Hottest Team in Baseball

Oh yeah, I went there. Having gone 8-2 in their last 10 games, the Giants join the Phillies as the hottest team in baseball. That sentence seems weird without an asterisk though, because the title comes in the weakest division of the weaker league. A lot was weird on Wednesday though, adding to the oddity that is the 2006 season:

• The Giants performed their second sweep in three series
• Pedro Feliz broke an 0-for-15 slump to tie the game in the seventh, exactly the kind of hit that will make most people forget about his hitting woes.
  
• Eliezer Alfonzo hit a triple, a game-winning triple, and followed the three-bag sprint with an awkward and hilarious stomp on the bag. Alfonozo has been huge in this recent stretch and remains one of the feel-good stories of the season, even when he flails helplessly at a slider in the dirt.
• Our-Mando, despite being yanked on Tuesday night and causing some ruckus in the clubhouse, recorded a save in a one-run game while converting a few boo-birds with a mid-90s fastball that surprised everyone. More shocking was the convincing manner in which Benitez retired the Diamondbacks in his 1-2-3 ninth. Given all the recent ineffectiveness, the bullpen maintains solidarity, maybe because the entire unit is equally inept at times.

The Inflatable Dibs Gimmick in action