Posted on 10/17/2010 9:35:59 AM PDT by BluesDuke
Postseason play turns the unlikeliest of men into the least likely of heroes against the least likely of victims.
Who figured Saturday that the first hit Roy Halladay would surrender on the postseason would fly out of the yard off the bat of a guy Bruce Bochy didn't want to play until what everyone else had figured out about his prime choice in left field became obvious to him?
Who figured Saturday that Cody Ross, who had hit three home runs in the final five weeks of the regular season, would come up in the top of the third, amidst a small shower of wolf whistling from Citizens Bank Park's typically sweet and loving audience, and hit a long home run to open the scoring at 1-0?
Or, that Ross would come up in the top of the fifth, in an identical situation (one out, nobody on), and hit one into the same neighbourhood, if just a few hedges short of the first shot, to break a one-all tie?
Ross wasn't exactly the only big man in the San Francisco Giants' National League Championship Series-opening squeaker over the Philadelphia Phillies. But by the time Brian Wilson finished what Tim Lincecum started and locked down the 4-3 win, Ross was looking like a big man among big men in the clutch.
Pat Burrell, a Philadelphia castoff who'd spent a somewhat lost season in Tampa Bay before spending this season found by the Giants, hit his old mates where it hurt in the top of the fourth. With two out and Buster Posey (single up the pipe) aboard, Burrell hit a 1-2 pitch that reached the rear end of left field, because Raul Ibanez couldn't make the almost-circus catch, to send the shining rookie home.
Two pitches later, Burrell's pinch runner Nate Schierholtz came home courtesy of Juan Uribe's trickle up the pipe, and all of a sudden the Giants had done what some thought might be difficult, if not impossible, even with Lincecum squaring off against Halladay in what was probably the year's most anticipated pitching duel---taken a 4-1 lead.
A half-inning later, the Phillies struck back like the offencive powerhouse they're well cracked up to be, with Chase Utley leading off beating one out for a hit and, after a Ryan Howard swishout, Jayson Werth fouling off a 2-2 service before sending the next one over the right field scoreboard wall.
If the Giants were breaking a sweat you wouldn't have known it by the followup. Lincecum merely flicked that momentary lapse of command to one side, then ended the inning by swishing Jimmy Rollins and (following a full-count walk to Raul Ibanez) Carlos Ruiz, the latter having tied the game at one in the first place with a 2-0 bomb.
Ross was a Giant only because general manager Brian Sabean, for reasons not necessarily clear at the time, didn't want the San Diego Padres, then the Giants' primary competition for the National League West, getting their hands on him when the Florida Marlins put him on the waiver wire.
Why, he was barely a presence simply because Bochy remained somewhat enamoured of Jose Guillen's reputation as a dangerous hitter, whatever he thought of Guillen's parallel reputation as a clubhouse pain in the ass.
Ross wasn't exactly one of the Giants' batter's box bullies down the stretch, but Travis Ishikawa had done little enough on the season that he had little enough choice but to put Aubrey Huff, whose outfield skills have diminished considerably, at first base and Ross in his outfield. And Guillen, who arrived about a week before Ross in August, and started practically every game down the stretch, had two problems that finally compelled Ross's starting presence: Guillen hit slightly worse than Ross and spent September "struggling," to use one kind word; and, he turned up with a neck injury.
So Bochy had little choice, especially against righthanded pitching, but to deploy Ross, batting him eighth.
And the guy who barely hit three homers over the season's final five weeks has now hit three in the entire postseason to date.
Halladay might be forgiven if you elect never to mention that fact to him the rest of the postseason, no matter where the Phillies wind up. The man who joined Don Larsen as baseball history's only postseason no-hit pitchers got hit where it hurt twice especially Saturday night.
He threw what he thought was a nasty little sinker Ross's way on 1-1 in the third. The problem was that Ross, somehow, thought that's exactly what would be coming, and the ball didn't quite sink enough. Unless you count that it sank right into the path of Ross's bat, allowing it to travel 417 feet before landing in the left field seats.
"At this point," Halladay said, tersely and curtly (he isn't exactly renowned for being as comfortable before reporters as he is on the mound or with a fishing pole in his hands) after the game, "you make enough mistakes they end up costing you. You find out what you're made of. You never expect it to be easy. You battle back and grind it out and make adjustments. If you can't handle failure at this point, you're in the wrong business."
Which is not to say Halladay went from there looking to prove further that he could handle failure. But two innings later he faced the same situation. One out. (Mike Fontenot, flying to center instead of grounding to second as he had opening the third.) Two pitches to Ross, this time for a 2-0 count. Then came the third pitch.
Again, it looked like Halladay wanted something that would drop in the zone, sneaking just beneath Ross's swing. And again Ross guessed right, swung accordingly, and buffaloes Doc Halladay, the pitch dropping nowhere except several feet in front of Ross's first bomb by the time it finished its flight over the fence.
"It seems," Huff marveled after the game, "like that happens every years. Or, it seems like it's happened every year while I've been home watching the postseason for the last nine years, anyway. Somebody always gets the big hit, and it's not always somebody you expect. And tonight it was him."
Maybe it was easier for Lincecum to shake off surrendering two bombs because it wasn't the same unlikely bombardier tagging him twice for only the third time in his major league career. Maybe that made it easier for Lincecum to work since any and every great expectation for his showdown with Halladay had been blown over the fence twice.
It took Halladay eleven seasons between his first and his second times surrendering two or more bombs to the same man in the same game. Until September, when Corey Hart of the Milwaukee Brewers did the honours, it hadn't happened to Halladay since Benny Agbayani, of all people, turned that trick in June 1999.
Ross was the number eight hitter in a lineup full of Giants about half of whom, like himself, weren't even supposed to be here in the first place. Now he's the poster boy for reclamation projects, retreads, rejects, and revivalists everywhere.
For a team whose last World Series rings were won during the Eisenhower Administration, when their home address was the opposite coast, that's the best postseason news they've had in their ninth try since.
Okay sorry to hijack but Go Rangers!!!
The plate umpire missed what should have been a called third strike on Burrell to end the inning ... led to a Burrell double and eventually, two more runs.
Go Jints!
Wonder if he's been by Miracle Max's lately.
For my people in the front in the nose bleed section
This is for the headsets loving the mix,
My people in the front row, covered in spit,
Batters in the box (uh), Suffa to pitch,(what)
. . .
Hilltop Hoods
Rangers are gonna have to win at least 1 in NY, which won’t be easy .... now we’ll see what they’re really made of.
But Petitte is over-rated .... so yes, Go Rangers!
Wonderful baseball.
Over 30 1-run wins this year.
Relax and put away your flamethrower. Just pointing out how that single call affected the outcome.
Ok, flames off. I agree... every game has the potential for that. We could use an electronic pitch umpire.... but then it wouldn’t be baseball.
Enjoy the game tonight. I have no dog in the race (other than good baseball to watch), so let the come-back begin!
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