When will the bad news end?

It was reported on KNTV-11 on their 11PM Wednesday edition that Barry Bonds has been on IV the past two weeks, that his body has been fighting an infectious disease that entered because of his last surgery, and that he has just been removed from the IV. Basically his care has changed from recovering from surgery to bringing in infectious disease medicos in to take care of his illness.

Boy, has this been a multi-layered Russian Doll of bad news regarding Barry Bonds' right knee. First, he needs knee surgery on his other leg now, his right leg, after handling his left leg earlier in the off-season. Next, he needs to have it scoped out again because he hurt his leg and no one thought to check if there was further damage. Then he needed it scoped again because an infection has set in and antibiotics are flushed through there. Now, the disease was bad enough to bring in infectious disease experts and put him on IV for two weeks.

No wonder there's been a block on news, it just get worse and worse. I wonder how many more weeks this sets Barry's recovery and return back. This is pretty serious stuff now because (layman speaking) it seems that the question has changed from when he returns to baseball to if he will recover his health and not suffer any permanent damage. Infectious disease can cause havoc to a body, whether athlete or couch potato, and the questions are not as simple any more.

Meanwhile, congrats to the Giants for breaking their losing streak (My Mays t-shirt is now 3-0), winning 3-2 behind Brad Hennessey's great outing, at Mile Hile Stadium, no less, and after giving up 2 runs in the first inning and making it look like it will be another long night. Feliz was the hitting hero today with a homer to tie the game and coming in as the winning run later - he had 3 hits in total. It was his first homer in ages, hopefully he is starting to get out of his hitting slump, the Giants offense can use it.

Looks like the Giants have their answer now as to who will take the 5th spot in the starting rotation since Jerome Williams does not appear near to returning yet and Hennessey now 3-0. And Lowry shouldn't feel too comfortable either, if Williams gets his act together and Lowry continues to struggle, he may find himself swapping with Williams and getting time in AAA to find himself.

Just like last couple of years

The NL West is now led by the streaking San Diego Padres and Arizona, as LA , who had been dueling for the lead is now in 3rd. LA's early hot streak, fueled by Kent's superhot hitting has cooled with his hitting. This is reminescent of last year's and the year before, as one team would take the lead with a hot start, then another team would get hot and come back to get into the lead (or tied for the lead).

The Giants stay 4 games behind in 4th place after losing the last two games of the Astro's series, a disappointment after winning the first two but ultimately what you shoot for on the road. They have been anywhere from 1 game under .500 to 1 game over .500 and is currently 18-19. They are visiting Colorado where hellish games occur regularly for the Giants. But they are throwing two lefties at the Giants and the Giants have a number of hitters who mash on lefties, like Feliz, Grissom, Niekro, Durham, Alou, and Alfonzo, the latter also being good hitters against righties as well, career-wise.

The Giants are throwing Lowry, Hennessey and Tomko at the Rockies. Lowry looked much better last game until the 7th and Hennessey has been good enough to win both his starts. Tomko has been up and down, pitching like we hope then following by pitching like we remember.

But as long as we can stay around .500 while waiting for our superstars to return (and play like superstars), I think the Giants should still be in the hunt for the title at the end of the season, like they have each year of Sabean's tenure as GM. Given the all out effort to win this year, I would not be surprised if there are trades made in the July-August timeframe to bolster our efforts, most probably in the bullpen area since they will probably dip into the minors if they need help in the starting rotation and the offense, while inconsistent - which is a result of the loss of hitters who could hit RHP pitching well, which we had last season - is still potentially potent even without Bonds.