Man, I am numb right now. The Giants have been eliminated from the playoffs and I feel yet another year has slipped away from the hometown nine. Another season watching good (but not great) Giants baseball only to fall short, as per usual. Another close but no cigar year.
Ok, I'm saving the above sentence and posting it in about 3 weeks... when the Giants are officially eliminated from playoff contention. Because let's face the facts, the Giants are NOT making the playoffs. The Giants just blew a Jonathan Sanchez gem because newcomer Cody Ross got distracted by a broken bat and overcharged a ball that wound up sailing over his head. That was followed by a Freddy Sanchez throw into the dugout to allow the go ahead run to score and effectively put the final nail in the Giants playoff coffin. It was against the Rockies. In a statement game. When all the other teams the GIants needed to gain ground on lost. They went into the 9th with a 1-0 lead and feeling pretty good. They walked off the field with a 2-1 defeat and the season basically over.
Have I given up? Have the Giants players? Yes. And no. The Giants will continue to tease. That's what they do. They are MLB's version of Katy Perry. They tease you all the time, keeping you interested. But they never deliver the goods. I keep fooling myself into thinking one of these years, it'll change. That something has to give. That the city of San Francisco will see a parade down the Embarcadero to celebrate a Giants World Series victory. But then I pinch myself and remember these are the Giants. They live to bring their fans gut wrenching, hair pulling, heart stopping losses. The Giants had a chance to make a huge statement against other playoff contenders. They had a chance to take the reigns of their playoff destiny and excel. They folded. In case you haven't been paying attention...
1-3 vs ATL (the likely NL East division winners)
1-2 vs PHI (2 time NL defending champs and wildcard leaders)
1-2 vs STL (another wildcard rival)
1-2 vs SD (NL West Division leader)
2-1 vs CIN (NL Central Division leader)
0-1 vs COL (there's 2 games left in this series, and I'll be surprised if the Giants aren't in 3rd place by the time COL leaves)
That's a record of 6-11 against every team the Giants would likely face in any playoff scenario. And not only were there 11 losses in these games, but in about 50% of them, the Giants were blown out. Oh yeah, and Zito and Lincecum combined to go 0-fer in the win column. Both guys started the year with 5-0 records. Their records now? 8-10 and 11-9. Not the way guys who start 5-0 should look a few days before September.
The wheels are slowly coming off the Giants bandwagon. As they should. The Giants have never given fans a reason to think they can pull off miracles. In fact, they've been the team where miracles happen against them. A quick recollection of the Giants recent history while in contention. Careful, this will be painful...
1993: Barry Bonds becomes a Giant and has an MVP season. The Giants win 103 games and miss the playoffs. They get eliminated on the last day of the season. The Giants are the only team in history to win 103 games and not make the playoffs. Baseball soon after implements realignment and the wildcard.
1997: Giants have an epic showdown with LA and squeeze into the playoffs as the NL West division winners. They promptly get swept out of the playoffs by the Florida Marlins. The Marlins win the first 2 games of the series in their last at bat. They are the wildcard team but somehow the playoffs were set up that the wildcard team hosted the first 2 games and the division winner hosted the last 3. Makes sense, right? No. And after this season, baseball again changes the rules (1 year too late for Giants fans).
1998: Elite closer Robb Nen coughs up a game winning HR to no power/shit hitter Neifi Perez in Colorado. Instead of clinching the wildcard, the Giants are forced to play a 163rd game against the Cubs. Joe Carter nearly pops one out against former Giants great Rod Beck but it's caught at the wall and the Giants are eliminated from the playoff race.
2000: The Giants achieve the best record in the NL. They promptly lose in 4 games to the wildcard Mets in the first round. One loss comes immediately after JT Snow's memorable game tying HR off Armando Benitez. The other comes off a Benny Agbayani walkoff HR. The 3rd came from a complete game 1 hitter by shit pitcher Bobby Jones. The best team in the NL loses in 4 games and does so meekly.
2001: Bonds breaks McGwire's record against the Dodgers in the 3rd to last game of the season. The Giants and Dodgers go back and forth in the game with the Dodgers eventually winning, hence eliminating the Giants from playoff contention. Bonds gives a bittersweet speech as he tries to appreciate a personal record while the team's playoff hopes are dashed.
2002: The worst heartbreak of them all. Giants are up 5-0 against the Angels in World Series Game 6. They only need 7 outs to achieve that first World Championship. Dusty Baker removes Russ Ortiz (who was pitching a gem) and the tattered bullpen immediately coughs up the lead and the Angels win Game 6 6-5 and then take the Series against a reeling club (the champagne was in the clubhouse!) in Game 7. Robb Nen never pitches again after giving his all (and his arm) to get the Giants a title. As per usual, they come up short.
2003: The Giants again have the best record in the NL. Again they face an NL East team. Again they are upset. Gold Glove outfielder Jose Cruz Jr drops an easy fly ball that opens the floodgates in the 9th inning of a Marlins comeback. Instead of going up in the series 2-1, assuring themselves of at least one more home game, the Giants go down 1-2 and lose the series in 4. When the tying run in the 9th inning is thrown out at home plate to end the game, the series, and the Giants playoff run.
2004: The Giants are 2 games back with 2 games left against the Dodgers. They cruise for most of the game in the penultimate day of the season. Then interim Giants closer Dustin Hermanson, facing the bottom of the Dodgers order, walks the bases loaded. That sets up Giant killer Steve Finley's walkoff grandslam. An elimination grandslam. And the Giants are eliminated with a game to go in the season.
In 2009, you could say the Giants loss to the Rockies in extra innings in Colorado also was a gut punch loss. That was the infamous game in which Kuiper muttered, "This is not good, folks" as a ball was driven in the gap to give the Rockies a huge advantage in the wildcard race. The Giants recovered, then fell apart in September.
Hmm... fast forward to 2010... and the Giants just suffered an incredible loss to Colorado. 2 days before September.
Yeah, maybe I'm giving up on this team. But I've seen this movie before. Over and over and over. And it never is a happy ending.
Ok, I'm saving the above sentence and posting it in about 3 weeks... when the Giants are officially eliminated from playoff contention. Because let's face the facts, the Giants are NOT making the playoffs. The Giants just blew a Jonathan Sanchez gem because newcomer Cody Ross got distracted by a broken bat and overcharged a ball that wound up sailing over his head. That was followed by a Freddy Sanchez throw into the dugout to allow the go ahead run to score and effectively put the final nail in the Giants playoff coffin. It was against the Rockies. In a statement game. When all the other teams the GIants needed to gain ground on lost. They went into the 9th with a 1-0 lead and feeling pretty good. They walked off the field with a 2-1 defeat and the season basically over.
Have I given up? Have the Giants players? Yes. And no. The Giants will continue to tease. That's what they do. They are MLB's version of Katy Perry. They tease you all the time, keeping you interested. But they never deliver the goods. I keep fooling myself into thinking one of these years, it'll change. That something has to give. That the city of San Francisco will see a parade down the Embarcadero to celebrate a Giants World Series victory. But then I pinch myself and remember these are the Giants. They live to bring their fans gut wrenching, hair pulling, heart stopping losses. The Giants had a chance to make a huge statement against other playoff contenders. They had a chance to take the reigns of their playoff destiny and excel. They folded. In case you haven't been paying attention...
1-3 vs ATL (the likely NL East division winners)
1-2 vs PHI (2 time NL defending champs and wildcard leaders)
1-2 vs STL (another wildcard rival)
1-2 vs SD (NL West Division leader)
2-1 vs CIN (NL Central Division leader)
0-1 vs COL (there's 2 games left in this series, and I'll be surprised if the Giants aren't in 3rd place by the time COL leaves)
That's a record of 6-11 against every team the Giants would likely face in any playoff scenario. And not only were there 11 losses in these games, but in about 50% of them, the Giants were blown out. Oh yeah, and Zito and Lincecum combined to go 0-fer in the win column. Both guys started the year with 5-0 records. Their records now? 8-10 and 11-9. Not the way guys who start 5-0 should look a few days before September.
The wheels are slowly coming off the Giants bandwagon. As they should. The Giants have never given fans a reason to think they can pull off miracles. In fact, they've been the team where miracles happen against them. A quick recollection of the Giants recent history while in contention. Careful, this will be painful...
1993: Barry Bonds becomes a Giant and has an MVP season. The Giants win 103 games and miss the playoffs. They get eliminated on the last day of the season. The Giants are the only team in history to win 103 games and not make the playoffs. Baseball soon after implements realignment and the wildcard.
1997: Giants have an epic showdown with LA and squeeze into the playoffs as the NL West division winners. They promptly get swept out of the playoffs by the Florida Marlins. The Marlins win the first 2 games of the series in their last at bat. They are the wildcard team but somehow the playoffs were set up that the wildcard team hosted the first 2 games and the division winner hosted the last 3. Makes sense, right? No. And after this season, baseball again changes the rules (1 year too late for Giants fans).
1998: Elite closer Robb Nen coughs up a game winning HR to no power/shit hitter Neifi Perez in Colorado. Instead of clinching the wildcard, the Giants are forced to play a 163rd game against the Cubs. Joe Carter nearly pops one out against former Giants great Rod Beck but it's caught at the wall and the Giants are eliminated from the playoff race.
2000: The Giants achieve the best record in the NL. They promptly lose in 4 games to the wildcard Mets in the first round. One loss comes immediately after JT Snow's memorable game tying HR off Armando Benitez. The other comes off a Benny Agbayani walkoff HR. The 3rd came from a complete game 1 hitter by shit pitcher Bobby Jones. The best team in the NL loses in 4 games and does so meekly.
2001: Bonds breaks McGwire's record against the Dodgers in the 3rd to last game of the season. The Giants and Dodgers go back and forth in the game with the Dodgers eventually winning, hence eliminating the Giants from playoff contention. Bonds gives a bittersweet speech as he tries to appreciate a personal record while the team's playoff hopes are dashed.
2002: The worst heartbreak of them all. Giants are up 5-0 against the Angels in World Series Game 6. They only need 7 outs to achieve that first World Championship. Dusty Baker removes Russ Ortiz (who was pitching a gem) and the tattered bullpen immediately coughs up the lead and the Angels win Game 6 6-5 and then take the Series against a reeling club (the champagne was in the clubhouse!) in Game 7. Robb Nen never pitches again after giving his all (and his arm) to get the Giants a title. As per usual, they come up short.
2003: The Giants again have the best record in the NL. Again they face an NL East team. Again they are upset. Gold Glove outfielder Jose Cruz Jr drops an easy fly ball that opens the floodgates in the 9th inning of a Marlins comeback. Instead of going up in the series 2-1, assuring themselves of at least one more home game, the Giants go down 1-2 and lose the series in 4. When the tying run in the 9th inning is thrown out at home plate to end the game, the series, and the Giants playoff run.
2004: The Giants are 2 games back with 2 games left against the Dodgers. They cruise for most of the game in the penultimate day of the season. Then interim Giants closer Dustin Hermanson, facing the bottom of the Dodgers order, walks the bases loaded. That sets up Giant killer Steve Finley's walkoff grandslam. An elimination grandslam. And the Giants are eliminated with a game to go in the season.
In 2009, you could say the Giants loss to the Rockies in extra innings in Colorado also was a gut punch loss. That was the infamous game in which Kuiper muttered, "This is not good, folks" as a ball was driven in the gap to give the Rockies a huge advantage in the wildcard race. The Giants recovered, then fell apart in September.
Hmm... fast forward to 2010... and the Giants just suffered an incredible loss to Colorado. 2 days before September.
Yeah, maybe I'm giving up on this team. But I've seen this movie before. Over and over and over. And it never is a happy ending.
They are only 1.5 games back in the Wild Card. No need to panic yet.
ReplyDeleteKuip is pretty honest.
ReplyDelete