E.K. NATION

Anything Jose Cruz Jr. does against the Giants for the rest of his life will be seen by us here at E.K. Nation as complete irony.

Fortunately--if the Giants did indeed have to lose last night on a home run--it was not Jose, who flew out deep to the track to end the eighth, but Jeff Kent who did the damage with a walk-off dong, as the Giants let a late lead slip away again last night. Only this time, the Dodgers didn't give it right back.

We would have liked to have seen Brett Tomko go to the hill in the eighth instead of LaTroy Hawkins, all things being equal. We assume we're not the only Giants fans who cringe a bit when LaTroy takes the mound. Then again, hindisght is of course, 20/20, or 20/200 if you are us.

Having said all this, the Giants have been on a sweet run lately, winning six in a row before last night's loss, and coupled with the Padres' decision to continue being a sucky division leader, the Giants are only five games back with plenty of time left, and not only that, they're in second place now instead of fourth, so all the leap-frogging of the other also-rans has been completed for now. And, just having Barry Bonds back in uniform has been and will continue to be a boon, won't it? We think it will.

Judging from this picture, I think it's safe to say that if Barry is willing to treat a wall as though it were a linebacker, he's more than ready to head out to the field for some D.