At the beginning of the trip, I would have been happy with 4-2

But now I just have a bitter taste. Luckily we won the game Schmidt pitched, but the way the offense hit that day, the Giants could have won with anyone. And like I noted below, they talked about Schmidt pitching 132 pitches tiring his arm out but then they go and have him throw another 120+ on a day that he obviously didn't have it.

I understand the lack of confidence, perhaps, that he may have for the bullpen - I think that they have been OK since the early problems the whole unit had initially at the start of the season - but they couldn't have been any worse than Schmidt was doing by that point of the game.

What's up with Durham? The way he has been going, coming out late in games, they should just bite the bullet and put him on the DL now and get him healthy because once he is healthy, the offense just humms. Notice how the offense perked up the past week once he started hitting, even if he was hitting lower in the order. Lets just face it, he's injury prone now and you may as well just get it out of the way and get him healed now.

To get by while he is out, the Giants should make Alfonzo eat his pride again and play 2B while Durham is out. That allows the Giants to play Feliz at 3B full-time, which then allows Moises Alou to play LF full-time, which then allows Felipe to put Ellison into the lineup more often. He has been playing well and perhaps they can put him in a rotation with Grissom and Tucker in the OF. I would even go as far as to keep Ellison in but platoon Grissom and Tucker, though not strictly L/R but rather, which of the two has hit the starting pitcher best during his career (or L/R if neither has much ABs against the pitcher). At least until Ellison cools off totally.

I would try to find ways to get Niekro into games as well, he really should have been starting the games in Pittsburgh against the lefties. At least until the league catches up with him as well.