One for the ages.

Unbelievable. That's the only way to describe it.

All season long, the Giants have struggled. Finally, Barry Bonds came back, but it still looked like we would only get a glimpse of what might have been.

A couple of late-inning comebacks and late-inning disasters from the Padres, and it's, as they say, a whole new ballgame. Coming into tonight, four games back with seven to go.

It didn't look good. We had our least consistent starter, rook Brad Hennessey, against the Padres' ace, Jake Peavy. It looked even worse when the second batter of the game hit a two-run homer. But the Giants gutted it out, like they always do, and got a run back while holding the Padres to the two runs.

If there was any doubt, Randy Winn etched himself into Giants' history tonight. With two outs in the ninth against Trevor Hoffman, his long drive to center epitomized the unpredictability which has been the Giants' schizophrenic season. Yes, it's gone! No, it's caught! Yes, he dropped it! I mean, the bells had already sounded. The fireworks guy even got it wrong (which, amusingly enough, is not the first time in the Giants/Padres rivalry).

Winn definitely has earned his place in the long lineage of improbable Giants heroes, alongside Rod "Shooter" Beck, Kenny Lofton, David Bell, J.T. Snow ('00 NLDS Game 2, we were there) and the immortal Brian Johnson.

This is not a game that will be quickly forgotten. Matheny's clutch single off Hoffman to start the rally (can anyone remember the last time Hoffman blew a save against the Giants?). The gutsy performance by B. Henny and the bullpen. Bonds pulling up lame after a running catch in the second, then gutting it out for the remainder of the game while clearly in pain. Vizquel effortlessly taking away two sure singles in the ninth. Snow faceplanting into a camera going after a foul ball, blood on his jersey. And, of course, the catalyst for the Giants' improbable run: Randy Winn.

(Peter Gammons just said Hoffman has not blown a save in September in three years.)

All those people who ripped Brian Sabean and Felipe Alou all season owe them both a frickin' apology.

I've given this team up for dead several times this season. And I was one of the optimistic ones (I didn't write them off until last month). A lot of people talk about athletes who make millions of dollars but don't try, don't hustle, don't respect the game, because it makes for good press. But the teams that keep grinding, even when no one thinks they have a legitimate shot, never get the attention they deserve. I've always said I don't need my team to win all the time, I just want them to make me believe we have a chance.

Tonight, it worked. I believe.