Haren masterful in shutting out Giants

There was no way in the world that Dan Haren wasn't going out in the ninth inning tonight to try and finish off the Giants and go for his first career shutout, even if he was over 100 pitches and looked to be tiring just a bit. He did give up a couple of hits in the ninth, but he was nails as he struck out Ishikawa to end it.

That's the kind of pitching performance the D-backs have been looking for from Haren and he delivered big time. Are you kidding me? 12 strikeouts and two walks and only four hits in nine innings. That's the Dan Haren we know and love. Arizona has now had three straight excellent starting pitching performances. Starting with Max Scherzer on Sunday, to Doug Davis yesterday and Haren tonight. Too bad the staff seems to have gotten their swagger back a couple of weeks too late.

A couple of solo shots from Stephen Drew and Chris Snyder is all the Diamondbacks needed with Haren out there. Giants starter Matt Cain actually threw a very good game, sans those two dingers. With the way those two guys were throwing tonight, it's no wonder the game barely broke the two-hour barrier.

The Dodgers win again of course against the pathetic Pirates. Nobody said this would be easy, but hey, two wins in a row now is a start, even if they still remain 4 1/2 games back. But, I'm starting to like what I see out there. With Brandon Webb going tomorrow I see good things continuing, especially since he has win number 20 off of his back, and with the added peer pressure of following Haren's performance tonight. Webby will be just fine tomorrow....

So, 12 games remaining for Arizona and only 11 games left for the Dodgers. So, how can they manage to catch 'em? Well.....can we hope for 9-3 for the D-backs and 4-7 for the Dodgers??? That would get them to a tie....ya never know....