Error. Four-pitch walk that shouldn't have been. Double.
That was the scoring tonight. Error. Four-pitch walk that should have at least gone to a 3-1 count. Double. Can't be picky considering how miserable this August has been. It'd be pathological to assign style points to the few wins we've seen in the past month. Three back, not four back. A win's a win.
But J.A. Happ came into game in the middle one of the worst seasons of all time. Look at that list. Twenty-one pitchers have thrown more than a 100 innings with an ERA that poor. Think of all the Giants pitchers over the years who frustrated you. Danny Darwin. William Van Landingham. Kirk Rueter in his last season. No one has ever been that bad as a Giant. Happ's been worse this season than anyone we've ever seen. Error. Four-pitch walk that shouldn't have been. Double. Runsplosion.
This is probably the toughest post-game thread I've ever had to write. I'm tremendously bitter, yet they won. The Giants won, and they're still in a playoff chase. If I complain too loudly, an Orioles fan might come up and kick me in the crotch. And they'd be right to do it, too. But that wasn't the kind of win that makes you think, yep, back on track. That was the kind of win that makes you the Giants should only be contending in a five-team league where the other four teams are the Astros.
Bah. Focus on the positives, I guess.
- Ramon Ramirez couldn't get a Padre out the last time we saw him, but he was superlative tonight. The pitch he struck out Bogusevic with was the kind of pitch that would have gotten Pujols, Manny, or Sheffield. Perfect changeup. I think one of my favorite plays in baseball is when a pitcher pulls the string on a changeup in the zone, and the announcer describes the pitcher as having "pulled the string," and you're like, damn, he really pulled the string on that sucker. Such a pretty pitch.
- When Santiago Casilla was anointed the semi-closer, did he take some sort of online class or eat some Bruce Sutter beard trimmings? He's been fantastic in his two save opportunities, throwing hard and throwing (mostly) strikes.
- Madison Bumgarner wasn't perfect, yet he still won. That's pretty rare.
- Bruce Bochy looked like DeNiro from "The Untouchables" for a while, carrying a bat around like he was going to kill another human being. Hope those SOBs got the message about teamwork after that.
- Mark DeRosa seems nice, but he's clearly broken. It's pretty discouraging. He's officially one of the worst-hitting Giants in franchise history, and it even seems like he's in decline. I mean, more so. The Giants aren't going to cut him before the roster expand, but dollar-to-production, he might be the worst free-agent signing in franchise history. Rowand and Zito were terrible, sure, but they had a couple of moments as Giants. They've been worthwhile players as they've been over paid.
- Whoooooops! That wasn't optimistic!
- Five walks. They weren't chasing Happ around the strike zone. That's kind of acceptable. Also, one of those walks was the pitcher. Also also, one of those walks was intentional. Also also also, Cabrera was pretty sure he didn't walk, and he probably shouldn't have. Still, five walks!
Don't look a gift game in the mouth. And Surkamp! That's exciting. Unlike this offense. I mean, J.A. Happ? Cripes.