SF 3, SD 0: NL West Champs

It is done. The Giants, in the 162nd game of the year, have won the National League West division and are on their way to the playoffs. Seven years of misery and torture are finally over!

In many ways, I feel like this is a hard recap to write because I'm so uncontrollably excited, I don't really know what to say. We all figured that going into this weekend, needing just 1 game to go the playoffs, there was no way it wouldn't happen. But on Friday in game 1 of the series, we saw our best pitcher this year struggle while our offense could only score when it was too late. On Saturday, the much maligned Barry Zito was terrible, not even lasting 4 innings in his most important start of the year. But on Sunday, Jonathan Sanchez got it done and he was magnificent. Yes, this game was a classic Giants game: great pitching and just enough offense. It's fitting that the Giants would make us go through the torture til the very end.

Jonathan Sanchez's great start was huge and he more than likely pitched himself into the playoff rotation today. We don't know if the Giants are going to go with a 3 or 4 man rotation in the first round, but I don't think it matters. Up until yesterday's game, I thought the 3-man rotation would be Lincecum-Cain-Zito and the 4th starter would be a toss up between Sanchez and Bumgarner. But after seeing Sanchez come in and completely shut down the Padres' momentum today, he is the Giants' 3rd starter. Today he pitched 5 innings, allowing 3 H, 5 BB and striking out 5. Most importantly, he didn't allow a run. And we can't talk about the pitching without talking about the bullpen. That combination of Casilla, Ramirez, Lopez, Romo, and Wilson is pretty damn solid. It's going to be a huge weapon in the postseason.

Sanchez helped his own cause in the 3rd with a stand-up triple off of Mat Latos. Two batters later, Freddy Sanchez hit a groundball up the middle, scoring Sanchez. Immediately afterwards, Aubrey Huff drove a ball into the left-center gap, scoring the other Sanchez. It was a pretty big deal that the Giants finally scored first because it relieved some of the pressure. Figures that it took our pitcher to finally get something going. Buster Posey added an insurance run on a solo homer in the 8th, and everything else was taken care of.

Like I said, I don't feel like I can completely capture the greatness of the game. So I suggest that you go watch the game again, look at the celebration pictures, and watch Brian Wilson strike out Will Venable to end the game. Watching the swing and miss and seeing the whole team hop out of the dugout while Buster Posey runs to the mound to congratulate Brian Wilson should give you chills. It's amazing and hopefully it only gets better.

There are still plenty of questions that remain. Who is the 4th starter? What is the 25-man playoff roster going to look like? I'm sure we'll have a couple posts in the next few days addressing those issues. Just enjoy this feeling for the next 3 days. Game 1 is on TBS at 6:37 PM on Thursday. I already can't wait.

Oh, and Mat Latos is now on the Hate List. Haha.

SD 4, SF 2: So It Goes...To Sunday

The Giants had their 2nd chance to clinch the NL West today, and they failed to do so. They must win tomorrow to avoid a 1 game playoff against the Padres in San Diego on Monday. I would have loved for the Giants to win today, but now that they have lost, it's just as well that they wait till tomorrow, when Kruk and Kuip will be calling the game. Because as bad as this game was, (and we will certainly get into how bad it was) the real loser today was FOX's MLB coverage. Just a few words on it, if you please.

FOX was already getting killed last night and this morning for forcing a majority of their national viewers to watch the meaningless Red Sox/Yankees game. I'm sure a vast majority of baseball fans would rather see either game today that had playoff implications. But that's only the beginning of how clueless they are over at FOX. I mean, the announcers are bad enough, but then again, most announcers for any company are terrible, so that can't really be avoided. Still, the David Eckstein love that was being thrust upon us today sounded so foolish and out of place, you'd have thought it was parody. So while we had to deal with a very subpar boradcasting team during this pivotal game, at least there were laughs to be had. What was not a laughing matter was what started happening in the middle innings. It's what made today's game possibly the worst viewing experience I've ever had watching a baseball game on tv. 3 times, between, say, the 5th and 8th inning, FOX inexplicably cut away from the Giants game to a split screen situation, where the Atlanta/Philadelphia game was prominently featured, along with Dick Stockton's voice, while the Giants/Padres were shoved into a little corner and told to be quiet for 5 minutes. I've never seen anything like it. One minute I'm watching my team play, and the next I'm getting up to stand right in front of the tv so I might be able to see what's going on. The worst was when the Giants were coming up to bat in the bottom of the 8th, trailing by 3, and FOX decided it was the perfect time to show the top of the 7th inning in Atlanta. Now, I understand that game in Atlanta is important, but the one between the Giants and Padres is arguably MORE important, and if FOX is going to force us local viewers of a team to watch their awful broadcast of our game, at least LET US FUCKING WATCH IT! Okay, that's all. Now to the awful game itself.

It was a terrible game for Barry Zito from the start. He walked in 2 runners in the 1st, and barely got out of the inning without more damage being done. He allowed 1 more run in the 3rd inning, and had given up 5 hits to that point. When he walked the pitcher to start the 4th inning, Bochy wasted no time taking him out. And it was the right choice. The runner he walked scored, but the bullpen shut the Padres down for the rest of the game. One of Zito's runs went unearned because of a terrible play by Pablo Sandoval. Sandoval, someone who clearly loves playing the game and is a great force for positivity and energy in the clubhouse, seems to always try to do too much in pressure situations, and in this case he turned a great play into a terrible one, stopping a line drive from going into left field, but then rushing his throw to 2nd base. It was way off the bag, and a run scored.

Barry Zito did not help his situation with the San Francisco fans today. Of course, it isn't his fault that he is being paid so much money. But that DOES always factor into the feeling that surrounds him. And while he has been vastly overpaid these 4 years, he at least has been able to pitch, and pitch at an average to slightly below average level. But games like this hurt. When he has to leave in the 4th inning because he walked the pitcher, criticism becomes more than justified. Matt Cain pitched a bad game last night, but he also nearly no hit the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field last Sunday. Zito has yet to do something like that in his Giants career. Today, he faced a terrible offensive team, at home, and he failed completely. It could have cost him his place in the postseason rotation, if that is something that even exists next week. Zito, pitching only 3 innings today, will finish the season with 199 IP, falling short of 200 once again. He has yet to pitch 200 innings for the Giants, and it has nothing to do with injuries. Zito has been completely healthy. He just hasn't pitched well enough to stay in games long enough to get to that mark.

While Zito pitched badly, the bullpen was able to hold the Padres afterward, but it didn't matter, because the Giants offense was terrible until the very end of the game. Before Juan Uribe's solo HR in the 7th inning, their sole hit was an infield grounder that Mike Fontenot beat out. Tim Stauffer had their number. If we wanna be positive, there is the issue that San Diego could be facing a very tired bullpen. Both of these games could have been blowouts, and instead Bud Black had to use all his favorite relievers. Mike Adams the set up man has been used in 5 straight games now, Bell the closer in 4. And Bell looked tired in the 9th inning, when he managed to get Jose Guillen to ground into a double play (!!!!!) to end the game with the tying run on 1st base.

Obviously Black will use Bell and the others like Dusty used Robb Nen in 2002, working them to the end. And it would be the right decision. But it's very possible that this could hurt San Diego tomorrow or on Monday, god forbid there is a game on Monday. Anyway, I look forward to tomorrow's game wholeheartedly. I just don't see how this team gets swept at home on the final weekend of the season. It can't happen, right? And if it does, there's always Lincecum on Monday. And don't forget, if Atlanta loses tomorrow, the Giants and Padres are in no matter what. But we want the division. So fuck that. Let's win tomorrow!

SD 6, SF 4: Torture 'Til the End

I hadn't been this excited for a Giants game since probably 2002, when of course the Giants were playing in the World Series and I was an 11 year old kid listening to the game on the radio on my CD player. Remember CD players? Of course the Giants also went to the playoffs in 2003, but it was definitely no 2002 World Series. Anyway, this game felt big and it was exciting. There's a joke in there somewhere. Every single pitch mattered, every single runner on base was crucial. But early on, it was looking like the game was not going to live up to my lofty expectations.

Throughout the month of September, getting great pitching from the Giants was pretty much a given, which is why Matt Cain's bad start tonight came as such a surprise. Cain has pitched in pressure situations before, so it wasn't the pressure getting to him. And I doubt Cain was thinking about the really fun birthday party he was going to have after the game. It was just one of those games and it came at a horrible time. In 4+ IP, Cain gave up 9 hits, 6 ER and 3 home runs, including Adrian Gonzalez' 3-run homer in the 3rd that really opened the game up. The Giants had shown the ability to come back this year, but coming back from being down 6-0 seemed like a tough task.

Right at the beginning of the game though, it seemed like Clayton Richard also didn't have his best stuff. His command wasn't great and the Giants were hitting the ball hard, they just had nothing to show for it. It was only a matter of time before they got a couple of breaks. Freddy Sanchez drove in the Giants' first run, bringing in Cody Ross in the 5th to cut the Padre lead down to 6-1. In the 6th, Aaron Rowand hit a pinch-hit 2-run homer. Boring. Happens all the time. Also in the 6th, with runners on 2nd and 3rd, Andres Torres hit a ball so weak that it scored a run. The Giants were now within 2 runs, down 6-4.

Guillermo Mota pitched perfect 7th and 8th innings to keep the Giants within 2 runs, and Heath Bell was in to pitch for the Padres in the 9th. The first hitter of the inning, Freddy Sanchez, walked. Aubrey Huff then lined a pitch to right field and Freddy Sanchez completely misread it. Normally, the ball by Huff probably would've hit off the wall, but Will Venable was playing the line, and caught the ball. Sanchez was already on his way to 3rd, and the Padres easily completed the double play. It was an awful, unnecessary risk taken by Sanchez at a terrible time. The Giants needed baserunners, and in one play all of their baserunners were out. Buster Posey grounded out to end the game.

This game was on it's way to being extremely depressing, but fortunately the Giants fought back. Coming into the series, it was extremely unlikely that the Padres were going to sweep the Giants at home, and it still is. Still, this game was painful because you have to figure that tonight was the Giants' best chance to win. Matt Cain has been our best starter this year and in the next 2 games the Giants are going with Barry Zito and Jonathan Sanchez, two guys who have struggled with consistency. And the worst part is if the Giants do manage to clinch tomorrow, the game is going to be called by awful FOX announcers who make awkward comments and just don't know what they're talking about. It won't be as exciting as it would be if Kruk and Kuip were calling it. Thinking optimistically, I do have some confidence in Zito. If the pressure affected the Giants in ANY way tonight, it won't affect Zito. He's pitched in more big games in his career than anyone on the staff and the Padres don't exactly have an intimidating offense. The Padres still have to win 3 more games in a row to go to the playoffs. The Giants just need 1.

FJM Friday: Helllloooo, Marchman...

So sorry about skipping Fire Joe Morgan Friday last week. Anyway, here we are, on a day the Giants could clinch the division, and Tim Marchman of SI is here to tell us we shouldn't be excited. Go for it, Tim!

This year's NL pennant races are the kind that could one day inspire songs: dour songs, about futility and lack of meaning, sung by moping teenagers.

Huh?

In theory, this has not been an especially dull race. In practice, September has been a month of listing apathy.

I'd say that in PRACTICE, it has been a very exciting month, and that it is your THEORY that states otherwise. No?

Teams winning out on the basis of being less mediocre than others will never be any more compelling than a bicycle race run on flat tires.

Bicycle races with flat tires sounds GREAT. Much better than normal bicycle races. I think this statement bothers me more than anything else in the article, because it at least SEEMS to be suggesting that the great runs by the Phillies and the Giants in September are just those teams being "less mediocre" than their rivals. The Phillies finally got everyone healthy, and are clearly the best team in the league. And the Giants, well, the Giants pitching staff has had one of the most impressive runs of superb pitching in the history of baseball. That's not mediocrity. That's excellence.

...take BR's SRS stat, which adjusts run differential for strength of schedule and rates teams by how many runs per game better or worse they are than an average major league club. By this measure, the 95 win Phillies are as good as the 87 win Red Sox, the 88 win Reds are as good as the 77 win A's, and the 88 win Padres are as good as the 82 win Blue Jays.

I have a hard time thinking that the A's are as good as the Reds, or that the Red Sox are as good as the Phillies. But still, I get it: the AL is better than the NL. So? The amazing Yankee dynasty of the late 1990's won the division with 87 wins in 2000. Were they a mediocre team? There are countless other examples through the 100+ year history of AL/NL baseball which show teams much worse than the 2010 Reds going to the playoffs. And there have been just as many collapses that are far worse than the Padres this season. Your sepia-toned view of the teams of yesterday is inaccurate.

NL partisans will protest, but there's lot of reason (sic) to think that a team like the A's would do quite well if dropped into the Senior Circuit next year.

Please don't do that. The Padres are boring enough. The last thing I wanna watch is Wade LeBlanc pitching to Mark Ellis.

The 2nd point is that the irrelevance of the Dodgers, Cubs, and Mets, 3 teams with enormous natural advantages -- makes for a huge, sucking void in the standings.

Those teams might be irrelevant THIS year, but each of them has had very recent success. The Cubs were a 97 win team in 2008. The Dodgers played in the last 2 NLCS. And the Mets were one of the best teams in the NL from 2006-2008. Of course, the real point here is that there is no precedent for THESE teams making baseball exciting. The Dodgers, like the Giants, are one of the most storied franchises in baseball, but just like the Giants, they have had as many miserable seasons as great ones. And the Mets and Cubs? Posterboys of painful mediocrity for most of the 20th century. When they are not in the NL bracket, they are not missed.

...it takes villains to make heroes: How much more meaningful would a Reds division win be if it came over a bullying Cubs team, vaunting over the money minted along Clark Street?

I understand there might be a rivalry between the Reds and the Cubs (though certainly not at the level of the Cardinals and Cubs), but still, I don't think the Reds fans care one bit about sticking it to Chicago. I mean, the Reds are the oldest franchise in baseball history, and have had periods of ENORMOUS success. They don't need to prove anything to anybody. Certainly not the Cubs.

Broad equality among teams, with none standing out as especially good or especially bad, and a diminishing of the power of big city clubs are essentially the goals of the apostles of competitive balance. In the ideal game of the parity preachers, all teams would be average, with some just being slightly less average than others. Each year, there would be hope and faith for all, and each year a cluster of slightly above average teams would trip into October questing for a large trophy.

I don't know who these "apostles of competitive balance" are. I do know that many people, quite rightly, protest the fact that Boston and New York won 13/14 AL East titles from 1994 to 2007. People want every team to have the chance to be great. That's all. Of course they can't all win at the same time.

As baseball's races this year show us, though, a game actually built on this line is on par with roach fighting, without the illicit kick -- one has interest in the spectacle, but unless money is involved, less in the outcome. A great race needs great teams; it needs the swagger of wealth; mostly, it needs the prospect of a team playing spectacularly well and still losing out on what it wants.

I don't see the races this year as being akin to a roach fight, although I've never seen a roach fight. In fact, it is insulting to hear you say that. Did you watch the series the Giants just played in Colorado? It was magnificent. It was great baseball. So sorry the fucking Mets weren't playing.

SF 9, MIL 2: Jose Guillen Is Relevant

When the Giants acquired Cody Ross, I declared Jose Guillen redundant, irrelevant, and useless, and said that he should be relegated to a pinch hitting role. Guillen hasn't completely caught fire since then, but he's had some good games and big hits, none bigger than his 1st inning, 2 out grand slam against Milwaukee today. The Giants never looked back, scoring 5 more runs, including 2 on a Guillen single later in the game.

Guillen is a better option for the Giants not just because he's hitting lately, but because Cody Ross is failing to do so. In a very small 47 PAs, Ross' Giants slashline is .195/.277/.220/.496. Means nothing, really, because of small sample size, but still, may Andres Torres return as fast as possible. Ross' slashline may have looked a little better after today if a leadoff home run hadn't been brought back by Ryan Braun. Braun made an amazing play, and he let everyone know that he thought so too. What a hateable player he is.

Barry Zito did a good job of shutting the Brewers down after the Giants scored 4 runs in the 1st inning. He hasn't always been successful doing that, sometimes giving up a little momentum after the offense scores. Braun homered in the 6th to make the score 6-2, but Zito was able to finish the inning, and Bochy wisely got him out of their before any weirdness happened.

A big part of the Giants offense today was the patience they showed, in stark contrast to the past 2 games. They drew 7 walks as a team. Buster Posey had 3 himself, and Pat Burrell 2, both helping set up Jose Guillen's RBI situations. With the win today, the Giants moved back into 1st place in the West. The Padres just aren't the same team anymore that they were for 5 months, and Colorado gave up a 6-1 lead to the Dodgers, losing in the 10th inning. But I don't expect either team to completely go away. The Giants' postseason chances are gonna all come down to the final series against each of those teams. On Friday, the Giants travel to Denver for a weekend series. If they play well, it could mean a playoff spot. If not, it could be another "This is not good, folks" moment.

SF 1, SD 0: First Place? Yup.

Hey, I don't care how it's done, as long as it's done. And tonight it was done. And when it was done I was happy. Done.

That was weird. Maybe it's not an unfamiliar type of game for Giants fans because that's how it goes against the Padres. With the exception of last night, usually we can't score against them or maybe we're able to squeeze out a run or two. And it figures that after Jonathan Sanchez lost a game in which he allowed just 1 hit earlier this year, the Giants would win a game where Sanchez walked 7 batters and threw as many balls as strikes. I guess it all evens out.

The player of the game has got to be Nate Schierholtz. With 1 out in the 7th inning, Aubrey Huff was on 3rd and Schierholtz had come in to pinch-run for Jose Guillen at 1st. Juan Uribe decided to hit what would've been a double play grounder to 2nd, but Nate slid aggressively into the bag, and the throw was late to first. Aubrey Huff scored to give the Giants a 1-0 lead, and that was all they'd need. Not always pretty, but I'll take it.

I don't like to complain when we, but something needs to be asked. Why the hell did Wilson swing the bat in the 9th?? He should've struck out and let Torres attempt to drive the runners in. I don't understand letting a pitcher, especially a reliever, bat in that situation when insurance runs are needed. We're lucky it didn't cost us. And why did Uribe feel the need to wrap is hand around the catcher's leg as he was crossing home?? That was a bizarre play.

WE ARE TIED FOR THE DIVISION LEAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ahem. I'm pretty sure a late night FJM Friday post is in the works. I don't want to make any promises, but I think it's happening. You'll want to read it because Scott Ostler wrote a pretty ridiculous thing for the Chronicle today.

SF 7, SD 3: Giants Win Important Home Game

You wanna know something? It's a little bit easier to write a recap when the Giants lose because it's easier to complain. When the Giants lose I can criticize the players, the manager, anyone. I can vent, I can curse, I can be angry. It's just easier to focus on the negative. So, maybe tonight's recap will be harder to write, but that's okay because everything went well in this game.

You have to love it when your leadoff hitter sets the tone for the offense and Andres Torres did just that, hitting a leadoff triple to start the game. Freddy Sanchez brought him in with an RBI single to give the Giants a 1-0 lead, but the real story of this game was the power display. Aubrey Huff went deep with a 2-run homer in the 3rd. Juan Uribe hit a solo shot in the 4th. Buster Posey hit a 2-run BOMB in the 5th. And Pat Burrell capped it off with another homer in the 6th. Four home runs in Petco Park, probably the hardest place to go deep in the majors. I just hope they saved some runs for the rest of the series.

Matt Cain was also very good. Actually, he was probably even better than his stat line would suggest. He went 8 IP giving up 5 H, 3 ER, 1 BB with 8 K's but really, his only 2 mistakes came on 2 pitches. In the 3rd, he gave up a solo home run to Will Venable and a 2-run shot to Ryan Ludwick late in the game when it didn't really matter. All in all, he was very good. It's feels really nice when the offense and pitching produce at the same time.

How sad are Padres fans? There were just as many Giants fans as Padres fans there. You would've thought it was a home game. I get that the Padres are the most boring team in the league, but they're still in a playoff race. Terrible.