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Just a few days ago, San Francisco's season seemed on the brink of being lost.
The Giants faced a seven-run deficit only a few hours after one of their key offseason acquisitions had to defend himself from teammates' accusations he was a ``cancer'' in the clubhouse.
One big rally, sparked by the most unlikely of candidates, gave Barry Bonds the help he so desperately needs and new life to the defending NL West champions, who led the division from the start of last season on the way to 100 wins.
The Giants (12-14) took three straight games from the World Series champion
Florida Marlins to complete a 5-2 homestand.
Their ace is finally winning and the timely hits are starting to find the holes. Even second-year skipper Felipe Alou will acknowledge the first month was one to be forgotten.
``I hope we keep going and do what we've been supposed to do all along,'' said pitcher Kirk Rueter, who has won at least 10 games the last seven years but is still winless this season at 0-3. ``We have to put everything in April behind. It's May. We definitely feel we can win.''
Still, the Giants are batting only .262 with 133 strikeouts. They also have hit into a major league-leading 35 double plays.
Bonds is batting .463 with 10 home runs, 44 walks and has a .704 on-base percentage. The slugger is third on the career home run list with 668 behind Babe Ruth (714) and Hank Aaron (755).
He needs help, and most of the Giants say they're ready to put personal differences aside in order to be successful.
On Friday, a newspaper quoted three anonymous pitchers criticizing the work ethic of catcher A.J. Pierzynski. They also accused him of bad-mouthing Giants' hitters to opponents while behind the plate.
The Giants cleared the air with a team meeting, and Pierzynski spoke with the pitchers who ripped him.
``Is the bad blood over? Yeah,'' Pierzynski said. ``I take pride in my team. I want my teammates to respect me.''
After all that, San Francisco scored 27 runs in three wins over Florida -- and did it with no homers from Bonds. The Giants lost to the wild-card Marlins in four games in the NL division series last season.
One surprising star has been 30-year-old rookie Brian Dallimore, called up Wednesday to take Ray Durham's roster spot when the second baseman went on the disabled list with a left knee injury.
Dallimore's first major league hit was a grand slam Friday that pulled the Giants within 9-7. He also singled twice, walked, reached base five times and scored three runs in the 12-9 comeback victory.
``The grand slam by Dallimore, that woke everybody up,'' Alou said.
Dallimore, the Pacific Coast League batting champ last season, is hitting .429 with six RBIs in his first week in the majors.
Jason Schmidt, a 17-game winner with a league-low 2.34 ERA last season and also the NL starter in his first All-Star game, earned his first two victories of the season last week after beginning the year on the DL because of shoulder trouble.
``You look over the last eight or nine games and we've been doing all right,'' Schmidt said. ``We're scrappy, the bats are starting to come around and we're getting big hits and breaks.''
Alou is committed to keeping the issues about Pierzynski from hurting the team. Pierzynski came up with the big hits in Saturday's 6-3 win -- including a tiebreaking, two-run single.
``I'm very confident
that it's not going to be the downfall of this club if we don't make it,'' Alou
said. ``I told the hitters whatever differences they have with Pierzynski, that's
not what's keeping this club from hitting.''
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