We almost won this one

LaMonte Wade Jr. nearly closed out a 4-hour, 10 inning, rain-delayed game and reclaimed the moniker ‘Late-Night’ with a walk-off grand slam against the Los Angeles Dodgers—but his deep fly drifted to the wrong side of the right field foul pole.

Earlier in the inning, Joc Pederson launched an 0-2 change-up to the 415 sign in right field that would’ve been a 3-run homer in 17 Major League parks—but at Oracle with the wind blowing, ended up as an out in Mookie Betts glove.

In the 8th, with runners on first and second, J.D. Davis ripped a fly ball to right center field that traveled 400 feet and should’ve given the Giants the lead—but the ball landed at the base of the wall and skipped into the stands, halting Thairo Estrada at third.

A pretty frustrating turn of events considering the exact same thing had already happened to San Francisco four innings previous. Wilmer Flores’ 27th double would’ve scored Estrada easily from first—but it bounded off the rain soaked grass into the bleachers and out of play.

Unlucky hops, near misses, tough winds—a lot of things could’ve gone the San Francisco Giants way in the final game of 2022 against the rival Dodgers, but they didn’t.

As tempting as it is, best not dwell on this. Bad breaks aren’t fair or fun, but they rarely tell the whole story.

Los Angeles pitchers dealt 17 strike-3’s to Giants bats over 30 outs. After Flores’ ground-rule double kept Estrada at third, Andrew Heaney K’d Evan Longoria and Joey Bart to strand the runners. LaMonte fanned with the bases loaded in the 8th.

As a team, San Francisco went 2 for 13 with runners in scoring position and left 10 on base.

Alex Cobb wasn’t dominant, but serviceable on the mound, allowing 2 runs on 4 hits over 5.1 innings.

Scott Alexander, Tyler Rogers and Camilo Doval pitched 3.2 innings of scoreless relief while Heliot Ramos played decent right field, running down a slicing fly in the 3rd to rob Trea Turner of an RBI double.

Trouble came for John Brebbia in the 10th when Mookie Betts doubled in the Manfred runner to take the lead. With two outs, and Betts at 3rd, he intentionally walked Freddie Freeman to face the righty Justin Turner, but ended up walking him too. Bases loaded, Brebbia was pulled for Thomas Szapucki, who walked Max Muncy on 5 pitches to bring in the eventual winning run.

Close, in sports, is operationally meaningless. 4 to 3 = 4 billion to 3. It was a mercifully better game than a lot of the Giants-Dodgers match-ups this season, but the result was the same as most, ending an underwhelming and one-sided 19 game series.

Final tally: 4 wins and 15 losses. If that seems historically bad to you, it’s because it is.

I’m gonna go think about something else now.