Giants Crap the Bed, Then Become Good!

Barry Zito is holding Brandon Crawford's helmet on his butt

Buster Posey and Melky Cabrera struggled, which means the entire offense struggled. I was all set to write about how dependent this offense is on two players and how average to terrible the rest of the lineup is. I even had the depressing stat hot and ready: the Giants got 3 hits in the first, and wouldn't get another until the eighth. The Giants just can’t win games when Melky and Buster aren’t hitting! No sir! They were going to lose this game, and you would ask yourself why you spent 3 hours watching the most boring baseball game of all time. Madison Bumgarner wasn’t even at his best. This game was nothing. I attended this game, and found myself thinking about my favorite type of pony during the 5^th inning. Which was fun! But not because of the game. 

Then, there was the eighth inning and Angel Pagan with the typical 7-6-3 double play:

It was without a doubt the greatest catch I've ever seen in person. Not only was the catch great, but the throw was unreal. While he falling down, he launched a strike right at Brandon Crawford, who threw a quick dart right in the glove pocket of Brandon Belt for the double play. The play went from go-ahead RBI double for the Padres to inning ending double play for the Giants. The best part about this play is it's Angel Pagan. His defense has been torn to shreds this year. For good reason. Sometimes he looks like he's wearing a blind fold running after the baseball, then at the last second realizes he's wearing a blind fold for no reason so he takes it off and locates the ball usually too late. His speed can make up for it much of the time, but then sometimes his speed doesn't make up for it. Still, when his awareness is on point, he can make plays like these, which was Andres Torres esque.

That was the eighth inning. The ninth inning was even better. It deserves the rest of this post. Also because I hate writing.

*****

Brandon Belt, Angel Pagan and Brandon Crawford. Those were the three hitters in the ninth inning. The first two hitters are mired in two ugly horrific slumps ( .128/.236/.149 and .210/.254/.290 in July respectively) and hadn't looked any better in this game. The third hitter has the 5th worst wOBA in baseball also known as one of the worst starting position players in baseball. The three combined to go 0 for 9 with 4 K's before the ninth. The game was destined for extra innings, because why not?

The at bat that defined not just the inning, but the game offensively for the Giants was Brandon Belt's. In a surprising turn of events, Belt quickly found himself in an 0-2 hole. Strike 2 might as well have been strike 3. That's pretty much what it's been the last week for Belt. I don't remember what it feels like to see Brandon Belt ahead in the count. It's a blurred memory, like one of those dreams you have about Emmanuel Burris hitting a grand slam to win the World Series, yet the picture is all foggy in your mind. Belt has been a strike out in human form during this slump. The rest of an at bat after an 0-2 count to Belt might as well not happen. That is what it's come down to.

So Belt was in an 0-2 hole, and the rest of the at bat had a pre-determined fate. Every pitch had that sinking feeling of inevitable doom. Except it went differently. Belt kept fouling off pitches and eventually worked the count to 3-2 and here's where you knew Belt would take his fartiness to a whole new level, because a strike out after building everybody's hopes up in the ninth inning was too perfectly awful to not happen. And suddenly, he took a pitch and get this, it was a ball. A close pitch, but a ball none the less. Brandon Belt walked! To lead off the ninth inning! Rejoice everyone! Rejoice! No longer is he 3 for his last 43! Now he's 3 for his last 43! But with one more walk! It was an incredible at bat, which is not overstating it. Everybody knew he was going to strike out, except Brandon Belt. He battled off tough pitches and coaxed a walk, which is exactly what a comfortable Brandon Belt does and looks like. This was the hitter we signed up for, the one that's an on base monster.

One at bat doesn't dispel an entire slump. But when someone's deep in a dark, dungeon like tunnel, any type of dimly lit ember at the end of the deep dark abyss is enough to give someone hope. This walk was a dimly lit ember for Brandon Belt. His at bats went from pretty okay, to horrendous over the last week. He was looking for something to hang his hat on, something to build encouragement on. This was it. This was a great at bat, the types of AB's belt was taking consistently pre-slump. Even before his hot streak in June, he still was getting on base because of at bats like these. I don't know how much pressure effects a hitter, but there was a full big rig truck load of pressure on Belt in this at bat. From 0-2 to a walk. Tough to not get encouraged by that, even if it was just one at bat.

After that, Angel Pagan came up, who has been quietly slumping all over the place since June. But Brandon Belt has gumby shoulders, so we should focus on him more. Anyways, Angel Pagan has been worse than Belt the last 2 months. And then of course, the logical result of his at bat is that he gets a base hit to left field because duh. Then a wild pitch moves the runners over and Brandon Crawford has a chance to be a hero, who has been improving despite overall having an wretched season at the plate. Of course Brandon Crawford is going to be a hero. Typical baseball game.

*****

Just a quick note on Madison Bumgarner. He wasn't at his best tonight and fell behind seemingly every hitter. But then you look up and he pitched 7 innings with 2 earned runs. On a night he didn't have his best stuff at all, he still managed to give a Vogelsong (7 innings, 2 ER). That, is when you know you have a great pitcher. Seems like a good time to remind everyone Madison Bumgarner is 22. It's a little insane. That's not what 22 year olds are supposed to do. These are the nights where the blow ups for young pitchers are supposed to occur.  To which Madison Bumgarner says something to the effect of: "lol". 

******

I'd be remiss if I didn't acknowledge this:

Everyone did their job to a tee. This play reassured me that I do indeed, like baseball.

 Here's a Pablo Sandoval update, from Alex Pavlovic 

 Bochy said he will have an MRI tomorrow and will miss at least a few days. Sandoval hopes to return for the Dodgers series, but that seems a bit optimistic given how tricky hamstring injuries can be.

Hamstring injuries can last a while. Sandoval looked like he was finding his power stroke again, doubling into triples alley in the first inning tonight. Now, another DL stint is prominently in the cards. The Free Joaquin Arias movement can finally rejoice! Connor Gillaspie might come too. Rejoice!