The first couple of innings were hard to watch. We’ve seen that Jonathan Sanchez before. Can’t get the fastball over, can’t get the breaking ball over, throwing a million pitches, looking like he wants to crawl under the mound. He was lucky to escape the second inning down by only two. Meanwhile, the Giants hitters couldn’t solve the mystery that was Rodrigo Lopez. It was a familiar start to a game. Felt like 2008. In case you’d forgotten:

http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/SFG/2008.shtml

Yeah. These aren’t the 2008 Giants. Shocking, I know. We've come so far, dang it.

Jonathan Sanchez used to announce his intentions early. When he was Jekyll Sanchez, he was locating early in the first. When he was Hyde Sanchez, he was at 41 pitches before the end of the National Anthem. There wasn’t a whole lot of ambiguity in a Sanchez start. Version 2.1 now has the ability to settle into a start. He could have gone seven if it weren’t for a Pablo Sandoval double.

Gee, if Buster Posey had experience calling pitches, maybe the Giants team ERA would be -0.13 instead of 0.01 in September.

No, no. No stray snark tonight. Tonight’s a love fest. I love that Pablo Sandoval drove the ball well. I love that Andres Torres is back. I love that Brian Wilson isn’t some graham cracker-armed goof, and I love that Bruce Bochy doesn’t hesitate to bring his best reliever out in the eighth. I love that two-out, run scoring hits don’t give the Giants hives these days, and I love that the crowd was raucous.

Well, no. Certainly not. But we could all just start with a backrub, right?

Two games up. Magic number of four. ‘Twas a fine day.