It’s Magic Number Inside
With a rousing 4-1 victory to complete the sweep today, the Giants are one win away from going to the postseason. Take a moment and let that sink in. I’ll wait. Done? Good, because it’s time to bust out the paper bags that will prove useful for hyper-ventilating; the Padres are coming to town. With the way things have gone this season, you can bet that someway, somehow, this series will be a grind-for-every-run stressful affair from the first pitch to the last.
Look familiar? We miss you Shooter.
In recent news though, the Giants are playing some very good baseball. In a week where the Giants simply couldn’t afford to lose games, they went 6-1, including two victories at the hell-on-earth they call Coors Field. In that very same week, the Padres have gone 3-3, playing all their games at home. San Diego comes into town on the proverbial ropes after struggling with the Cubs. San Francisco on the other hand has a rowdy hometown crowd behind them, along with Matt Cain going for them in the first game.
The torture-filled ballgames where the Giants eek out one hit against mediocre pitchers are not a thing of the past though. Before we count our eggs, we need to win just one more game, with the magic number for this year at 2. Putting the Padres away in game one would be a huge boost for a club that’s been grinding for every win in September. Give the Giants two games to not worry about their fate before a potential postseason run and let the regulars rest.
Still not feeling the late-September excitement? Then you are either not a Giants fan, or are an emotionless alien who hasn’t been watching enough torturous 1-hit affairs against the Randy Wells’s of the world. If you’re looking for a little added motivation, check out this sound bite from the Padres’ young hurler Mat Latos:
“The only way I could honestly put it is, we could be like the Giants and go and change our whole lineup, put guys with ‘San Francisco Giants’ across their jerseys. We didn’t. We added two guys (Miguel Tejada and Ryan Ludwick). We’ve been the same team all year. We haven’t just gone and grabbed guys from other teams.”
This offhand comment has already been addressed by the Giants (Cody Ross described it as “asinine”), but I feel as though it’s worth further analysis. Apparently Mr. Latos is unaware that teams are allowed to add and subtract players they feel are respectively helping or hurting your ballclub. To complain about midseason transactions is ill-advised at best. And in case you were wondering, Latos pitches against our rabble of heartless mercenaries on Sunday.
Post-Diamondback sweep, the Giants are on the cusp of a much needed redemption. If there was ever a time to come up big, this is it. Giants fans (and players for that matter) have been starved of postseason baseball for far too long. Let’s take out the torture, win tomorrow behind Matt Cain on his birthday, and gear up for a postseason run. Please?
as noted elsewhere the rangers benjie molina was the giants catcher at the beginning of the season. this has to be a factor-one of baseballs axioms is that good pitching will beat good hitting so if thats true the giants seem to have the edge–me being a marlins fan im as pleased as punch to enjoy the success of cody ross but i also know that mr ross is a notorious streak hitter–he can go 3 for 21 then 9 for 12 at the drop of a hat but also go back to 3 for 21 just as fast–im glad to see these 2 teams at the “big show”—i would like the phils/yankees series being a baseball nut but this matchup will be even more enjoyable as to the unknown factors of the most of the players never having been to the ws before–naturally i want every game to extra innings and the full 7 games—im picking the rangers as most are because of cliff lee–HE IS THE DIFFERENCE—rangers in 7
I suppose it would be too much to ask that we simply enjoy the Series and root for whichever team we choose to for out own reasons? Personally, I am a Dodger’s fan. Anyone who if familiar with the long and storied history would assume, with good reason, that this would put me in the Rangers’ camp. Not so, I also don’t like the designated hitter rule which bounces me back to the Giants’ camp. Painful but true.
Hard to fathom that the San Fran Giants won the Series. Awesome for them! How many years has it been now? 60 years?