Magical time for Giants in dog-eat-dog world

These are the dog days of August?

Game time temperature at AT&T Park on Wednesday night was 59 degrees?

Tim Lincecum is having a bad year and the Giants are in second place?

The only team above them in the standings are the San Diego Padres?!

Lucky dogs, these Giants.

In a summer void of hot summer nights and Tiger Woods’ under-par rounds, the Giants are still surviving and in fact thriving. The ballpark was nearly filled to capacity during a week night game against a fifth-place team. The Chicago Cubs are suddenly the most uninteresting team in the world yet Giants fans are packing them in.

What gives? Things with the Giants are weirder than the Giants fan standing in front of me in the AT&T Park press box with a beard and pony tail beneath an orange-and-black wig that makes him look like a skunk on Halloween.

Lincecum is not pitching up to the standards yet the Giants starting pitching is so solid that Little Timmy may be the third best guy in the rotation right now.

The Giants have the worst batting average in the National League with runners in a scoring position and yet they are ninth in the league in runs scored and RBIs.

And now trading for Mike Fortenot ranks as big news. Brian Sabean is not idiot. He picked up Pat Burrell as a .202 hitter in June and he’s hitting over .350 in August and playing hero. Sabean signed Aubrey Huff as a free agent in the offseason and he’s leading the Giants in home runs and RBIs. And Sabean played his cards right with the maturation and promotion of Buster Posey.

The Giants are winning with pitching and defense and just enough offense.

Lucky dogs.