One day doth not a season make nor a trend.  But it can provide a lift, if only momentary.  Jason Schmidt’s performance against the Marlins on Tuesday night was an eye opener, not only for the fans and media, but for his own teammates.  They were literally wide eyed on the field after he struck out the last three hitters in the 9^th inning, with men on second and third.  Manager Felipe Alou apparently believed more in Schmidt than he did himself as he reportedly was thinking to himself, “How am I going to get out of this one??”  He did, striking out the side including second

leading hitter in the league, Miguel Cabrera, and Josh Willingham (who had homered earlier).  Mobbed by his teammates on the field, he had tied a 102 year old franchise record set by Christy Mathewson in 1904.  Seldom does such an old record fall, seldom does the name Mathewson come up these days in discussions of current records, but Tuesday night was  special night, when grown men could act like kids again, and exude an October element of excitement rarely seen in early June games.

But the next day Jamie Wright struggled on three days rest and after that, Matt Cain returned to his earlier season form of inconsistency, lifted in the fourth inning down by only run but the last place Pirates had left nine runner on base through four innings, only three short of the maximum.  The Giants did pull

that game out, with the bullpen holding down the Pirates (Accardo, Kline, Correia and finally Benitez).  The bullpen is suddenly formidable and the Giants will be tough in close ball games as long as they are pitching like this.  The return of Moises Alou also coincides with an injury to Bonds, and his contributions have been immediate and timely.

Alex Rodiriguez continues to ‘struggle’ in New York.  If he was anywhere else, there would be no discussion at all about him, but he is not playing just anywhere.  He is in New York City…Jeter’s town.  And make no mistake about it New York IS Jeter’s town, they have championship flags to prove that very

fact, as he is one of the few current Yankees to have been with the team during that period of time, which seems so long ago right now.  But Jeter brought their loyal fans four World Series championships and that will never be forgotten.  As brutal as the NY fans can be, they are also some of the very best fans in America.

The way the Cubs are going, or NOT going, undoubtedly manager Dusty Baker will find himself doing a lot more of this, apparently to the vague bemusement of major league umpires.  Randy Marsh seems barely interested in Dusty’s argument, and Baker will need much more than the kiss-of-death endorsement from his general manager to hold on to his job.  Kerry Wood is

going back on the DL and his career is over… count on it.  As is Eric Gagne’s shortlived comeback from a serious arm injury.  Next up -  Mark Prior.  If anyone has a chance to comeback from injury and stick around for awhile, it is him, but one must wait and see.  He, too, may be cursed.

El Duque (Orlando Hernandez) came back to Arizona to pitch a complete game shutout of his former team.  Revenge could not have been the motivating factor here – he was only with the D-Backs for a month and a half, hardly long enough to be disappointed about being cast off to another first place team and one placed in New York, a stage on which he has performed rather well in the past.   And Alfonso Soriano is making a pitch to return to the big stage, as rumors abound that the Yankees will

try to pick him up to bolster their injured outfield.  With both Matsui and Sheffield injured, Bernie Williams is seeing extended action in the outfield as well as a heralded prospect, Melky Cabrera.  But Soriano’s 23 home runs in DC, a notorious pitcher’s park, has caught the eye of everyone in baseball who needs some extra pop in the batting order.  Count the Giants in on this too, as Soriano could not be worse than Bonds in the outfield and certainly hits a lot better these days.