Last night was more fun.
The template for a team without homefield advantage is simple. Split on the road, win two of three at home, split on the road. So when the Giants won last night’s game, it was like they were playing with house money tonight.
But, oh, how easy it was to think greedy thoughts. If the Giants had won tonight, they would have gone back to San Francisco up by two games in a best-of-seven series. They would have been in control of the series. They would be on their way to the World Series. And when they won that, they’d play in the Champions League, where they’d finally get a chance to stick it to Real Madrid, and...
Yeah. It was easy to get greedy. Whoops. The Giants split in Philadelphia. Just as planned. Kind of stings. Darn you, greedy thoughts. Darn you all to heck.
Quick thoughts:
- The best at-bat of the night, non-Ross division, was from Pablo Sandoval. Now that we’ve established that Mike Fontenot isn’t a magic defender at third -- he isn’t even a Mentos in a Diet Coke -- please, please, please return him to the bench. You don’t use a Swiss Army knife if you can help it. The screwdriver is small, the nail file is awkward, and the toothpick is just weird. When you don’t have any of the above, great, use the utility knife you were issued. If you don’t have to, though...
- Sergio Romo thrives on deception. There’s no sense letting Phillies get a look at his slider in mop-up time, especially when you’ve double-switched the inning before to make sure the Santiago Casilla could stay in the game.
- Stop walking the bases loaded intentionally, Bochy. Hitters hit better with the bases loaded. They have leverage, especially if they get ahead in the count. There is about a century or so of data to back this up. I’ll have an intern work up a spreadsheet.
- "Philadelphia is one out away from a double-dip win for the area, with the Eagles winning earlier today...." Really? Really? That’s how you set the stage for the last out of the NLfreakingCS? By referencing a regular season Eagles game? It’s easy to nitpick announcers when they talk for three hours, but that was comical. I’m pretty sure he was watching the Colts game on his iPhone.
- I fear tonight was the last time we’ll see erratic Ryan Madson in the series. Feels like a bit of a waste.
- Andres Torres was hot awful tonight. It’s hard to make snap judgments on seven or eight at-bats against Roys Halladay and Oswalt -- they’re kind of good, and all -- but something’s not right. There’s no, no, no way Aaron Rowand should ever start against a right-hander for the rest of his Giants career, but against Cole Hamels? I’m listening.
- It’s nice to be able to start one of these in the eighth inning for once. I just wish the Giants would be even more courteous and score more runs than the other team in a non-close game.
- Matt Cain.
Yuck. Sleep it off.