Matt Cain did what he’s done dozens of times in his career prior on Thursday — leave with a lead and go home with a no-decision.

Luckily for Cain, it wasn’t worse than that. The bullpen couldn’t hold a four-run lead, and the Giants let the Cubs back in it late, but eventually pulled out another vintage 2010 Giants victory with a 8-7 come-from-ahead win at AT&T Park on Thursday afternoon.

Giants baseball – torture.

Andres Torres’ ninth-inning, one-out, bases-loaded single to the warning track in deep center brought home Aaron Rowand for the winning run, turning what was shaping up to be one of the toughest losses of the season into win that breathed a sigh of relief into the 40,000 plus fans in attendance. It was Torres’ third walk-off hit of the year.

Pablo Sandoval, seemingly once again out of hibernation, opened the second inning with a triple, and scored on Juan Uribe’s line-drive single to center, cutting the Cubs lead to 2-1. Chicago came right back thanks to a two-out RBI double from starting pitcher Randy Wells making it 3-1. But Pat Burrell hit the fist of his two home runs leading off the bottom of the third, then Sandoval followed by launching a wet one into McCovey cove to tie things up at 3-3 the very next at bat.

Burrell who is 16-for-43 with five homers and 15 RBIs since the Dodgers came to town July 30 — smoked a 2-0 pitch off left field foul pole for a grand slam, making it 7-3 Giants. That lead would prove to be surmountable, costing Cain a win, but what a month Burrell is putting together.

Burrell is hitting .356 in his last 15 games and 10 of his last 16 hits have gone for extra bases. Perhaps most impressive has been his timing. “The Bat” has the game-deciding RBI in four of the Giants’ last five wins; a homer to beat the Dodgers, a sacrifice fly to beat the Braves, another sac fly to beat the Cubs and Wednesday’s game-deciding homer to top the Cubs. Clearly his fingerprints were all over Thursday’s win, too.

Since joining the Giants on June 4 after being let go by the Rays, Burrell has smashed 10 homers and driven in 28 runs. That includes a rather dismal July where the water buffalo hit just .189.

A lot was made about the Giants not acquiring a bat at the non-waiver trade deadline, but if Sandoval, Burrell and Freddy Sanchez find themselves this lineup will gain instant credibility.

And that might be happening just in time to help Jonathan Sanchez remove his foot from his mouth with the first-place Padres coming to town for a three game set beginning Friday.

A lot has been made about Sanchez’s post-game quotes from last Sunday, essentially guaranteeing a Giants sweep this weekend, propelling them into first place for the duration. It’s no certainty that Sanchez — who’s only put together consecutive quality starts once this season (way back in April) — knew he was getting the ball, but at least he’s going on Orange Friday.

Used with permission of the author.

Theo is a staff reporter and feature writer for the Marin Independent Journal where he covers local prep and college sports. As an Associate Production Manager for ESPN, he helped produce Sunday Night Baseball among other national ESPN and ABC Sports telecasts. In addition to his contributions to Sports Climax, he is a columnist for Examiner.com and is the play-by-play voice for Sonoma State University baseball and softball.

Copyright ©2010 Sports Climax, LLC

Sitting in a bar with a frosty pint at 7:30 a.m., you tend to learn a thing or two. The heightened awareness that comes along with rising with the stark morning sun combined with ordering several foreign beers amidst a crowd chanting “U-S-A!, U-S-A!” opens you up to new experiences.

For me, it was the beauty that lies within America’s torrid love affair with soccer. (I’m not sure when we voted on this, but apparently we all decided that we were going to become soccer fans – if only for a month.)

The low-scoring nature of soccer has caused its fans to evolve, to move the goal line, so to speak. Sitting at a sticky counter, elbow to elbow with this guy, I learned that the joy in watching soccer isn’t in the goals, but in the chances your team has to score these evasive goals.

To make life easier, I’ve adopted this philosophy with the San Francisco Giants.

The shortcomings of the Giants offense has been well documented – honestly I’ve seen more scoring take place in line for a Star Wars movie. And the agony the lack of runs cause, seemingly on a night-in-night-out basis (see Dodgers 4, Giants 2), has spoiled too many opportunities to celebrate.

To amend this dire ineptitude of scoring, try this the next time you’re at the yard – third base is the new home.

A base runner that safely advances to third is the baseball equivalent to a “scoring chance” – and the Giants have a lot of these. So the next time you see Giant on third, stand up, cheer, raise your arms in victory, hug the nearest stranger next to you, and blow your Vuvuzelas. Honor the beauty, the physical poetry that is a near-run, and then imagine the bliss of an actual run.

Once we learn to re-frame the archaic goals we have had in place as baseball fans and look to the progressivism of soccer, the pesky runner stranded at third won’t seem like a missed opportunity, but instead it will stand as a time to cheer — at least until the next double play.

My World Cup is half empty – Schuepp’s Scoop

Fixed game in 1982 World Cup creates schedule change – Sports Climax

French World Cup team continues their circus act – Sports Climax

Re-printed with permission of the author.

Theo is a staff reporter and feature writer for the Marin Independent Journal where he covers local prep and college sports. As an Associate Production Manager for ESPN, he helped produce Sunday Night Baseball among other national ESPN and ABC Sports telecasts. In addition to his contributions to Sports Climax, he is a columnist for Examiner.com and is the play-by-play voice for Sonoma State University baseball and softball.

Copyright ©2010 Sports Climax, LLC