WOW, what a game! I was in suspense the whole way, down to the last out, the last strike. But I never felt like we were going to lose, unlike, say, game 7 when Livan gave up all those hits. I was buoyed by Bochy pulling Sanchez so quickly, I was very impressed, and thought that we were going to have a good chance to win, but whether we win or not, who knew, and I felt pretty good once we tied them.
Bochy's Da Man
This gets back to my post a couple of days ago about how Bochy is the right manager to lead us to the World Series Championship that all of us Giants fans have been waiting for. Contrast Bochy taking Sanchez out in the third with Dusty leaving Livan in there in Game 7 when you just knew that he was going to give up the big hit and put us deep in the hole.
By taking out Sanchez, it also showed that an advantage Bochy had over Manuel, he had a full deep bullpen he could go to for a bullpen game, whereas Oswalt was struggling all night but Manuel had to stick by him. It worked out with Oswalt, but after the Giants extended Madsen in the 7th, Manuel had to stick with Madsen in the 8th, and Uribe got his homer!
Co-Dy!
Cody Ross, of course, was named the NLCS MVP, after his great performance, hitting all those key homers, as well as hits later, that helped the Giants score key runs that led to wins. Well done Cody, thanks for all the great hitting so far, hopefully it will continue in the World Series.
2010 World Series
This is the 18th time the Giants will go to the World Series as a franchise, which they have won five times, but as we know, they have not won yet in San Francisco. They will face the Rangers, who are there for the first time. The Giants get home advantage, so the series will start on Wednesday in San Francisco.
I think the Giants are in good shape to win the World Series. Very importantly, the Giants get home advantage. That will give them an extra edge in a series that will probably be tight and close, as the Rangers have a good rotation themselves.
The Giants pitchers have been amazing for the most part, and I expect Lincecum and Cain to continue to do well. I hope Sanchez can get over his emotions, but after this game, I think they can be fine with our bullpen, led by the amazing Brian Wilson.
In addition, the hitting is starting to get over their jitters. Torres and Sanchez are heating up, and the Giants had numerous opportunities today, and I think they will convert more against the Rangers, who does not have as good a middle bullpen as the Giants did. For all the complaints people made about getting those relievers, particularly since we lost Bowker and Martinez, we probably would not have won the NL West, NLDS, or NLCS without Lopez or Ramirez.
A big wildcard is how much advantage the Rangers have with Bengie Molina on their team. He obviously knows our pitchers and probably knows the weaknesses of some of the hitters. However, the pitchers is not just their pitches, but also how they mix it up. And clearly Posey has a better formula than Molina did, with how the pitchers have been pitching since early September and continuing into the playoffs, the Giants have continued to keep the opposition from scoring more than 3 runs. And that has been leading to wins, a lot of wins. And is it one thing to prepare your hitters on what to expect, but they have to stand in the batter's box and execute, and that will be hard to execute, I think.
Another Vet Paying Off
Like Renteria giving Cody Ross a big tip, Mark DeRosa passed to Jonathan Sanchez a tip that he picked up from Glavine - about holding his hands before throwing - that allowed Sanchez to go on his great stretch of great pitching in September and to now. I believe I read that in the SJ Mercury. Given how well Sanchez did, I would say that DeRosa earned his $6M salary with that tip. Now up to Rowand to give a tip to someone! :^)
Go Giants! Let's do it!
Saw your comment on MCC and the subsequent flaming. Not sure that was the place for it, but those guys do need to be called out and held accountable for their relentless trashing of Giants management all year.
ReplyDeleteBochy managed one of the best games I've ever seen last night and has managed a great post-season so far. Fangraphs is a site that constantly calls for closers to be brought in before the 9'th inning in high leverage situations. Bochy and Wilson have been doing it all season. Let's see if they get any credit.
I know, I was debating what to do. I was actually thinking of doing it in a separate fanpost but it was easier to just post it there in that thread.
ReplyDeleteI don't care if I got flamed, I got flamed there constantly for the past 3-4 years and just got tired of it, so I don't frequent there as much as I would like.
But with the Giants making the World Series, which I've taken a lot of heat for there for predicting that this core of the team will make the 2010's the decade of the Giants, and other stuff I've put on there, I just had to take my shot, because I've been mad that they have been openly campaigning for their firing and what if they had proved influential in any way, particularly with a new owner coming in and possibly swayed by public opinion, we didn't know.
I agree with you. It's a good thing Neukom and Baer apparently aren't swayed by the stuff on there or the sfgiants.com message board. There are some owners who I'm sure would have been.
ReplyDeleteIt's one thing to disagree with decisions. It's another to openly campaign for a GM or manager to be fired and run dissenting opinions off the board which is what happened at MCC and on the sfgiants.com Message Board.
re: Molina/Posey - I think Posey is more creative in calling a game. It's hard to quantify, but what I see is different from Molina.
ReplyDeleteWanted to add, and maybe it's just me, but I saw Torres bunting for a hit last night as a purely psychological move. The Phillies were thinking about their next time at bat, and I think the bunt was meant to rattle them.
I have to wonder, you've written many many times about how the pitching staff wears other teams down, how about the offense always doing something odd or unusual?
Bochy did a hell of a job managing last night.
This is a great team that I hope will be most intact next year. With the pitching in place, as OGC has often stated, the Giants have a super-strong base for the near future.
ReplyDeleteSomewhat in line with marc's post above, one of the most frustrating parts of ts team has been its inability to work deep counts. Working counts is an effective way to wear down the opposing team's starting pitcher and get to their (usually) lesser middle relievers and bullpens. If, as OGC says, a strong pitching staff can make a winner, then the ability to wear down such a staff would be a key defensive technique. Lacking some high OBP hitters, it just seems to me that this could really improve the team's offensive output and winning percentage.
A bit of patience -- and more bunt-hits by Torres -- could further raise the team's chances in the World Series. Go Giants.
Thanks for the comments, everyone.
ReplyDeletesteveb, the team should be intact. Burrell already said he's willing to be back as a bench player. Huff loves it here, I don't see him arguing for more than a 2 year, $12M deal, like Franchez and DeRosa. Ross most probably will be signed, hard to let him go given his heroics. I'm not sure about Uribe, but pretty much everyone else is under Giants control.
Bochy can only do so much on working the count, but I noticed in some games, had the guys working counts up the lineup, guys who hack and low count down the lineup (Sandoval, Rowand). He's trying, I think.
Marc, I guess I didn't make my point well enough, I was trying to say that the Giants epic run since early September of giving up 3 runs or less almost every game shows shows that Posey is more in tune with his pitchers than Molina ever was (and thus more creative).
Yeah, I agree that Torres bunt was meant to rattle them, we've been wanting him to bunt more all season and he wouldn't but then does it right there.
Nice idea about weird offense, not sure how one could research that.
Yes, Bochy has done a hell of a job managing all season long, but in particular the past couple of months.