756

Well, here's something interesting. Everyone had assumed that, by now, Barry Bonds would be long past his milestone 756th career home run and he'd be preparing for a long retirement filled with all sorts of peace and quiet (along with a few pleasant discussions about asterisks).

Well, it's August 5, and Barry has finally hit number 755. The thing that makes this so interesting (to me, at least) is that Barry's next four games are against the Washington Nationals. Normally, since I'm a cynic, I would say that 756 is a sure thing in the next few days. But these are not normal circumstances.

The facts are that Barry has hit one home run in the last week, the Giants are not a particularly strong team, and the Nationals are, to say the least, overachieving at the moment. After taking six straight against the Reds and the Cardinals who, much like the Giants, are poor teams with a big-name slugger, it's hard to see the Nationals losing more than two games to the Giants.

The other thing is that the Nationals' flakiest starter, Matt Chico, pitched Sunday afternoon. That means his next start is on Friday in Phoenix. John Lannan, Mike Bacsik, Tim Redding, and Joel Hanrahan (none of whom were in the Majors -- the Majors -- at the start of the season) have shown very few cracks in the last week. The bullpen for the Nats is still somewhat inconsistent, but they are certainly not bad right now. Chad Cordero has converted 23 of his 30 save chances this season, Jon Rauch has been solid, Ray King has more confidence than he had in April, and Saul Rivera is throwing some serious stuff.

You will hear a lot of people saying that the pitcher that throws 756 at Bonds will be wearing "Washington" on his chest. But you will not hear that from me.

(on the off chance that 756 does come this week, I'm glad it will be happening in San Francisco, where people will actually appreciate it)