San Francisco Giants News Blog @newzblogz.com

San Francisco Giants starting pitcher Tim Lincecum winds up to throw to the San Diego Padres during the first inning in San Francisco on Monday, June 25, 2007.

SAN FRANCISCO --Padres general manager Kevin Towers expects the last-place San Francisco Giants to be back in the division race by the trade deadline next month. The Giants' last three games have given them the confidence it could happen, even though they trail NL West-leading Arizona by 10 games.

"Usually you do good when you're happy and positive," reliever Vinnie Chulk said.

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Bonds lined a single to right for his lone hit of the night, then Feliz delivered the fourth game-ending hit of his career two batters later. Bonds was swarmed as he crossed the plate, sealing the Giants' third straight win.

Vinnie Chulk (3-2) pitched a perfect inning for the victory after Brad Hennessey struck out two in two scoreless innings, including Mike Cameron's third strikeout of the game in the 10th after Cameron had tied the score with a three-run homer in the eighth.

Fans jumped to their feet and chanted "Barry! Barry!" before he singled in the 11th off Justin Hampson (2-2), who made a nice play to throw out Ray Durham at third on Ryan Klesko's bunt following Bonds' single.

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BIGGIO WATCH

Four to go: The Astros' Craig Biggio is closing in on the 3,000-hit club.

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The final press conference of the NCAA baseball tournament's Charlottesville (Va.) Regional had just broken up earlier this month when Oregon State outfielder Mike Lissman leaned over and whispered, "I promise you, we aren't losing anymore."

At the time it sounded like the exhilarated declaration of an athlete jacked up by triumph.

And why not? The Charlottesville Regional was a tough one, the Beavers had barely made it into the tournament at all, and their play hadn't been convincing enough to make it appear they had fully recovered from their late-season Pacific-10 Conference swoon.

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Earlier this month, Boston Red Sox fans were angry. All right, Red Sox fans can often get angry when anyone says anything they construe as negative about their team or positive about their team’s archrival, the Yankees.

But in this particular instance, they were outraged because it was the start of a 17-day interleague segment of the major league schedule, and the Yankees were playing the unimposing Pittsburgh Pirates while the Red Sox were playing the Arizona Diamondbacks, who were practically in first place in the National League West.

Those games came at a time when the Yankees had revived themselves and were winning. Not surprisingly, the Yankees swept the Pirates in a three-game series (and then the Diamondbacks, too) on their way to a nine-game winning streak that slashed Boston’s lead over them to seven and a half games.

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