Giants gets 10,000 win, first franchise in MLB history, and they beat the Dodgers

Can't let this pass without a post: the Giants are the first franchise in MLB history to reach 10,000 wins and it came against the Dodgers. Appropriately, the Giants 10,000th win came against the Dodgers 4-3. They came from behind 1-0 and won with the long ball (a 3-run homer from Omar Vizquel, as incongruous as Ernest Riles hitting the 10,000th homerun in Giants history but I'll take it).

As Will Clark was quoted in the Merc, "to get that milestone on the Dodgers' home turf should be a feather in the cap to a lot of Giants fans." Vin Scully was also quoted, saying that "a higher power greater than all of us" arranged for the Giants to win No. 10,000 against the club they and their fans love to hate. "After all, a Giants-Dodger game? It has to happen. I remember someone once said, 'There are no coincidences.' "

In addition, cannot find reference to it anywhere in the media but on the radio broadcast of the game on KNBR, it was noted by one of the announcers that the Giants have beaten the Dodgers more times in their history than any other team, around 2000-2100 wins. I like the sound of that. :^)

Other noteworthy performances:

• Schmidt pitched well enough, 6 IP, 4 hits, 4 walks, 1 ER, 7 strikeouts.
• Walker fluttered some Giants hearts, mine included, by giving up a hit but had relatively quiet 9th for his 14th save.
• Shabala, just called up, PH for Schmidt and got a key hit to put two men on for Vizquel to get his 3-run homer.
• With the win, the Giants are now only 1.5 games behind the Dodgers and 9 games back of the division leading Padres. So the only way the Giants can come out of this series ahead of the Dodgers is to sweep the 4 game series. The Giants should continue on focusing on the moment, winning the game today and not worrying about the standings (we fans do enough worrying for them :^).

One discordant point that came out of the articles for the games was the repeated rumor of Jason Schmidt getting traded away. There is no way the Giants trade Schmidt away. Trading Schmidt away not only kisses off this season but would kiss off 2006 as well. Without Schmidt, even if Tomko is retained or another free agent signed, the rotation would be filled with very inexperienced starters - Lowry, Hennessey, Correia, Cain, Foppert, whichever of the youngsters make it.

While it is not out of the realm of possibility for this rotation to be stellar, you do not go into the season with a rotation like that expecting to do much during the season, you are just hoping that they do well and maybe you compete, kind of like the A's this season. If Blanton and Haren did not finally figure it out in June, they would be in the same circumstances as the Giants right now. You basically have to hope that the youngsters figure it out.

You don't win pennants that way and that would mean the only thing to watch during the season is Barry Bonds trying to reach Babe Ruth and Hank Aaron. I don't think any of the vets signed for 2006 - Bonds, Alou, Vizquel, Matheny, Durham, Alfonzo, Benitez - would not be happy with circumstances like that. Neither would any of the fans.

So I don't think Schmidt is going anywhere, it would kill interest in the team from the fringe fans for the next 1.5 seasons and reduce the likelihood of the 7 year season ticket holders renewing after this season, one of the key reasons for the Giants getting the All-Star game for 2007 out of sequence, they need to get these 7 year season ticket holders to renew their season tickets.