2010 World Series Game 2: SF 9, TEX 0

Big wins are the toughest to write about, and the surreal experience of them coming in the World Series makes it even tougher. But here we go:

The Giants ended up winning by a larger margin tonight than they did in Game 1's slugfest, but until the 8th inning, this was the kind of game San Francisco fans have gotten used to. Edgar Renteria hit a solo HR in the 5th inning to break the 0-0 tie, and Juan Uribe added a run with a bloop single in the 7th inning. The Giants had 2 outs and the bases empty in the Weird Inning, and proceeded to score 7 more runs. A single by Posey. A fistful of walks. A triple by Aaron Rowand. Double by Torres. The Giants batted around for the 2nd straight day against the Rangers. Ron Washington's bullpen managing was atrocious in a close game, and now you have to question the state of the bullpen itself going back to Texas. The Giants did well to let the Rangers pitchers dig themselves into deeper holes, and it allowed for a stress free 9th inning. The Giants defense has also been stellar in the 1st two games, most notably the old men on the left side, Renteria and Uribe.

Oh, and then there was Matt Cain.


Cain went 7.2 innings, giving up only 4 hits and 2 walks to a strong Texas lineup. He now has pitched 21.1 innings in his first postseason without giving up a single earned run. Tonight, he was what all Giants already knew he was: A great pitcher. A pitcher who makes hitters slam the bat down in frustration when they popup a high fastball. There's been a lot of talk this whole postseason among the sabermetric community anytime Cain was pitching, wondering how he does it, because his peripheral numbers just don't match the end results. Yes, Cain has pitched all of his postseason games at AT&T, and there have been flyballs that might have been home runs in other ballparks. But you can forget all that, because the dominance is evident. It's shown by the past 4 years of quality pitching, and his performances in the last 2 months are just a microcosm of that. We saw it tonight, and last week against Philadelphia, and in Game 2 of the NLDS. And we saw it at Coors Field in September, when Cain single-handedly tossed the Rockies out of playoff contention. He has baffled great lineups. He has gone long in games. He has worked with slim leads. He does it all, and he only just turned 26, but has the composure of a 10 year veteran. After Cain's complete game in Denver, I said that he may not be the best pitcher on the Giants. In fact, he certainly isn't. But he's the one I love the most. Because while composure, toughness, and heart can't possibly be measured, they can be recognized, and they are things we can admire and love a player for. Matt Cain has great stuff, and he had the Texas Rangers off balance tonight because of a good fastball and changeup. That's why he pitched so well. But even I like to think that a certain factor in this admirable World Series performance was Cain's own unrelenting, undaunted drive to win.

2010 World Series Game 1: SF 11, TEX 7

I make it go POW!

Cody Ross was the NLCS MVP and the Giants probably wouldn't have won the series without him, but let's acknowledge that Cody Ross isn't THAT good. He isn't a bad player, but it was mostly a fluke. I'm not trying to diminish his series. It was great, every successful playoff team needs a guy like that, and if the Giants can go all the way, he'll be remembered by Giants fans forever. Well, maybe it's Freddy Sanchez's turn to be the unpredictable guy that has a great, kinda fluky series. He was not fooled by Cliff Lee at all, going 3-for-3 with 3 doubles in his first 3 at-bats and 4-for-5 overall with 3 RBI. There were other contributors, but Sanchez sparked the Giants' huge 11-7 Game 1 win against Cliff Lee and the Rangers.

You know how many runs were scored in this game? In case you don't read the title and can't do simple addition, the answer is 18. That is a lot for a game in which Cliff Lee and Tim Lincecum are the starting pitchers. Both were obviously not themselves, but Lincecum was less bad. Lee went just 4 2/3 innings and gave up 8 H, 6 ER, and 1 BB with 7 Ks. Lincecum's line looked like this: 5 2/3 IP, 8 H, 4 ER, 2 BB, 3 Ks. Yeah, just 3 strikeouts.

The game started off in a pretty bizarre way. Lincecum gave up a base hit to the first batter and walked Michael Young. Josh Hamilton hit a weak grounder that advanced both runners. Then Vladimir Guerrero hit a ball that deflected off of Lincecum, allowing a run to score and no outs were made. The next play was, as Lincecum put it, a "brainfart". With runners on 1st and 3rd, Nelson Cruz hit a grounder right to Lincecum and they had Michael Young in a rundown between 3rd and home. But all Timmy did was run Young back to 3rd. It wasn't really even a rundown because Lincecum didn't even try to throw the ball to the 3rd baseman to get Young out. No idea what happened there. He was lucky to get a double play in the next at-bat, limiting the damage to just 1 run. In the bottom half of the inning, with Freddy Sanchez on base after his first double, Buster Posey hit a bloop in the air towards right fielder Vladimir Guerrero, who does not move well at all. Sanchez must've figured there was no way Guerrero would get to the ball, but he seemed to not realize that Ian Kinsler was going for the ball as well. Sanchez badly misjudged it, headed almost all the way to third, and was easily doubled off 2nd base when Kinsler caught the ball. It was a terrible, terrible baserunning mistake. The Rangers would score again in the next inning after a Cliff Lee (the pitcher) double and a sacrifice fly, Texas took a 2-0 lead, and a Giants fan freakout ensued.

Maybe the freakout wasn't all that irrational; Lincecum looked kind of average and the Giants were playing some terrible baseball. But like I said, Lee was not all that sharp either, generally not having his trademark great command and location, and the Giants started doing damage in the 3rd. Renteria reached base on a fielding error by Michael Young. Torres was hit by a pitch. Freddy Sanchez hit his 2nd double, scoring Renteria. Buster Posey singled up the middle to bring in Torres. Bam. Right back in it. And more importantly, Cliff Lee was hittable, which doesn't happen a lot.

Onto the 6th, and what an inning it was. It started with a pair of doubles from Torres and Sanchez (his 3rd). 3-2 Giants. Pat Burrell walked and Cody Ross singled. 4-2 Giants. Aubrey Huff singled. 5-2 Giants and Lee was out of the game already. But the dagger came off the bat of NLCS Game 6 hero, Juan Uribe. His homer in Philly probably would've been a flyout at AT&T. Tonight, he hit hit a legitimate 3-run bomb to right field, giving the Giants an 8-2 lead. The Rangers scored twice in the 6th and that's when Lincecum exited.

The Giants scored a few more funs in the 8th that would actually end up mattering a little bit because the Rangers scored 3 in the 9th, but the game was ultimately too out of reach for the Rangers. It may be a concern that Texas ended up scoring 7 runs off Giants pitching because the Giants normally won't be able to win slugfests. But I'm not too worried. The late innings weren't managed like a tight game with the exception of Brian Wilson coming in; Affeldt and Ramon Ramirez were pitching, not exactly our top relievers.

The Giants played some of their worst baseball in the first 2 innings and still won. The Giants scored 11 runs in a game that Cliff Lee started. Tim Lincecum was not Tim Lincecum and the Giants won. This was a great, huge win. I've always thought that because in all the other pitching matchups the Giants seem to have the advantage, if they won a game against Cliff Lee, they'd be in pretty great shape. Tomorrow's starter for the Rangers, C.J. Wilson, is a very good pitcher. It'll be interesting to see how the Giants do against him. Of course, we always have confidence in Matt Cain, who is very, very good and not average. The Giants should know to never take a World Series lead for granted. A Game 2 win and a 2-0 series lead would be delightful.

2010 World Series Preview: Giants vs. Rangers

This will be a basic preview, evaluating both teams offensively and defensively and how they match up. Today we learned that Tim Lincecum will pitch in Game 1, Cain in Game 2, and Sanchez and Bumgarner will pitch in Texas for games 3 and 4, respectively. Okay, let's begin with the pitching.

Pitching

The headlines will all be about Lincecum vs. Lee in Game 1, but both teams have other quality starters. The Rangers' CJ Wilson will face Cain, Colby Lewis will face Sanchez, and Bumgarner will go against Tommy Hunter.

For Game 1, you probably have to give a slight edge to Lee, but both pitchers are so good, it really doesn't matter. In 3 starts so far this postseason, Lee has gone 24 innings, struck out 34 batters, and walked just 1. That's the thing about Lee: his command and location are impeccable and he almost never walks guys (his 1.003 WHIP, 10.28 K/BB and 0.8 BB/9 led the AL this year). It's hard to find any way to beat Cliff Lee, but the Giants will probably have to take a similar approach to what they did vs Roy Halladay. Since Lee will be in the strike zone, they need to be aggressive. Easier said than done of course, but patience will not work. Tim Lincecum is obviously a much different pitcher, as he'll count on the Texas hitters swinging at his nasty changeup to get strikeouts. This is going to be another great postseason pitching matchup.

After Game 1, it becomes pretty clear that while Texas has good starting pitching, it doesn't compare to the Giants staff. In Game 2, you have to like Matt Cain the edge over C.J. Wilson. When the playoffs started and Cain started to get a little more exposure, a bunch of "Matt Cain is actually lucky and pretty average" started popping up. It may be easy for national writers writers for other teams to make that observation because his FIP and xFIP* aren't too impressive (career 3.84 & 4.43), but it's simply not true. Cain does depend on his defense - he's a flyball pitcher who doesn't get a ton of strikeouts - but that doesn't have to mean he's an average pitcher, it just means he's a pitcher who relies on his defense. Consider that since 2007, Cain's highest ERA has been 3.76. That's 4 seasons of an ERA at or below 3.76. And his ERA+* in that same period has never dipped below 123. An ERA+ of 100 is average. That can't just be 4 years of coincidence. Matt Cain is a very good pitcher who relies on his defense and he's at his best when he locates that fastball. That is all. Glad I got that out of the way. His counterpart in this game, C.J. Wilson, seems to be the Rangers version of Jonathan Sanchez. Wilson led the AL in walks during the season, just like Sanchez, but he's able to get out of it because he strikes out a fair amount of guys and batters hit only .217 against him. Sounds a lot like Sanchez, huh? Because of all those walks, the Giants will need to be patient. Wilson is a very good pitcher who will be hard to hit.

So, C.J. Wilson = Jonathan Sanchez. And C.J. Wilson > Colby Lewis. I'm no good at math, but I think through the transitive property or something, that proves that Sanchez > Lewis. Sanchez can be inconsistent, yes. And I'm sure many have soured on him after that not-so-good outing in Game 6. But when he's on, like he has been for the better part of the last 2 months, he is GOOD. His strikeout rate this year, 9.5 K/9, was very good and he held batters to just a .204 average, best in the NL. Colby Lewis ain't no slouch, though. Lewis, as you may know, had a terrible major league career, went to Japan for a couple of years, then came back and had a great year for the Rangers. I can't pretend like I've seen a ton of Lewis, but his K/9 of 8.8 and 1.189 WHIP are quite good. This matchup is actually pretty good, and it will all depend on which Sanchez we see.

In Game 4, a big edge has to go to Bumgarner over Tommy Hunter. Hunter had a good year for the Rangers: 3.73 ERA, 1.242 WHIP, but his year was just a little better than average. His stuff isn't great (just 4.8 K/9), so he doesn't have the natural ability to overpower hitters. In 2 starts so far in this postseason, he's pitched 7.1 innings and has a 6.14 ERA. Bumgarner is more of a flyball pitcher who also relies on location but can get a strikeout when he needs to (7 K/9). So far, Bumgarner has shown great poise and ability to get out of stressful situations for a guy who's only 21 years old. He's gone 12.2 innings with 12 strikeouts and a 3.55 ERA in 2 starts and a relief appearance during this postseason.

One more note: The Giants probably have an edge in the bullpen too. Brian Wilson is the best closer in the league, and the Giants have several other guys like Sergio Romo, Ramon Ramirez, and Santiago Casilla, who, even though they haven't performed well so far in the postseason, had very, very good years. And I assume Javier Lopez's assignment for this series will be to come in and shutdown Josh Hamilton. The Rangers also have a very good closer, Neftali Feliz, and a few good arms in Darren O'Day, Darren Oliver, and Derek Holland, but the edge has to go the Giants.

Offense

The Rangers offense is their strength and it's very good. In the AL, they ranked 5th in runs scored, 6th in team slugging, 5th in HRs, and 5th in team OPS. Ian Kinsler, Michael Young, Nelson Cruz, Josh Hamilton, Vladimir Guerrero, and David Murphy are all good hitters. Hamilton, the probable AL MVP, and Cruz are particularly scary. Guerrero can also be very dangerous.

We all know about the Giants offense: not very good, but definitely able to put enough runs to win games. Andres Torres and Freddy Sanchez started to get hot towards the end of the NLCS and Buster Posey had a pretty good series. Cody Ross was a god, but we'll have to see if he can keep that up. It'd be nice if the power guys, Huff and Burrell, got going because with them working, the Giants offense isn't so bad.

It's clear that the Rangers have a huge advantage here.

The DH

There's been quite a bit of debate over who should be the DH for the Giants when they play in Texas. Some like the idea of having Burrell do it so a better defensive outfielder can play. Some don't want to do that, because Burrell doesn't like to DH and says it affects his hitting. I don't buy into that way of thinking. Others want Sandoval as the DH because he seemed to be hitting well in his limited at-bats during the NLCS, but his defense kept him out of the lineup. I don't really know what I would do. In terms of having the best hitters in the lineup, having Sandoval DH and Burrell stay in LF is probably the best option. On the other hand, Burrell always gets taken out early for defense anyway, so if he is the designated hitter, that doesn't have to happen anymore. The other thing that comes into play is that I think Pablo Sandoval hasn't necessarily played his last game at 3B. His defense has been bad, but there aren't many great options over there, as Renteria is certainly not perfect and probably shouldn't be starting every game. In all likelihood, the DH duties will probably be split between Sandoval and Burrell.

Defense

I feel obligated to say something about the defense. The Giants don't make many errors, but they aren't a good defense. Really, Torres and Sanchez are probably the only above average defenders. Maybe Cody Ross, too. Buster Posey is solid of course. But the Rangers have a better defense. Elvis Andrus is great defensively and the entire infield defense isn't bad at all. However, for at least one of the games in SF, Vladimir Guerrero will be playing the outfield. That's gonna be interesting and if I were the Giants I'd hit it as much as I could to him. He doesn't move too well anymore.

Conclusion

On paper, the Rangers are the favorites. The Giants have better pitching, but it's not like the Rangers have a terrible staff. And the Rangers have a huge advantage on offense. So, it's a lot like the series against the Phillies. But as Giants fans, we know this team well and we know that the Giants can beat anyone. Their pitching is so good, that they can shut down the best offenses. And while the Giants' offense is usually pretty mediocre, they don't need to score a lot and they aren't incapable of scoring. The Phillies also had a good offense and a much better pitching staff than the Rangers, but the Giants outplayed them. This is going to be a very good series. Don't count on it going any less than 6 games.

*If you are unfamiliar with FIP, xFIP, or ERA+, you can click on those links for explanations.

2010 NLCS Game 6: SF 3, PHI 2

The Giants are going to the World Series! The Giants have won the Pennant! The San Francisco Giants are representing the National League in the World Series! I could say it over and over again in thousands of different ways and I wouldn't be able to stop smiling. Really, I don't think it has sunk in completely and as with every great, important game, it's really hard to type out everything I'm feeling. The Giants. In the World Series. Wow.

I'll probably talk about the season as a whole and how the Giants got here, but first I should go through this great game. Obviously, coming into today, the Giants were leading the series 3-2. The Phillies had to win if they wanted to keep going, and the Giants could clinch a World Series spot with a win. But Jonathan Sanchez got off to a very rough start. After getting the leadoff hitter out, Sanchez walked Placido Polanco and gave up an RBI double to Chase Utley. The Phillies led 1-0 already. Ryan Howard then singled, moving Utley to 3rd, and Jayson Werth's sacrifice fly put the Phillies up 2-0. Two runs doesn't seem terrible, but Sanchez didn't seem too comfortable and you felt like his stuff just wasn't Dirty tonight. The Giants countered with a fairly weird 3rd inning. After a Jonathan Sanchez single, Torres hit a deep flyball to center field. Shane Victorino attempted a basket style catch, but couldn't hold on and the Giants had runners on 1st and 2nd with no outs. Freddy Sanchez put down a bunt that I actually LIKED, so runners were then on 2nd and 3rd. Aubrey Huff singled up the middle, scoring Sanchez, but Torres was out at the plate. The next play was very weird and great. Buster Posey hit a very weak ball to third base so Polanco had to rush the throw and Ryan Howard couldn't hold on. Huff was able to score and the Giants tied the game, 2-2. However, the bottom of the 3rd deserves it's own paragraph.

Sanchez started off the inning by walking Polanco but it got interesting when he hit Chase Utley. You'll remember that Utley and Sanchez have history. Last year, Sanchez buzzed a pitch by Utley's head and Utley didn't like it. He took a step towards the mound and was visibly upset. All he could do to retaliate was hit a home run later in the at bat. This time, Utley wasn't angry but as he jogged to first base, he flipped the baseball to Sanchez. Sanchez didn't really like it and started yelling towards Utley, and Utley did the same. Both benches ended up clearing, which seemed pretty silly because Sanchez didn't intentionally hit him. It was unacceptable that Sanchez lost his composure, but Utley deserves some blame too. Who flips the ball to the mound like that? He did it in a really annoying, cocky kind of way and it was passive aggressive. I can actually understand why Sanchez would take that personally. Anyway, Sanchez was just too worked up and his stuff was pretty wild, so he was taken out after just 2 innings.

The rest of the game was locked at 2-2, until the 8th, when Juan Uribe hit an opposite field home run to give the Giants a 3-2 lead. Oh boy. 8th Inning Weirdness at it's finest.

What a great game. Let's talk about the bullpen. Jeremy Affeldt? He did not have a good season, but that doesn't matter because he relieved Sanchez early and pitched 2 great innings. Madison Bumgarner? He came put of the 'pen and also delivered 2 great, scoreless innings. Javier Lopez? He's more handsome than you. And he's a helluva lefty. He pitched in every single game of this series, solely to shut down Utley and Howard, which he did. What a guy. Tim Lincecum? He wasn't too sharp, but I appreciate the effort, coming out of the bullpen after having pitched 2 days ago! And Brian Wilson? Well, he made sure that we were tortured until the very end, striking out Ryan Howard on an absolutely PERFECT pitch to win the pennant.

And Juan Uribe gets his own paragraph. This guy gets so much criticism, and a lot of it is justified, because he strikes out a lot and doesn't get on base a lot, but wow, he has some huge hits. Remember his homer off Broxton in LA? If you thought that was big, it was nothing compared to his shot tonight. With one swing, he will be remembered in Giants history forever. Beautiful.

It's been a great season and a great ride. Let's make it a historic season by winning 4 more games. I am so ready. The Giants are going to the 2010 World Series.

2010 NLCS Game 5: PHI 4, SF 2

The 2010 Giants are in a great place. They are going back to Philadelphia, up 3 games to 2, with 2 quality starters going for them. The Phillies are a very good team, and will be hard to beat, but the Giants chances are more than fair. They have put themselves in a position to make it to the World Series. It could have happened tonight, but it didn't; they still have 2 more chances. It's more than any of us expected. We have a lot of exciting baseball to look forward to this weekend. But with all that positivity and good feeling, one fact remains: tonight's game was for the taking. It could have been won. It could have been over.

The Giants had some misfortune, some misplays, and some mismanagement in this game, all leading to a difficult loss. Before the 3rd inning, everything was looking good. Roy Halladay had only given up a run, but he just didn't seem strong. He wasn't getting the outside corner from the umpire, and he just didn't seem comfortable (we now know he had a groin injury as early as the 1st inning). And the Giants were hitting the ball hard off him. Unlike previous games in the playoffs, where the Giants weren't hitting with baserunners on, this time they were "hitting". The ball just kept getting caught. Whether it was Chase Utley's great leaping catch to prevent a potential Aubrey Huff double, or Jimmy Rollins getting to everything and throwing out everyone with his cannon of an arm, the Giants just weren't getting any breaks. There were certainly some bad at bats in this game (the 8th inning stands out), but in all, the SF batters were working the count and getting good wood on pitches in the zone. It just wasn't their night.

And yet the 2 runs they managed to score could have been enough. Lincecum was looking very good through 2 innings. And then the 3rd inning happened. The 7 and 8 hitters reached base. Halladay laid down a foul bunt that was called fair. Buster Posey threw to 3rd base to get the out, but Sandoval, who had been coming in to field the bunt, couldn't get his foot on the bag. The Giants were able to get the out at first, but that was it. Had the Giants gotten the out at 3rd, the Phillies would have complained very rightly that the bunt was foul. Instead, the play worked out just the way they wanted it to. And then Aubrey Huff added his name to the list of players this postseason who have made critical errors. Victorino hit a grounder to Huff, and it bounced up on him and away, allowing both runners to score. Victorino would then score on a single by Polanco. Lincecum got out of the nightmare inning, and was almost flawless for the following 4. It is technically true what the headlines are saying: Halladay did "outduel" Lincecum. But Lincecum could have easily held the Phillies to 1 or 2 runs without the weirdness that happened in the 3rd. He did look better than Halladay on the mound at least (partly because of Halladay's injury). And it would have been a different game, a game the Giants could have won.

One more thing to discuss before I end for the night: the decision to pitch Ramon Ramirez in the 9th, down by 1 run. Ramirez gave up an opposite field HR to Jayson Werth to lead off the inning, then got the next 3 outs. It is inconsequential now; the Giants failed to get a baserunner against Brad Lidge. But it is still worth talking about, because I believe it was a major blunder by manager Bruce Bochy. Brian Wilson should have been in the game. No question about it. He is the Giants best reliever. The Giants were at home, down by 1. It was the time to protect that 1 run deficit at all costs. And Ramon Ramirez has been good, but he isn't Brian Wilson, and Wilson NEEDS to pitch in those important situations. I can't think of reason against it. He had pitched in the last 2 games, but there is an off day tomorrow, so if the Giants lose, Wilson gets that rest (and if they win, he gets more than a week of rest). They were at home, so there is no situation where you'd want to save him for a save opportunity in extra innings. Once you get to the 9th at home, in a close game, you use your closer if his arm isn't falling off. Otherwise you'll use a lesser pitcher, and end up regretting it.

Something encouraging to take from this game: the top 2 spots in the lineup, Andres Torres and Freddy Sanchez, both looked very good swinging the bat. Torres worked a walk in the 1st inning, the first walk Halladay had issued to lead off a game. Hopefully both these guys will hit in Game 6. Well of course, hopefully EVERYONE will hit in Game 6.

2010 NLCS Game 4: SF 6, PHI 5

Meowwwwwww!

Coming into this series, there was talk that Buster Posey was slumping and the Giants needed him to step up. I scoffed at that notion. I guess maybe it was technically true, but he was 1-for-11 in this series. Pretty much the definition of a small sample size. But if you were one of those people worried about Buster's "slump", he officially busted out of it, going 4-for-5, and getting the biggest hit in a game full of big hits. Sure, Juan Uribe hit the game winning sac fly, but Posey put Uribe in a great spot to give the Giants a 6-5 win. With Aubrey Huff on first base and 1 out, Posey had fallen behind Roy Oswalt (I'll explain why Oswalt was pitching a little later) 1-2. What came next was vintage Posey: he took a pitch on the outside of the plate and went the opposite way with it. He's only been around for less than a year, so it seems weird to call it vintage Posey, but I don't care, it was vintage Posey. Huff was now on 3rd with 1 out, and Uribe took care of it from there.

There's so much to talk about from this game. So many lead changes, so many big hits, quite a few torturous moments as well. I can start with the starting pitching. Madison Bumgarner's stat line doesn't look very good: 4 2/3 IP, 6 H, 3 ER, 1 BB, 6 Ks but he wasn't that bad. It's just, all of a sudden in the 5th inning, Bumgarner couldn't get anyone out. To leadoff the inning, he gave up two line drive singles. Then the pitcher was out on a sacrifice fly. Shane Victorino then hit another line drive single, scoring 1 run, but Carlos Ruiz was also tagged out at the plate. Two outs with a runner on 1st. Bumgarner then allowed what would be his final line drive single to Chase Utley. It was bizarre, and Bochy brought in Santiago Casilla. Unfortunately, it was more of the same as Casilla allowed a Polanco double to score both runners, giving the Phillies a 4-2 lead.

There were so many heroes from this game. We've already talked about Posey, who got the scoring started with an RBI single in the 1st, doubled home the Giants' second run in the 3rd, tagged out a runner at the plate, and had that crucial hit in the 9th. And Aubrey Huff went 3-for-5, constantly setting Posey up for those RBI hits, and bringing the Giants back within 1 run with an RBI single after Philly's big 4-run inning. Pablo Sandoval had what was the biggest hit of the game at the time, driving an opposite field double, giving the Giants a 5-4 lead. Sergio Romo gave up the game tying hit to Jayson Werth in the 8th, but he kept his composure and didn't give the Phillies the lead. Javier Lopez and Brian Wilson were mostly great, no surprise there. And in addition to winning the game, Juan Uribe made a great play to erase a hit at the start of the top of the 9th. It was truly a team effort.

This turned out to be one of the greatest Giants games I've ever seen. The lead changed so many times, and the Giants missed so many opportunities, but the 9th inning was extremely intense. If the Giants had lost this game, all of a sudden they'd have to win 2 out of 3 vs Halladay, Oswalt, and Hamels. Not an easy thing to do. And the Phillies knew the importance of the game too. Hell, they even brought in Oswalt, the scheduled game 6 starter, out of the bullpen. Everything was on the line. So when Aubrey Huff singled, Buster Posey did what he does, and Juan Uribe hit one deep enough to score Huff, the energy was unreal. It doesn't get much better than a walk-off win in Game 4 of the NLCS to bring your team within 1 game of the World Series. Hopefully, it does get even better tomorrow night. The Giants now need to win just 1 of the next 3, and while they're facing the best team in baseball tomorrow, it's a pitching matchup they've already won. Beating Roy Halladay twice in one week is almost unheard of, but Lincecum's no slouch and the Giants are playing at home this time. It's tough not to get excited. Win it tomorrow at home. One more time.

2010 NLCS Game 3: SF 3, PHI 0

Bruce Bochy did something rather strange for the game today: He completely shuffled the lineup. Suddenly Edgar Renteria was hitting 1st, Posey was up to 3rd, Burrell up to 4th, Ross up to the 5th spot, Huff (against a lefty) got moved down to 6th, and Aaron Rowand replaced Andres Torres in center field. I wasn't sure what to make of this. It felt like a panic move, a very odd thing to suddenly do in the playoffs. And even though the Giants only managed 5 hits and 3 runs off Cole Hamels, the order of the lineup had an effect. By putting the hottest hitter, Cody Ross, in the 5th spot, the Giants ended up in a situation in the 4th inning with 2 runners on and Ross at the plate. And Ross hit a line shot into left field to give the Giants their first run, moving over Pat Burrell, who would score on Aubrey Huff's single in the next at bat. The Giants would score another run in the 5th thanks to Aaron Rowand's double and Chase Utley's misplay on a Freddy Sanchez grounder. But the Ross RBI was all the Giants ever needed, because Matt Cain was on the mound.

Cain was brilliant especially when you consider the lineup he was facing. Utley has always hit him well, and Ryan Howard, contrary to the way he looked in Game 1, is hitting the ball well. Cain ended up walking 3 Phillies, which led to some tense innings with runners on. But he's used to that. He strands runners all the time. Cain was able (hehehe) to get out of those jams because the Phillies simply weren't hitting the ball hard against him. There were a couple line drives to infielders, a few long fly balls, and the long single that Rollins got off the right field wall. The other hit was a bloop single by Ryan Howard. And that was it. Everything else was quiet and easy. He finished 7 shutout innings, with only the 2 hits. Not the greatest performance by Cain at all; he's had better stuff and command on some days. But in another way, the best performance considering that. In a 7 game series tied 1-1, against a good offense and facing a very good pitcher, Cain was money. He showed up, and he got through 7 innings completely unscathed. All you could have asked of him and more.

Charlie Manuel can keep hitting Polanco third; Javier Lopez will just keep getting him, Utley, and Howard out. If the Giants win the World Series, could a huge part of the redemption of Brian Sabean really involve the acquistion a left handed specialist?

I would expect to see Andres Torres back in the lineup tomorrow against Joe Blanton. It will also be interesting to see if Bochy goes to Sandoval in favor of Uribe. I have a feeling he will. The Giants SHOULD have a major edge tomorrow in the matchup between Blanton and Bumgarner, but we'll see what happens.

Oh, and Raul Ibanez looks TERRIBLE at the plate. Just awful.