I still love this team.
That's the hardest part about a disappointing season. There should be scapegoats. There should be villains. There should be players to point at and complain about.
Stop. That's a postseason hero, you jackal. No, this team is filled with characters we're attached to. That's why a lot of these guys are still here, you know. When Brandon Belt won the game, he was attacked around second base by a bunch of goofballs. I liked all of them. Hunter Pence was flailing around, and Angel Pagan was twitching about with his underrated crazy-eyes. They capped off a win that also featured a brilliant start from that diminutive kid from around the way that we used to be so found of. Sergio Romo locked down the top of the ninth. Marco Scutaro had a key hit. Buster Posey hit a homer.
All of you. I want bobbleheads of all of you. And I want to line them up and give an inspirational speech to you before the start of every season. I like this team, dammit. Do you know that Dodgers fans are pretending to like Juan Uribe tonight? For years they complained about him, and now because he's doing well, all of a sudden he's a hero?
Totally different. Point is, here's why you're so disappointed about this season. You expected so much more, but you also like all of these guys. And that's why you're so excited about a mostly meaningless walk-off win. It's fun to watch them cavort around a baseball field like a bunch of idiots. It's a familiar feeling. It's why you follow sports, that feeling.
Forget about the big picture, then. Here you go, it's a walk-off win against a team that pays a man in a purple triceratops costume to stand behind home plate and distract the pitcher. That's a good thing. This is a likable team doing good things. I just wish the circumstances were a little different, but it's not like there isn't any enjoyment to be found in a win like this in a lost season. There's quite a bit, actually.
This was the 11th walk-off of the season. To the walk-off-o-meter to see where that ranks in San Francisco history!
Most walk-off wins, San Francisco Giants history
1985: 15
2003: 11
2011: 11
2013: 11
That's a 100-loss season, a 100-win season, and one of the most discouraging good seasons in franchise history. There are no patterns. There are no crop circles in there. A good season for walk-offs doesn't mean jack for the state of the team's overall health.
That written, it sure is nice to have a bad season with a bunch of walk-offs than a bad season with nothing like that. It's the little things.
Feels like the Sergio Romo love is one of the greatest casualties of a bad year. There's no spots for him. There aren't enough close wins to save. There aren't enough wins at all. There aren't enough close games. When he comes in, it's like, "Hey, yeah, that guy!"
He pitched a quiet, calm ninth on Monday night, though. Reminds you why he was the toaster in our bathtub just 11 months ago.
Buster Posey hit his first home run since July 20.
This is one of the reasons I refuse to believe in this season. A well-placed Buster homer over those last few months would have meant the difference between a win or a loss. Instead. there's a complete, total, fluky power outage from one of the best players in the game.
Nope. Don't buy it. Rather, I don't buy into it as something we should expect next year. You've seen the natural power of Posey. Think about that dinger off the sun in Milwaukee. There's no way he's a five-homer guy now.
Which means that a two-month dingerless streak is hyper-fluky. Everything about this season is hyper-fluky. Maybe I'm still high on the Ryan Theriot growls from Game 4, but there's a lot about this season that I'm not convinced of. Posey's lack of power is one of them.
And Tim Lincecum. We're getting to the point were each start could be the last time we see Lincecum in a Giants uniform. I'm not ready for that. I wrote this last week. It can't be time to part ways. Nope, nope, nope, nope. That part up there about the likable team? I'd sure like it if Lincecum were good again, and if he were wearing the laundry of the team I like.
Starts like this help the chances, I'd think. He was outstanding, and he pitched eight innings for just the fifth time since 2011. The better he is, the more other teams will be interested. But that interest wouldn't compare to the franchise that already has a warehouse in New Mexico filled with black-haired wigs, waiting for the guy to grow his hair again.
In that respect, yeah. This game was important. You might not see it now, but it's important, alright.
You know there were people loudly predicting that Brandon Belt was going to strike out when he got to a two-strike count. You know those people didn't enjoy the game as much as the the normal people.
This pleases me greatly.