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Game 4: Please No More Torture

Somebody wake me up. Am I dreaming?

Game 3 just ended. The only way I can express how I felt during the 8th and 9th inning:

It felt like I was at a party and somebody hit me in the face with brass knuckles. Then I was given a blow J by the hottest girl there for sympathy.

Brooks Conrad, you are my favorite Brave of All-Time. It also helps you're an ASU grad and you did this Sun Devil alum proud today. 3 errors, 2 which directly resulted in 2 of the 3 Giants runs they scored. Thank you from preventing me from calling the suicide hotline.

The Giants lead the series 2-1. This series could easily have been over by now with the Giants sweeping or the Braves sweeping. The Braves could very easily be leading 2-1 instead of trailing. Yet it's the Giants leading 2-1.

I have never seen a Giants team come back like that in October. Ever. I can't remember them having a comeback like that in their postseason history. Certainly not the San Francisco Giants. Brooks Conrad had a Bill Buckner moment and the Giants were the benefitting team. When has a break like that gone the Giants way? The closest I can think of is when JT Snow hit that homerun off Benitez in the 2000 ALDS but the Giants wound up losing that game anyways. This time, Posey hits a grounder to 2nd and it goes through the wickets and the Giants take the lead and Brian Wilson shuts down the Braves in the 9th.

Now the Giants turn to Bumgarner to shut the door on the reeling Braves who seem to lose a player every game to injury. Tonight, they almost lost Heyward AND McCann. They're already without Chipper, Prado, and Wagner. And Wagner being hurt probably contributed the most to the Giants victory. Any baseball person will tell you, the hardest 3 outs to get are the 3 to close out a game. With Wagner out, Bobby Cox had to turn to some inexperienced guys to close out a game. A playoff game. A pivotal Game 3. And they couldn't.

I've never felt such depression followed by elation in my Giants fandom. I've felt elation, then depression numerous times. And tonight looked like another chapter being written into Giants misery. But a different entry was penned instead. A comeback victory. In October. Against the odds.

It'll be hard to take Game 4 in Atlanta. They are the best team in the NL at home. But they have to be reeling right now. Demoralized. They took home field advantage from us on Friday night and they immediately gave it back with a choke job of their own in Game 3.

This is what the playoffs are all about. I can't wait for tomorrow.

By the way, the Giants starters? 1 earned run in the entire series. That is impressive considering the playoff experience they had collectively amounted to, yup, zero.

Obviously, the Giants are my world. But it's neat to see one more exciting series as the Rays and Rangers have made things interesting. Meanwhile, the Twins once again crapped their pants to the Yankees. Thanks Twins. I can only hope the winner of TB/TEX can knock off the money grubbers of New York.

Go Giants, Stop the Chop.

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