There was no way the Giants should have won that game. Two quick points:
- As often as I disagree with Bruce Bochy, there’s no way he called for a straight steal in the top of the ninth. Either Travis Ishikawa or Nate Schierholtz missed a sign. There’s absolutely no way that a manager runs out of a situation in which a sac fly can take the lead in the ninth inning. Not a single manager, no matter how daft, drunk, or stupid would call for a straight steal. If it was a busted hit-and-run, well, that would have been a silly, unnecessary risk. But it wouldn’t have been criminal. I refuse to believe that it was a straight steal.
- When Bruce Bochy takes his best hitter out for a pinch-runner who isn’t that much faster, he’s playing for a tiny subset of possibilities -- plays that Eli Whiteside can score on that Buster Posey can’t. I’ll assume that this subset exists. But it’s not a big one. It’s not worth the risk of losing your cleanup hitter in extra innings. Someone needs to work up a Venn diagram on this and get it to Bochy.
Bah. No time for quibbles like that. The San Francisco Poseys just poseyed their way in to a posey of a sweep. Posey. I’m not a big schedule-watcher -- I’m usually don’t know where the Giants are going to be after the next series -- so I’m glad I didn’t know that, after the Dodgers sweep, 18 of the following 22 games were on the road. I probably would have started that Southern Oregon University blog that SB Nation has been clamoring for. Go Raiders. Beat OIT. It would have been a good one, man. And I probably would have just given up on the Giants.
After the Dodgers swept the Giants in San Francisco, the Giants then lost three of four in Colorado, including a horrific extra-innings debacle. Again, if I had known that there were 14 more road games coming up in the following 18 games, I probably would have locked myself in the pantry and sucked my thumb for a few weeks.
So here’s to the Giants, who have been amazing since being humiliated at home against the Dodgers. Here's to Tim Lincecum, who didn't always have his best stuff. Here's to Sergio Romo, who found his strikeout slider at just the right time. Here's to Brian Wilson, who is starting to mix in some quiet saves. Yep, those are all of the players who deserve special recognition.
Oh, right. And a child shall lead them.