and Milwaukee first.)

I talked recently about the struggles of the rotation out of the 5-spot and so why not give the veteran a shot?

Penny should get the ball Wednesday at the Bank.

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Big road trip for the Giants who have not played well away from AT&T Park this season.

The Rockies get 10 in a row at home against some bad teams (Mets-Diamondbacks-Reds) and the Giants can't afford to play too poorly this week or they may fall four games back again.

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Lastly, I just saw on ESPN.com that the White Sox were dangling Jermaine Dye, Jim Thome and Scott Linebrink to other teams after being swept in the Bronx over the weekend.

While Thome, reserved to mostly a DH-role at this point, doesn't fit into an NL clubhouse (especially with Garko and Ishikawa at first) and the Giants could show interest in Linebrink based on their attempts to get Heilmann and Hoffman, Dye is the one that stands out.

Rumors of the Giants trying to get him have been out there for a while and he would be the perfect guy to hit fifth in this line-up.

But with the financial situation as it is and a logjam in the outfield Winn-Rowand-Schierholtz-Lewis-Velez, etc. it remains to be seen if the Giants would pull the trigger to get him.

Dye has a 12 million dollar option for 2010, with a 1 million dollar buyout.

For him to be on the playoff roster a deal would have to be worked out by 9 Pacific, but Kenny Williams made the Jake Peavy trade happen pretty quickly so anything is possible.

Stay tuned.