UUUUUU-Ribe gets the Giants within one win of the world series!

GIANTS 6 - PHILLIES 5






Finally someone on offense besides Cody Ross stepped up!  He was involved too with a big double in the sixth getting both himself and Pat Burrell in scoring position for Pablo Sandoval's two run double.

That double was the biggest hit of the game and he had to hit it twice for it to count!

In another scenario that will add to the case for instant replay in baseball, Sandoval hit a ball that appeared to graze the line in right field that would have scored Burrell and Ross.  Instead, the umpiring crew (one of which was standing directly over where the ball hit the line) ruled it a foul ball.  Pablo battled and drove the ball to left field for the 2 run double that put the Giants up 5-4 after previously being down 4-3.

The Phillies tied the game in the 8th and, in a show of desperation, Charlie Manuel brought in Roy Oswalt to pitch the 9th inning on two days rest.  Freddy Sanchez lined out to Jayson Werth.  next, Aubrey Huff singled on a groundball to right.  Buster Posey hit a single into the rightfield corner to get runners at first and third with one out in the ninth and set the stage for Juan Uribe.

Uribe, nephew of former Giants shortstop and fan favorite Jose Uribe, was on the bench for this game while still being bothered by an injured right wrist that kept him out of game 2 as well.  He battled Oswalt, at one point it appeared that he was hit by a pitch but replays showed it was more likely he was pulling a Derek Jeter,  he had 2 strikes on him and he finally hit a deep fly ball to left that brought Huff home with the game winning run and put the Giants one win away from the world series.

The Giants go for the series clincher tomorrow behind Lincecum.  It's not going to be an easy task with Roy Halladay going for the Phils.  But it's going to be exciting!

Go Giants!

Giants return to San Francisco with a split

PHILLIES 6 - GIANTS 1

Cody Ross with his third homer in 2 nights

Cody Ross was the giants offense last night.  He continued his amazing playoff stretch with a homerun off Roy Oswalt to break up Roy's no-hitter in the 5th inning and tie the game which the Phillies led 1-0 at that point.

Unfortunately that would be all the offense they would muster.

Every single offensive player on the Giants should watch the Phillies half of the 5th inning so they can figure out how to manufacture some runs.  Shane Victorino led off with a double.  Chase Utley flew out to deep right which allowed Victorino to advance to third.  Next. Placido Polanco flew out to center to allow Victorino to score on the sac fly.  I almost cried at the simplistic beauty of the perfectly executed fundamental baseball.  Please Giants, take note of how you score off a good pitcher.

The Giants are still in the driver's seat however.  They come back to SF and there is a very real chance that the series does not return to Philly.   It's unlikely that the Giants win 3 in a row in SF but I bet they win 2 out of 3 for sure.  Game 3 is Hamels V. Cain and the Giants absolutely rake against Hamels especially this season where they are hitting .348 against him.  The Phillies don't even know who they will throw in game 4 while the Giants will be running out the phenom Madison Bumgarner.  Then Philly will throw Halladay in game 5 against Lincecum and the Giants have already beat him twice this season!

So fear not Giants fans.  Sure it's a loss, but a split in Philadelphia is still huge!

P.S.

Fire-Sabean.com is asking all Giants fans to show their playoff beards.  I live in Palm Desert, Ca and with average temperatures of 110 degrees in the summer, I usually keep my hair pretty short.  I was growing out my beard and my hair at the same time mostly because I was too lazy to cut my hair.  Well last night I was tired of being too hot so I cut the hair and trimmed the beard and thought it looks like the style my new favorite Giant Cody Ross wears!  So I finally got around to sending my picture into Fire-Sabean and told him I'm calling it the "Cody Ross".  The result was this post and Cody Ross hit another homer last night!  I swear if Ross keeps up hitting like this he might start a national trend!

Cody Ross powers Giants to a 1-0 series lead

GIANTS 4 - PHILLIES3                                                               

Well the big pitcher's duel that was promised didn't exactly materialize.  Both starters pitched OK but neither of them even came close to matching the epic performances they put up in the NLDS.  In the end, Tim Lincecum was just a little bit better than Roy Halladay and that's all the Giants really care about.

The Giants were involved in their fifth consecutive 1 run game in the postseason.  Their record in those games is 4-1.  During the regular season they were only 28-24 in one run games so they have been finding ways to get the wins that they weren't finding during the regular season.  of course the fact that they aren't playing the Padres who probably beat them by one run 27 times probably has something to do with it.

Cody Ross was the player of the game and rightfully so.  I think any time you hit 2 homeruns in one game off of Roy Halladay you ought to be named the player of the game.   Ross is quite possibly the player of the postseason for the Giants since he has 3 of their 4 homeruns and was the difference maker in game 4 of the NLDS and was the same difference maker tonight.  Not bad for a guy who the Giants allegedly claimed off of waivers just to keep him away from the Padres.

It could also be argued that Bruce Bochy was the difference maker.  His decision to pinch run for Pat Burrell with Nate Schierholtz in the 6th inning.  If Burrell is still running in that situation there is no way he scores on Juan Uribe's single.  I seriously doubt that Burrell even gets sent from third.  But he did put Nate in and Nate did score what was ultimately the deciding run of the game.  Bochy has been crucified on this blog and in many other places so it's only fair to point out when he makes a good decision.

The Phillies are already in a tough situation in game 2.  Never mind the fact that 15 out of the last 18 NLCS game one winners have gone on to the World Series.  But, the Giants already know that they can beat Roy Oswalt.  Plus the Phillies know that they can't hit Jonathan Sanchez.  That puts the Phillies in panic mode.  If they get put in a position where they need to start Halladay in game 4 do they?  He has faced the Giants twice and they have been able to get at least 8 hits off them in each of those contests.  Of course they will start Halladay in a do or die game.  After all, who would you rather have representing you in a do or die game?  Roy Halladay or the Family Guy look-alike Joe Blanton?

I feel the need to comment on the Philadelphia fans.  I always knew they were pretty bad fans, but tonight they really showed that they are low class.   From signs that said "fix your teeth" and "Hippy trash" to whistling at Lincecum as if he was a girl the Phillies fans did everything they could to show they are idiots.  Really, how does a dude whistling at a dude make anybody but the guy doing the whistling look bad? 

It doesn't really matter I guess because for all their crap, they still went home losers after watching their ace go down in defeat. 

Best tweet of the Night: Bay Area Sports Guy:

"Cody Ross stayed at a Halladay Inn last night. And he trashed the room like a goddamned rock star. #sfgiants"

Giants advance to the NLCS

GIANTS 3 - BRAVES 2



The San Francisco Giants will face the Philadelphia Phillies in the NLCS starting Saturday.

Until then we will have a week to bask in the glory of the hard fought four game NLDS win over the Atlanta Braves.  Hopefully the Giants will be able to find a little bit of offense along the way as well!

But for now we can celebrate.  This was a Giants team that was written off and left for dead during the season.  Both by the fans and by the media.  Hell, at some point during their 7 game losing streak I even purchased a Fire Sabean T-shirt!

That was before an epic run by the starting pitching and just barely enough offense to make that epic run stand up.

In the NLDS, they won the first game 1-0, gave game two to the Braves, tried to give back games 3 and 4, but the offense just eeked out enough runs to defeat the Braves and send the citizens of Atlanta back home with their foam tomahawks between their legs.

Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain, Jonathan Sanchez, Madison Bumgarner.  These are your NLDS MVPs.  Sure the media is going to say that, if there was an NLDS MVP award (and why isn't there?), it should go to someone like Cody Ross or Buster Posey.  But in reality, the Giants MVP(s) is that 4 man rotation.  It has been all year long and it will be what the Giants need to ride if they are to slay the beast from the NL East.

It's going to be a tough series, but then again aren't they all?  The Giants will face the only other rotation in the playoffs that can hang with theirs but with a better offense.  They will be the underdogs.  I would call them the Giant killers but that somehow doesn't sound right.

Anyway, enough with the rambling and random thoughts.  Congratulations G-men!  But don't get too comfortable, there is still more work to do!

NLDS Trivia:
Did you know that the two Giants who hit homeruns in the NLDS were Pat Burrell and Cody Ross?  Yes they were the two guys that the Giants claimed off waivers for nobody in return and, if you are to believe some reports, to keep them away from the Padres!

Don't stop believing!

Found this on the Dodgerhater's site. And about 20 other blogs but I found it on Dodgerhater first so he gets the shout out! It's worth 3 minutes of your time trust me:

Giants throw game 2 away

Burrell's 3-run homer had us excited early

When Matt Cain walked off the mound in the 7th inning it looked like the Giants would be cruising to a 2-0 series lead.  Pat Burrell got the Giants going with a first inning 3 run homerun and Matt Cain helped himself out with an RBI single in the second.  Cain had pitched well, only allowing one unearned run on 7 hits.  Javier Lopez got out of the 7th without giving up any runs.

Then came the 8th inning.

The normally steady duo of Brian Wilson and Sergio Romo came on and coughed up the lead.  A bad throw by Pablo Sandoval allowed one of the Braves 8th inning runs to be unearned making 2 of the Braves runs on the night unearned.

Romo and Wilson had to get over their postseason jitters I guess.  Romo didn't retire a single batter while allowing 2 baserunners.  The Sandoval on a slow roller to third with runners on first and third in the eighth inning wouldn't have prevented the runner on third from scoring but the runner who scored the tying run on Alex Gonzalez's 2 run double wouldn't have been on base to score the tying run.

In the bottom of the 10th the Giants were in position to win the game with the bases loaded, one out, and future rookie of the year Buster Posey at the plate.  All the Giants needed at this point was anything other than a double play.  A double play is exactly what the Giants got.  One of the storylines of the 2010 season returned to bite the Giants in the ass at the worst possible time.  The momentum suddenly was in the Braves dugout.

In the 11th Ramon Ramirez served up a fat pitch on a plate for Rick Ankiel who hit what has to be the longest homerun of his career to put the Braves up to stay.  It looked like Travis Ishikawa caught ahold of one in the bottom of the 11th but it was off the end of the bat was just a fly ball out.

The Braves and Giants will head to Atlanta for game 3.  The Giants need to just win one game in the Atl.  Johnny No-no will be taking the mound for the Giants while the Braves will counter with Tim Hudson.  It's gonna be another tough battle for the Giants and probably another torturous game.  But us Giants fans are used to those so it will be no problem.

We can all worry about any heart conditions after the Giants win the world series!

Lincecum steamrolls Braves

GIANTS 1 - BRAVES 0

That was the first 1-0 Giants game this season that didn't feel like torture!

It just seemed like no matter what, the Braves weren't going to be scoring any runs off of Tim Lincecum.  He was that dominant.  Matt Diaz summed Timmy's performance up best when he compared it to the game earlier this season in which the Braves were no-hit by Ubaldo Jimenez: “We had two hard-hit doubles. Other than that, we might have hit more hard-hit balls in the no-hitter, and got no hits. We only really had two balls hit hard at all tonight.”

It was that good of a performance.

It was also a performance for the record books.  Both the Giants' record books and MLB's record books. Lincecum set a franchise postseason record of 14 strikeouts in a single playoff game.  He also tied the record for most strikeouts in a postseason debut.  Last night he joined the likes of Bob Gibson, Roger Clemens, Sandy Koufax, and Mike Scott who all struck out at least 14 in a single postseason game.  (Livan Hernandez did too but that game will forever live in infamy as the game with the largest strike zone of all time!)

The game wasn't without controversy however.  Buster Posey's steal of second base in the fourth inning and led to the only Giants run of the game was the source of said controversy.   Pat Burrell struck out while Buster was on the move in what only could have been a broken hit and run.  The throw to second looked like it might or might not have got Posey and he was ruled safe.  TV replays showed Posey was clearly out by a good 6 inches or so but there was no disagreement on the field.  A few batters later Cody Ross grounded a ball that magically eluded Omar Infante's glove and scored Posey in what was the only run of the game.

Now let's take a break and talk about instant replay here.  There are a lot of blogs pointing to this play as a reason as to why baseball needs instant replay.  I do agree that baseball needs instant replay, bit this is a bad example.  instant replay would have had zero effect on this play.  Nobody on the field even questioned the call.  Not the second baseman, not Bobby Cox, Buster Posey didn't even look surprised to be called safe.  Cox said of the play: “Some of the guys came down after that inning and said he was out by 6 or 8 inches. From the dugout you can’t see anything, and I didn’t see a reaction from our infielders.”  So even if baseball had instant replay it would never have been used in that situation.

But the real story of the game is Tim Lincecum.  He has been called the franchise and last night he proved it.  Rarely does a young pitcher come out and pitch like a veteran in his first postseason game.  Usually the nerves get to him and it takes an inning or two to settle down.  Last night it took Lincecum exactly one batter to calm down.  Calm down he did!

I think this is going to be a special playoff run.

Giants get the last laugh. Padres go home losers!

GIANTS 3 - PADRES 0

Jonathan Sanchez hates the Padres so much he smoked a triple and scored the Giants first run of the game.  He pitched 5 shutout innings and got the win on the last day of the season to propel the Giants into the playoffs as the NL West champions and send the Padres home.  

Their miracle season got them the same playoff result as finishing in last place all those years!

It couldn't be sweeter for the Giants to clinch against the Padres since the Giants single-handedly kept the Padres in the playoff hunt until the last day.  If the Giants had even gone .500 against the Padres this season then they would have won the division by 5 games.

Anyway, it's a great feeling.  Even the last two games the Giants lost have been exciting.  This team has kept it close all season long.  They didn't disappoint.  Now it's playoff time.

So Giants fans get out your champagne, your beer, or whatever your poison is.  Kick back and celebrate the Giants first postseason since 2003!

Playoffs baby!

Something to ponder for the next few days:

Giants record Vs. the NL playoff teams:

Phi: 3-3

Cin: 4-3

Atl: 3-4