One of the two teams playing in this game had a fairly epic meltdown in the 8th inning tonight.
It was not the Giants.
The ninth inning still made you feel like things were going to turn out poorly, of course, (how, exactly, did Santiago Casilla end up as Bruce Bochy's most trusted reliever? I don't understand) but in the end, it was the Rockies who screwed up tonight, not the Giants, and I think we can all take some level of relief out of that.
The Giants are five back with ten to play. Stranger things have happened, but not many. Someone please post the dumpster "We're in this thing" macro in the comments; I don't have it readily available.
Some thoughts, since I am trusted and what I think is better than what you think:
- Through four starts, Eric Surkamp looks almost nothing like the kind of pitcher he was in the minors. There's been a lot more walks, for one thing. A lot more. He's faced some pretty mediocre lineups as well. My enthusiasm for Surkamp has been tempered a bit by this late season showing, but I still think I'd rather have him as the fifth starter next year than Zito.
- I always kind of felt like, after the endless parades of PCL pseudo-prospects who have been called up over the pas ten years, it was going to be Brett Pill who actually managed to stick, out of those. (Come to think of it, that might be unfair to Nate Schierholtz.) It's obviously far too early to say and it bears repeating that Pill's Fresno numbers this year came nowhere close to the lines put up by guys like John Bowker and Todd Linden (to say nothing of Brandon Belt, who does not belong on the PCL pseudo-prospect list), but maybe there's a place for Brett Pill on the Giants next year. That's only true if it's not at the expense of Belt, but hey, I think I'd rather see him next year than Aubrey Huff.
- Re-sign Voltron. Dude can hit.
- Grant's original mail-it-in-cause-I'm-on-vacation Post-Game Thread included this gif and I think I would be remiss not to include it here.