It's the last day of the season. The San Diego Padres, who had surprisingly spent most of the season in first place in the NL West, now have fallen behind the San Francisco Giants. Three games behind them, to be precise, coming into the final three games of the season - which just happened to be against... the San Francisco Giants!
For those of you who didn't major in math, that means the Padres would have to win all three games to force a tie in the NL West and keep their playoff hopes alive. Well, as it's the final day of the season, they've already played two of those games, and the Padres have won both of them! If they can pull out a win today, we'll have to break into the crazy tie-breaker scenarios that smarter folks than me have been calculating for the past weeks.
I will be sitting here, on my couch, simultaneously keeping score of the game and liveblogging my thoughts. Stay tuned for repeated UPDATES TO THIS VERY POST as the game continues!
1st INNING - Fair or Foul
Right off the bat, this game provides an opportunity to talk about some hot button issues: the use of video replay to review questionable calls. In the very first at-bat for the Giants, Andres Torres hit a scorcher down the left field line that third-base umpire Mike Everitt called foul. The Giants' third-base coach Tim Flannery just about lost his mind, and justifiably so - upon reviewing the play, it was clear that the ball kicked up some chalk.
As far as I can tell, that's why they have chalk on the foul lines - if a ball hits any part of that chalk line, it's a fair ball. If any chalk flies up into the air upon the ball landing on it, it's obviously fair. Crew Chief Tim McClelland behind home plate declined to overturn the call, which cost the Giants two bases.
Torres ended up knocking a single, so at first glance, it appeared not to have mattered. However the next batter, Freddy Sanchez, grounded into a double play. Had Torres been on second base, Aubrey Huff's single might very well have scored him. If the Padres end up winning this momentous game by one run or less, there will probably be some understandable outrage in San Francisco.
2nd INNING - Checked His Swing?
Catcher Yorvit Torrealba came up second for the Padres in the inning and worked the count to 2-0. On the next pitch, he got tangled up on a pitch out of the zone and tried to check his swing. Giants catcher Buster Posey pointed down to the first base umpire to ask for an appeal, but Tim McClelland didn't follow suit, and the count went to 3-0. Torrealba ended up walking on the next pitch.
Again, replays showed that Torrealba had pretty clearly went around. Posey expressed his frustration, and McClelland calmly explained that it's in the home plate umpire's discretion to ask for an appeal. No runs ended up scoring that inning, but you have to ask if we're witnessing some Padres bias here.
Also during the second inning we found out that the Braves had beaten the Phillies, making their record exactly the same as the Giants. I have no idea what that means for the NL West/Wild Card tie-breaker scenario. Ask me later.
3rd INNING - The AL Playoffs Come Together
In the top half of the inning, we find out that the New York Yankees have just lost to the Boston Red Sox, placing them second to the Tampa Bay Rays in the AL East, and officially making the Bronx Bombers your 2010 AL Wild Card entry. This means the Yanks will play the Minnesota Twins in the first round of the playoffs. The Rays will take on the Texas Rangers.
I haven't really analyzed the lineups for the playoff teams yet - if I had more time to devote to baseball, there would certainly be more posts on this blog. But my friend Ben P. who has done a lot of this thinking already (and who also happens to be the biggest Twins fan I know) likes the Twins' chances less against the Yankees than against the Rays in a short series. Especially without Justin Morneau, whom the MLB Network crawl just confirmed will not be on the Twins' first round post-season roster.
But more about that later since the Giants just got on the board, not once, but twice. Including a triple from pitcher Jonathan Sanchez. Duane Kuiper had been referring to that area as "Triples Alley" all day, and it finally came to pass. Let's see how Sanchez does after exerting himself.
4th/5th INNINGS - Quite Well, Actually.
Sanchez allows a walk (on another non-appeal on a questionable check swing) and strikes out a batter on 16 pitches. Meanwhile the Giants strand a leadoff single, and both pitchers cruise through the fifth 1-2-3.
Since nothing much happened this inning, let me fantasize about my ideal situation for liveblogging a game. I'd be sitting in an executive desk chair with big puffy arms and a tray table on the right side where I could set my pencil-and-paper scoresheet. The TV is mounted on the wall to my right (about 2:00). My laptop's in front of me, open to blogger - maybe also my email so I can tab over and gchat with all my buddies.
Then there's a big flatscreen LCD monitor to my left (11:00) with multiple desktops. I'd have the MLB.com gamecast of the game, for easy reference to every pitch of the game. I'd have each team's baseball-reference.com site for statistical analysis. Then another window for quick Google/Wikipedia searching.
...did I mention I'm sitting in the Bat Cave for all this?
6th/7th INNINGS - Our Starters Depart
Jonathan Sanchez leaves the game after five innings and 83 pitches with two runners on base. Former Oakland A Santiago Casilla (who was actually named Jairo Garcia for the early part of his career, before they found out those documents were fake) gets a couple of key force plays. I seem to remember Garcia/Casilla being kind of inconsistent with his control and his personality while with the A's. His stuff has never been in doubt - he can reach 98 on the gun. Maybe it was the change to the less competitive national league that turned him from a basket case to a high-leverage reliever on a possibly playoff-bound team.
Latos really settled down after allowing those runs in the third. He got out of a jam in the 6th and was rewarded by being replaced with pinch hitter Will Venable in the 7th... who promptly struck out. A single and a Casilla fielding error chase him from the game, and now the battle of the bullpens has really started. Ramon Ramirez comes in, another relief pitcher who was bad for an AL team (Boston) but who has found new life for the Giants. New life is right - the strike out of Miguel Tejada ends the threat and sets up the best bullpen in the game.
And Bud Black's gonna make it a battle. While he promptly replaces his first reliever (Ryan Webb) after just two pitches, they put a graphic up there to explain the tie-breaker scenario. If the Giants hold on to win, they'll win the west and the Braves will clinch the Wild Card. If the Padres come back to win, they'll ensure that the season goes on for two more games: a rematch tomorrow to decide the NL West winners and an additional tie-breaker Tuesday against the Braves to determine who wins the Wild Card.
But we can worry about all that stuff later. We've got some drama as lefty Joe Thatcher tries like a madman to keep spidery pinch hitter Eugenio Velez close to first base. He must have thrown over there at least 62 times during the course of this at-bat. It didn't appear to help him, as he walks leadoff hitter Andres Torres and leaves the game without recording an out. When everyone talks about the Padres' bullpen superiority, they must have been talking about quantity over quality. I mean, they did hold the Giants scoreless, but it did take them three pitchers to do so. Anyway the inning is over and we're headed to the last 22% of the game.
END OF GAME - The Playoffs Locked Up
There it is. Rookie sensation Buster Posey hits a home run to give the Giants an insurance run and All-Star Brian Wilson shuts the door.
I admit, I was pulling for the Padres, since as a Dodger fan I'm obligated to hates the Giants. Plus I was looking forward to possibly adding two more games to the baseball season. This means the Giants will play the Braves in the first round, which is only fitting, since they were the two last teams to officially make the playoffs.
I probably won't be liveblogging the whole playoffs, because it just takes up so much time. But rest assured I'll be checking in with my thoughts and analysis as October rolls on!
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