If you aren’t familiar with win expectancy charts, they’re pretty cool. They give you a graph that shows how likely a team is to win or lose based on the score, inning, and a few more factors. Here’s tonight’s from FanGraphs:
Very nice. The Giants scored four runs before there were two outs, and it just kept getting better. But my biggest problem with win expectancy charts is that they don’t take park effects into account. Well, maybe they do, but they don’t take into account that the Giants are playing in Coors Field. Because Coors Field. So I redid tonight’s chart based on how likely a battle-scarred Giants fan thought a win was throughout the night:
Because Coors Field. I have no problem thinking that it might be the Giants’ year, and my supporting evidence would be Freddy Sanchez’s catch in the seventh inning. With a seven-run lead, the Giants’ relief corps started nibbling. Of course they did. So after a couple of walks, the Rockies’ hottest hitter came up, and he drilled one. If it weren’t the Giants’ year, it would have been a bases-clearing double. More relievers would come in to nibble, more walks would ensue, and then Ryan Spilbourghs would do something. Because Coors Field.
I don’t want to go so far as to say this was some sort of "statement game," so I’ll just write this: This game was a statement game. After exorcising the Dodger stink from Mays Field, the Giants are trying to get some demons out of Coors. I approve.
I’d enjoy games in Colorado a lot more if the Rockies wouldn’t score while the Giants rapped out eleventy-nine hits every inning. They should work on that. What a great game. It feels like I should keep that sentence on my clipboard so I don’t have to type it out every time.