Posted on 10/24/2010 11:22:56 AM PDT by BluesDuke
This is how charmed this theoretically motley collection of San Francisco Giants---their own manager calls them the Dirty Dozen---just so happens to be while holding the National League pennant in their happy hands: They beat the big, bad Philadelphian Goliath in spite of being outscored in the League Championship Series by one run.
These Giant Davids beat the big, bad Philadelphian Goliath with a less-than-Bunyanesque eighth-inning home run that came through the courtesy of Phillies manager Charlie Manuel leaving in a righthanded reliever to face a shortstop who'd hit all but two of his 24 regular season bombs against righthanded pitching.
A righthanded reliever who hadn't pitched more than one full inning or thrown more than 28 pitches in any one of his appearances until Saturday night.
This time, Manuel asked Ryan Madson, whose line against righthanded hitters was a .208 batting average, a .263 on-base percentage, and a .262 slugging percentage in his normal line of setup work, to give him six outs while the Phillies' once-vaunted bats had turned for the most part into dodos.
This time, Juan Uribe---coming off the best home run season of his ten-season career to date (24)---hit one out to break a two-all tie.
And everybody in or watching Citizens Bank Park wondered just what more could the Phillies do to ward off these pain-in-the-ass Giants who weren't exactly outplaying their heroes but were doing things their heroes couldn't because their heroes didn't have a bullpen quite up to the Giants' pen.
The Giants' bullpen pitched seven scoreless from the moment Jeremy Affeldt, who'd gotten the side in order in the third after the Phillies chased Sanchez with back-to-back inning-opening hits, got the the side in order in the fourth. In relief of him---Madison Bumgarner, the Giants' Game Four starter. Bumgarner shook off a leadoff single (Jimmy Rollins) and a two-out double (Ryan Howard) to get Shane Victorino grounding out right back to the box for the side---with the bases loaded. Then, he shook off a leadoff double (Raul Ibanez) in the sixth to get three simple enough outs and nullify a sacrifice bunt putting Ibanez on third.
Javier Lopez took over for the bottom of the seventh and made easy work of the middle of the Phillies' order. Tim Lincecum took over in the bottom of the eighth, got one out and surrendered two hits (back-to-back singles by Ibanez and Victorino) before yielding to Brian Wilson, who got Carlos Ruiz to line sharply into a double play, with Aubrey Huff standing right there as though he'd had a target on his chest instead of his visiting SAN FRANCISCO lettering, then whipped a throw to Uribe to bag Victorino for the side.
Wilson needed one epic showdown with Howard, the Philadelphia slugger whose slugging mostly seemed sound asleep during the set, to atone for a walk, a forceout, and another walk setting up first and second and a possible trip to Game Seven for the Phillies. A swinging strike, two balls, a called strike, ball three, and a foul, before dispatching Howard the same way Texas closer Neftali Feliz dispatched Alex Rodriguez and the New York Yankees' pennant hopes the night before, almost---a nice, nifty slider landing at the knees for strike three.
"Right now, it's heaven," Huff huffed amidst the Giants' celebration. "But it was torture for that final strike."
That's nothing compared to the torture under which the Phillies look to spend the winter. That isn't the way they hoped to spend the winter after leading the majors in regular season wins for the first time in the history of the often-beleaguered franchise.
Oswalt pitched gamely enough, giving the Phillies six innings he spent mostly battling his way into and out of trouble, with nine hits and a plunk en route, not to mention one earned run out of the two he surrendered, but he kept the Phillies alive enough considering Manuel doesn't even have half the faith in his bulls that Giants manager Bruce Bochy had in his.
Things got a little hairy in the third when Sanchez plunked Chase Utley, the ball sailing up and across Utley's shoulders, and Utley tossed the ball a little defiantly back to the mound on his way up the first base line. Sanchez barked at Utley, who merely said one or two words in response from first base and otherwise shrugged, but the benches emptied for a moment before order was restored.
What Sanchez was barking at Utley, after the struggling second baseman tossed the ball back to the mound, was "Bullshit!" As in, as Sanchez explained after the game, "You're a professional. You don't do that. And when he did it, he had this smile on his face, this look that said, 'You're nothing. And I didn't like that at all. So I told him."
That was just a little laughable coming from a pitcher whose early wildness brought him an early hook, but it was also a little sad that Utley, normally the consummate professional, should see his season beginning to come to its end that way. There probably wasn't one Giant pitcher with any ideas about plunking a slumping second baseman in a tie game with the leadoff runner aboard already.
It got a little more laughable when Edgar Renteria tried to exercise what he'd learned from the Derek Jeter School of Base Advancement in the sixth. With two out, he checked his swing on 1-2 and jumped a bit, shaking a hand, as if he'd taken the ball on the hand. Home plate umpire Tom Hallion had seen better acting on reruns of My Mother, the Car. Oswalt could do nothing but smirk and shake his head before throwing Renteria a pitch that had inning-ending double play stamped on the meat.
It got a little sadder to remember that the Phillies had the game's first lead, and it began with Utley, who'd spent his time until the bottom of the second being one of the Phillies' most visible phlops. He was barely putting the bat on the ball, he looked anything like his Gold Glove-winning self at second base---indeed, he'd miss snapping his glove around a sharp grounder while sliding to make the stab, yielding an RBI single for Huff redeemed only when Andres Torres was thrown out trying to score.
And Utley must have been wondering whom he'd have to buy off to pick up something other than acute embarrassment when he squared off against Sanchez in the bottom of the first, with Placido Polanco aboard (one-out single, on second thanks to a wild pitch), and drilled one to the back of right field, sending Polanco home. Howard singled him to third, and he came home on Jayson Werth's sacrifice fly. But after Victorino singled up the pipe to set up first and second, Ibanez popped out for the side.
Howard will probably go to his grave believing he shouldn't have swung on Wilson's knee-high slider when he was hoping for but not expecting a fastball---the Phillies had spent most of the season winning without getting fastballs on counts calling for them. He'll also go to his grave believing the pitch was down enough to send him to first base on the house, considering Hallion delayed the call for a fraction before ringing him up.
This wasn't the way the Phillies planned to spend the League Championship Series---going 8-for-45 with men in scoring position all set long, only two extra base hits between them for Utley and Jimmy Rollins, twelve strikeouts in twenty-two at-bats and not one run batted in for Howard despite his .400 series OBP, and only one Phillie (Werth) slugging .500.
The Giants' pitchers didn't make life any simpler for them in Game Six. They'd chased Sanchez early enough, putting their first two on with nobody out---and didn't cash them in. They had the bases loaded on Bumgarner until Victorino hit into that inning-ending double play.
Oswalt wasn't exactly looking to plunk Uribe several innings later, with the game still tied at two and Cody Ross---on the threshold of being named the set's Most Valuable Player---on second with a one-out double. It ended up doing him a favour when Renteria ended the inning whacking one right up to Utley coming toward the pad at second, allowing Utley a little redemption as he toed the pad and whipped a throw to first to bag Renteria.
Unfortunately, it came back to haunt the Phillies in the eighth, when Madson threw Uribe a cutter diving down and away, and Uribe shoved it up and just over the right field wall railing.
And, in the ninth, when Howard looked at strike three. Not even Victorino's offering succor in the clubhouse, Victorino having been the last victim in the Yankees' World Series conquest a year earlier, seemed to help. Utley walking back to the dugout and clubhouse from first base, where he'd been stranded, against a backdrop of celebrating Giants, said even more.
Because these Phillies may not be the same Phillies giving it another try next season. It's open season on Werth, who becomes a free agent, and the Phillies may not think themselves able to sign him for another tour. Howard, Rollins, and Utley hit the early-30s ages in which many players begin their decline phases in earnest---and not only did all three of them spent important enough 2010 time on the infirmary list, but Rollins has already begun to decline.
They might not have been able to do anything with the Giants' bullpen even if they'd been at full strength and full faculty. The seven and two-thirds scoreless by Giant relievers in Game Six equaled the record set by the 1984 San Diego Padres, whose bulls held the Chicago Cubs scoreless in the same span in Game Five of that year's unforgettable NLCS. And the Giants' bullpen on the season pulled down a 2.99 ERA, the second lowest among National League bullpens, while holding the opposition to a .236 batting average, the league's fourth lowest.
Now the Giants go to a World Series against the Texas Rangers. With a guy whose childhood ambition was to be a rodeo clown holding the NLCS MVP trophy. With a gang of what their own manager calls castoffs and misfits. This is a far cry, damn near the opposite, from the 2002 pennant winner built with Barry Bonds and a cast of veterans.
In more ways than one. The Barry Bonds Giants played as though the only time they had any comfort was on the field, and even that proved pyrrhic comfort in the end. These Giants---lacking that brooding misanthrope whose clubhouse terrorism made even field comfort seem like a cruel fantasy---keep things so foot loose and fancy free on and off the field, even while winning enough close games that broadcaster Duane Kuiper says "torture" leaving you wondering if he talks of the games or the team.
It's torturous enough that seven of the Giants' ten postseason games were decided by a single run, with the Giants winning six.
You could mistake the Giants for a bunch of kids blending with a bunch of second-childhood adults cast aside by their families, playing on a sandlot for giggles, grins, and a few pops after the game. Even Buster Posey, their engaging rookie catcher, can be called a kind of castoff. So can Lincecum, Bumgarner, and Matt Cain. All four of them were first-round Giants draft picks. All four of them could have been had by the Pittsburgh Pirates. All four of them didn't get so much as a blink from the Pirates.
Now, Lincecum gets the pleasure of thrilling a nation in need of a thrill or three by starting the World Series against Cliff Lee. The Rangers could probably send Sandy Koufax to the mound for Game One and Lincecum wouldn't shake, rattle, or roll without a good hardy battle.
And the nation in dire enough need of pleasure will have the pleasure of watching a World Series between a franchise whose last World Series victory came when their home address was adjacent to Harlem and the White House was Dwight Eisenhower's home address; and, a franchise who took until this year, its fiftieth year of life, to get anywhere near a World Series.
What? No Yankees? Who the hell needs them? They're just another baseball team gone home for the winter now. While Juan Uribe and Cody Ross will look amazingly enough like Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez---minus Jeter's cachet and A-Rod's baggage---for at least the next three and a half days.
Now, who the hell do you root for in the Serious? Neither team has won a Serious at their present addresses, they're both very likeable teams, but the Giants at least have some rings in their ancient past. This one's a toughie.
The Giants gotta keep that pitcher Sanchez on the bench. He’s not up to the task, hitting a batter almost every game he pitches.
I've watched them all year and they are dramatic entertainment par excellence. The Masters of the one-run game and simply amazing pitching...and first-rate, mistake free defense.
If you don't score at least 4 runs against them it's over 90% probable you will lose.
The Giants give up runs G R U D G I N G L Y.
The Giants gotta keep that pitcher Sanchez on the bench. He’s not up to the task, hitting a batter almost every game he pitchesThe Giants gotta do anything but keep Sanchez on the bench.
* - He only hit nine batters in 193.1 innings pitched on the regular season, and one (Utley) in the postseason thus far.His wounding flaw seems to be the walk (he surrendered 95) but when you're striking out 200+ you atone for it.
* - He rolled up a 3.07 ERA on the season and has a 2.93 ERA for the postseason thus far.
* - He was third in the National League in strikeouts per nine innings (behind teammate Tim Lincecum and Yovani Gallardo of the Brewers).
The Masters of the one-run game and simply amazing pitching...and first-rate, mistake free defense.The 2010 Giants actually played 43 one-run games on the regular season. Their won-lost record in those games: 24-19. Pretty decent one-run-games record.
Maybe tough for those in Kansas or Idaho but I’m sure Texans and Californians know what is up
Well it is still difficult for some of us. I grew up in Dallas and saw the Rangers from when I was 10-30, Jeff Boroughs, Frank Howard, Billy Martin, then moved to California, have lived in SF for the last 15 years.
I will be very happy the outcome be what it may. I was thinking Saturday night, this is as good as it gets, Friday the Rangers win, Saturday the Giants, what a weekend.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.