Even the worst teams can leave you with some legendary stories. Bob Brenly made three errors in one inning, but hit two homeruns to win the game. Great story. Bad team. With the game tied in extra-innings last night, the Giants were out of hitters. There was no one to pinch-hit in a tie game with a runner on base other than Noah Lowry. That's a brilliant start to a legendary story.
I'll throw this out there: Lowry is the best hitting pitcher I've seen. I don't remember Caveman well enough. Livan was pretty adept, but Lowry can work the count better, and has shown better gap power. There are old timers who raked, but I'm not here to drop a Best of All Time label on Lowry. He's just the best hitting pitcher I can remember seeing. He has an idea when he goes up to the plate of what he'll offer at, and rarely flails outside the strike zone. He can also bunt on demand, which is something that's easy to take for granted.
So with Lowry up, and the game on the line, I didn't care about the miserable season. I didn't know how many games under .500 the Giants were. That was the most exciting at-bat of the season for me, and Lowry didn't disappoint. He worked the count better than any other Giant had all day. And he was sitting fastball on a 3-1 pitch.
The strategic part of the brain sees a clear decision. You give Lowry the take sign. There was a fast runner on first in Jason Ellison. If the reliever is having a temporary attack of the yips, let him walk the pitcher, put a speedy runner in scoring position, and let Omar Vizquel take his shot.
The easily-amused part of the brain sees a clear decision. You let Lowry hack. He's going to get a fastball, and this is going to be That Story. "Remember the 2005 Giants? They were terrible. There was this one game, though, out of the 162 where a starting pitcher came up in the 12th inning...."
It just didn't happen. Lowry hit the ball well, but right at someone. The Giants are doomed to be not the worst team ever, but perhaps the most forgettable. They cover their musky odor with just enough competence to win a few games here and there, but we're wasting hours on a boring, boring team. We need one of those freaky-special wins. The down six, two outs, Billy Wagner on the mound win. The Yamid Haad hits three home runs win. The pinch-hitting pitcher drives one to the wall win. If we aren't going to win a World Series, we just need to be entertained every now and again.