Let’s acknowledge right off the bat that this six game roadtrip was a ferry ride through hell in terms of losing.  There was lots of Manny Ramirez, David Eckstein, tears, and the reappearance of the 2009 offense.  In summation, it was the worst first six-game roadtrip of the season since…well, last year’s first six game roadtrip of the season where the Giants went 0-6.  So let’s put it behind us, and concentrate on the present.  The Cardinals are a good team to get back in the win column against right?  With Tim Lincecum, anything is possible.

This is an artist rendering of me watching the Padre series

Pitching-wise, we’re facing the voodoo magic of  pitching coach Dave Duncan used on Jaime Garcia and Brad Penny to make them incredible pitchers.  Whether or not Duncan sacrificed a live goat to do has yet to be confirmed, but I definitely have my suspicions.  There’s no predicting how the offense will perform in this series given the bipolar behavior its exhibited, but I’m guessing it’ll be somewhere between painfully inefficient and utterly inspiring.  The ability the offense showed to not score runs no matter how hard pitchers tried to let them was a good reminder of how bad things can be in the wrong scenario.  I’d chalk it up to the evil that seems to reside in Petco Park (Giants went 2-7 there in 2009 and were swept twice).

So what can we reasonably hope for in this series?  We’re playing a very good team with Albert Pujols, Adam Wainwright, and a red-hot Colby Rasmus.  In our corner we have our Tim Lincecum, a re-awakened Barry Zito, and Matt Cain to go along with what’s been an anemic offense.  The test of this teams fortitude comes in this series, against a team leading the NL Central that happens to have both a good offense and pitching staff.  It’ll be a test of Bruce Bochy and his decision-making.  Will John Bowker continue to get everyday at-bats?  Will Edgar Renteria continue to hit second?  Will Andres Torres be nothing more than a late-inning defensive-replacement or will Bochy continue to live under the illusion that he’s a serviceable hitter?

All this and more starting at 7:15 tonight.  Be there.