Bleah.
No sense in getting worked up over this one. The Giants won a series against the second-place team on the road. They did it even though the lineup featured Hal Lanier, Brad Wellman, and Desi Wilson hitting in the middle of the order. It was a good series for the most part. If Ian Kennedy is getting the corner strikes, he's pretty unhittable.
And it wasn't Willie Bloomquist who hit the home run. It wasn't a walk-off balk. It was an impressive opposite-field home run from the best player on the Diamondbacks. Would have been a lot cooler if he, you know, didn't hit the home run, but it's not a shameful way to lose.
Or, in other words: it's bad to lose a game in which Ryan Vogelsong gets tagged for eight earned, making us question his renaissance. It's not as bad to lose a game after a ninth-inning comeback takes Vogelsong off the hook, especially if the game-winning home run is just a good player doing good-player things.
The two takeaways from this game:
- It really seems like Jeremy Affeldt put on an old pair of shorts that he hadn't worn in a while and found whatever he'd been missing in one of the pockets. I remember that Affeldt. Dude was good. Other than the magic of the NLCS, we haven't seen that Affeldt in a while. Anything resembling the 2009 Affeldt would be a pretty sweet thing to have in the seventh inning of a close game.
- Ryan Vogelsong is good. We'll need about 25 more starts to make sure he's better than Zito -- maybe 30 -- but he's simply amazing. With his eighth straight start with at least five innings pitched and two or fewer runs allowed, he's in some pretty good company. I do have to say, I really, really had no idea that Jonathan Sanchez would be so high on that list.
In conclusion, bleah. But also, meh.