E.K. NATION

The "704" posted on the scoreboard was a little premature, as it was only a ground-rule double -- "ground-rule" because of the seemingly never-ending chain of morons sitting in the front row of the bleachers at Pac Bell SBC Park. (Seems to us here at E.K. Nation that anyone sitting in the front row should automatically be ejected from the premises. And the fan in question was indeed booted, so, good, you idiot. But we digress.)

And wouldn't you know it? Nobody's singing praises that Barry's back, at least not in the Giants Fan world. Everybody else is saying, "Man, if he'd still been juiced that ball wouldn't have gone only as far as the top of the wall." Upon which we shall throw our sandwiches, complete with messy mustard and mayo tomato slices, at such vocal offenders.

So as it stands, the Giants are back within six games of the Padres in the West. The closer they remain, the happier we will be, not only because we simply want the Giants to win but we would like for there to be additional meaning to the Giants-Padres games we will be attending in San Diego the last week of this month, rather than simply, "Hey, let's go to the old ballpark!" We're hoping to see a division title pursued with vim and vigor, live in person. Hey, we can dream.

• Let's not forget, in the midst of the hoopla surrounding Barry's return, that Matt Kinney tossed 5 2/3 innings of scoreless ball in relief of battered starter Kevin Correia. Nice. In fact the entire relief staff that saw action put up goose eggs.