So after a few moments of post-loss reflection, I came to a moment of clarity.
The enterprising cynic can find all sorts of things wrong with this game. The Giants should have scored more runs in the first inning. Mike Fontenot hasn't had a hit in a fortnight -- many moons, even -- yet he was left in the game in a crucial spot. Relievers were used this way and that way, and the batting order was all up in our grill, and this and that and blah blah blah.
The Giants lost a one-run game that they had no business winning. Vogelsong was terrible in the early innings, and he gets a lot of credit for persevering into the middle innings, but he didn't have any command early. His stuff was all soggy. Well, it wasn't crisp. Why don't people say that a pitcher's stuff is soggy? It's the obvious antonym.
Anyways, the Giants benefited from all sorts of blown calls, too. Players were called safe when they should have been out. Players were called out when they should have been safe. And every call seemed to go the Giants' way.
When the Giants tied the game in the eighth inning, it was with an Eli Whiteside hit on an 0-2 count. That was the second hit of his career on an 0-2 count.
The Reds had first-and-third with no outs, and the guy on first got there on a walk. He walked against the pitcher that did this to him. Yet the Giants got out of it. They really didn't deserve to.
These aren't lamentations of a win that slipped through the Giants' fingers; these are reminders that the Giants should have lost 5-2, at least. Wasn't the Giants' night. But if you squinted there in the late innings, you could kind of picture the Giants winning, so it seems like a tough loss. It was really a laugher in a tough loss's clothing.
The cherry on top was Edgar Renteria getting the game winning hit. I haven't really been paying attention to him this year, but without looking it up, I'm going to guess he's hitting .100/.099/.101. But I'm a grown man who is fond of wearing nothing but his 2010 World Champions rally rag around his neck like a cape as I jump up and down on the couch cushions and scream "EDGAR RENTERIA EDGAR RENTERIA EDGAR RENTERIA!" Am I really going to complain about Edgar Renteria getting an unexpected hit? No way. How tacky.
Nah. Giants didn't deserve this. They've been lucky enough. Move on.