Too little, too late.
After sweeping the Diamondbacks to finish an NL-best 52-29 at home they won the opener Friday night at Petco to run their win streak to five.
They were blanked Saturday 2-0 before Pablo Sandoval's lead-off homer in the 10th carried the G-Men to a 4-3 win and an 88-74 final mark.
The 88 wins was 16 games better than in '08 and made the Giants the fifth best team in the NL and eighth best overall.
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Sandoval, like Lincecum last year, had a remarkable first full big league season.
He hit .330, smacked 25 homers and drove in 90 runs - all team highs.
That .330 clip was good enough for second in the NL and fifth best in the Majors.
Panda and the Giants have put his conditioning and weight on the top of his off-season priority list and there is no reason to think a lighter Sandoval won't mean even bigger numbers in 2010.
Albert Pujols will be the run-away winner of the NL MVP and justifiably so but Pablo should finish in the top-5. The G-Men win 70 games again tops without him.
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Despite a great last start it appears as though Tim Lincecum will fall short in his bid to repeat as NL Cy Young.
Playing for a much better offensive team Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainwright posted comparable ERA's but received much better run support en route to superior win-loss records.
They might split votes and Timmy's numbers are actually better than during the 2008 campaign but it seems as though he is on the outside looking in.
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Randy Johnson pitched what may have been his final inning yesterday. He worked the seventh, yielding an unearned run that knotted the game at three.
The 303-game winner would like to return as a starter. No word on whether his balky back and 46-year old arm will allow him to do so.
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Lots of talk about the future of manager Bruce Bochy and GM Brian Sabean.
If you look at the 88 wins and exciting playoff push it seems like a no-brainer.
If you consider the shortcomings and fundamental failures the argument can be made the Giants finally pieced together a good season in spite of these two.
I tend to lead toward the latter but something that is far too often overlooked when changes are made is the small matter of qualified replacements.
Maybe these guys aren't the answer, but who is?
Most importantly, where will the offensive help come from.
That's the question that will keep Giants fans awake at night as World Series dreams dance in their heads.
