Giants win on walk-off E1 - It's the "Giants Way"

http://m.mlb.com/video/?content_id=36807385&topic_id=6479266

It's never pretty, but this is the "Giants Way" this season. The bullpen got the train back on the tracks after Huddy was perhaps left in a bit too long and frittered away an early four run lead. Maybe Bochy pushed him a little too far trying to shorten the bullpen assignment or just deferring to the veteran warrior.

This sets things up nicely for the next two, of which the Giants really only MUST win one of two. The Cardinals almost MUST win both. Vogie and Bummer at home give the Gigantes an outside chance at closing things out at home, but we're a long way from that.

Cardinals would have to like their chances even if they go home down 3-2 with the task of beating Peavy and Hudson on consecutive nights. No offense to the way either one has pitched down the stretch, but this is where you miss Matt Cain pitching before or after Bumgarner.


http://m.mlb.com/video/topic/6479266/v36807309/nlcs-gm3-sandoval-dives-to-rob-holliday-of-hit

A little overkill on the Gamecast data, but this is a pretty play. Bad-hopper to Pablo, which if it gets by him, puts the Giants in a large 10th inning hole. If he leaves after this season, the Giants will miss plays like this, which Pablo has delivered routinely throughout the year. This one was delivered in the clutch, in prime time, for the whole nation to see. Cha ching!!!

Are Giants drifting back to torture? Game 2 sure was....

This was a tough loss, Gregor Blanco's opinion notwithstanding. Both teams seemed like they wanted to give the game away at times. The Giants normally reliable bullpen was in a particularly charitable mood last night giving up HR balls like they were Halloween candy.

from Yahoo Sports:
Wong homers in 9th, Cards edge Giants to tie NLCS - Yahoo Sports:

The Giants made it 4-all when pinch-runner Matt Duffy dashed home from second base on a two-out wild pitch in the ninth. San Francisco wound up losing for just the second time in its last 14 postseason games. ''It's not a tough loss at all. I feel it was a great loss,'' said Gregor Blanco, who had a tiebreaking hit in the seventh. ''We battled to the last out, so I think it was a great win.''

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Machi, Strickland and finally Romo were all tagged. Strickland now is at risk of being over-exposed by the staff. It's becoming a smaller list of guys you can trust coming out of the bullpen and this groups of starters is simply not built to give you seven full innings. Guys are going to get exposed. Three situations where if you simply keep the ball in the yard, the Cardinals run out of bats and BOOM! the ball leaves the yard. Can't happen. Can't keep happening.

Unfortunately, this is the kind of loss you get when two teams, that are virtual mirror images of each other in so many ways, get together for a series. Tough losses. Games you felt you should have won, but did not. And maybe Gregor is engaging in some form of whistling past the graveyard with his analysis, or simply being  a good team guy, but these type of games just can't happen and they certainly cannot keep happening for long.

They eventually lead to a slow, painful death by a thousand cuts ie: TORTURE!!.

Nationals chances are still slim mathematically, but Slim just got fatter

One bad play, one bad inning changes the whole game and the whole emotional dynamic for both teams. Washington can rightly feel that THEY should be up 2-1 instead of down 2-1 and the Giants understandably do not want to go back to Washington http://www.csnbayarea.com/giants/belt-nobody-wants-go-back-washington.

from CSN Bay Area:
Rewind: Bumgarner, Giants throw away Game 3 to Nationals | CSN Bay Area:

And Posey acknowledged the rest – that yes, he was yelling “Three! Three!” as Bumgarner fielded catcher Wilson Ramos’s two-strike bunt with runners at first and second in the seventh inning of a scoreless game. Bumgarner, his face forlorn, later shook his head as he walked out the clubhouse door. “Doesn’t matter,” he said. “He didn’t tell me to throw it into left field.”

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Game Four now becomes almost just as much of a must win for the Giants as it is for the National and the pressure now shifts to the Giants side of the field. These are all factors that cannot be plugged well into a spreadsheet.  So from a purely mathematical standpoint the Nationals odds of advancing increase from 10% to maybe 30-35%, if you add the emotional component, it may be close to a toss-up.

It would help if the top of the order contributes, Blanco and Panik have gone fairly cold last couple of games and the Giants need a break-out from one or both tonight. In fairness to Panik, who was hitting .143 in this series last night, that is about middle of the pack for all hitters in this series. Other than Posey and Rendon, I'm not sure who is really contributing consistently with the bats, the pitching has been simply dominant.

Pagan done for season, it's Blanco or bust for Giants

Just what the doctor ordered. Not!!

from sbnation.com
Angel Pagan injury: Giants CF to have back surgery, out for season - SBNation.com:

"There was no sense trying," Bochy said of Pagan trying to return, per Andrew Baggarly of CSN Bay Area. "This wasn't going to work." 

 Pagan hit .300/.342/.389 with 56 runs scored in 96 games for the Giants this season. He missed 44 games from June 15 to Aug. 7 with inflammation in his back earlier this season, and the Giants went 18-26. 

San Francisco was in first place with a seven-game lead when Pagan was placed on the disabled list, but when he returned they were in second place, two games out.

The Giants are 56-35 (.615) when Pagan starts this year, and 29-36 (.446) when he doesn't.

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World Series title awaits Giants after historic dominance of Tigers - Yahoo! Sports

Prince Fielder walks back to the dugout after striking out. (AP photo)

From a probability standpoint, the Giants have simply improved their odds of winning about an 80/20 chance
to 97/3 chance, based on past history of teams coming back from down 2-0 versus down 3-0.

However, they know better than most this post-season that it can be done. The Tigers can, if they choose, decide to be the first WS team to come back from a 3-0 deficit. The Red Sox did it to the Yankees some years back in the league playoffs.

The mind-set has to change from viewing it as an unconquerable mountain of winning the next four games to simply winning one game at a time, three times in a row -- and forcing a Game Seven -- where momentum swings to their side.

Psychologically, momentum probably shifts to their side somewhere around the middle to end of Game Six, if they are ahead. And a come-from-behind victory in a Game Six would provide unbelievable momentum entering Game Seven and bring up the spectre of an epic, historic choke.

Sometimes, the mountain isn't as large as it is perceived.

I'm with Marco Scutaro (quote below), we ain't done nothing yet.

from Yahoo Sports:
World Series title awaits Giants after historic dominance of Tigers - Yahoo! Sports:

DETROIT – The World Series ended Saturday night. They will play a Game 4 because they have to, and they may play a Game 5 if the Detroit Tigers find some semblance of competence. Anything beyond that is not happening if we're to believe history, and we're inclined to, even if the San Francisco Giants have reminded us all this postseason that history isn't always the sage it's cracked up to be.

History, for example, told us that the Giants weren't supposed to claw back and win three straight games on the road in the division series. No team ever had done that until San Francisco. And history, remember, gave the Giants a flyweight's chance against a heavyweight facing a 3-1 series deficit to St. Louis until they went jab-jab-uppercut.

Most of the Giants took the lead of Marco Scutaro, their fireplug second baseman, who declared: "We haven't done [expletive]."

"I think I'm spoiled a little bit," Giants catcher Buster Posey said, and he certainly is: To be behind the plate for a run of this magnitude – four shutouts in their last six games, 52 scoreless innings in their last 55 – is to crouch 60 feet, 6 inches from history.

"You ask your pitchers to give you a chance to win, and they're actually winning the games," Giants utilityman Ryan Theriot said. "They're as advertised. They're amazing. Look at Timmy. What a weapon."

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Gregor Blanco's catch near the wall in the ninth inning helped the Giants close out Game 3. (AP)

from Yahoo Sports:
http://sports.yahoo.com/news/smallest-giant-becomes-world-series--unlikeliest-hero-27221909.html

Every once in a while a story like this appears in the World Series. A player comes from nowhere to be a star. Blanco was not supposed to be a big part of this Giants team. He was a fringe major leaguer, someone who played a bit in Atlanta and Kansas City before injuring his hand last year and spending most of the 2011 season in the outfield of Washington's top minor league team – the Syracuse Chiefs.The only reason the Giants signed him to a contract and brought him to spring training is because their hitting coach Hensley Meulens said they should. Meulens was managing the Bravos de Margarita in the Venezuelan winter league last year when he saw something new from the player who had been drifting through various big-league clubhouses for a few seasons. He saw strength. Blanco was hitting line drives. His hits were getting into gaps for doubles and triples. The Giants' stadium, AT&T Park, has a big outfield, Meulens thought. He needed hitters who could get the ball in the gap for doubles and triples.

Meulens understands hitting, obviously, but years in the Venezuelan leagues taught him to understand something else. Hunger. He knows when a player is desperate to make the major leagues. He is sure Blanco was humbled by playing for the Syracuse Chiefs and he could see how much Blanco wanted to make it back to the big time.

And how Blanco worked. He came to spring training talking about making the Giants' roster. He arrived to the ballpark early. He lifted weights. He ran. He had coaches hit fly balls. He took lots of batting practice. Tons of batting practice. And it worked. He made the team. He started the year in right field and was playing decently until he suddenly went into a horrible slump. Suddenly he couldn't hit anything.

In praise of Gregor Blanco...and PRACTICE

I know Allen Iverson believes practice is silly but, let's just say that today I'm glad that Gregor Blanco and Marco Scutaro and Madison Bumgarner and Buster Posey do not believe the same (see articles below).

I mean, excuse me Mr. Iverson, but we're talking about Buster Poster here, man.
We're talking about the franchise here, man.

We're talking about the Giants franchise player, putting in practice time for the game he loves.
AFTER he has put HIS body on the line for his team, man.
And even he, Buster Posey, can dignify himself -- to PRACTICE.

and look what happens.....other guys on the team follow suit.

IT'S CALLED LEADERSHIP, MAN!!!

So while you thought we were talking about PRACTICE, in reality, all along we were discussing LEADERSHIP -- or lack thereof.

from Mercurynews.com
POSTGAME NOTES: Giants deliver another punch; Blanco defies AT&T Park | Giants Extra:

Allow me to take you back to February. Gregor Blanco, a little-known non-roster invitee, spent every morning practicing his bunting. It was repetitive, it looked boring — and it led to the perfect bunt at the perfect time.

 Madison Bumgarner, a well-known pitcher, was impressing teammates with his work ethic. “He’s always in front of a mirror, working on his mechanics,” one said. Eventually Bumgarner spent too much time on those mechanics, throwing himself out of whack as the Giants approached the postseason.

On Thursday he kept it simple and he was dominant. In two career World Series starts, Bumgarner has pitched 15 scoreless innings and given up just five hits. Only Christy Mathewson has started his World Series career with similar numbers as a Giant. Mathewson is in the Hall of Fame. Bumgarner is 23.

This all started in February, with bunting, side work and tedious drills like the one where you practice your relay throws home. The Giants do it over and over again, and have been doing it in recent months, too. In the biggest moment, they came up with a perfect play. Blanco to Scutaro to Posey. Prince Fielder was out, a rally was thwarted and the Giants were on their way to a win.

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from Mercurynews.com
http://blogs.mercurynews.com/giants/2012/10/26/world-series-notes-posey-plays-it-perfectly-casilla-romo-shutting-it-down/

From the first day of Spring Training, Posey worked on swipe tags and was told adamantly not to put himself in a position where he might get hit again. It cost the Giants a couple of runs this season, but that’s worth it 100 times out of 100. In one of the biggest moments of the season, Posey got the swipe down perfectly. It’s exactly how his teammates want him to keep playing.

“I still believe the same thing, we’ve got to keep our guy in there,” Bumgarner said. “You see how good we are with him in the lineup.

From long ball to small ball - Giants up 2-0

Bumgarner was brilliant. Bullpen brilliant once again.
The Giants offense is what it is. We score on a DP and a SF a day after getting most of our offense from three HR's. Diversified, that's the ticket.
Win 2-0 and heading for Detroit up 2-0. That's synchronicity.

from Yahoo Sports:
With small ball, Giants win 2-0 for 2-0 WS lead - Yahoo! Sports:

"SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Long ball one night, a Giant dose of small ball the next.
Two wins in two games and suddenly San Francisco doesn't need to dig itself out of a postseason hole for a change.

Madison Bumgarner shut down the Detroit Tigers for seven innings, then the Giants took advantage of a bunt that stayed fair to eke out the go-ahead run in a 2-0 win Thursday night for a 2-0 edge in the World Series."

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The highlights:
(most of the animated .gif's are from followers of McCovey Chronicles http://www.mccoveychronicles.com/ perhaps the best site for Giants fans on the Internet)

Bummer was beautiful.

Blanco's bunt was bedazzling.

Why block the plate when you can put your former infielder skills to work with the swipe tag, A.J.?
Don't you know enough not to play on the tracks when a freight train is coming through?

This is still the iconic moment of the series so far.