Giants Use Runs To Beat Padres

Ryan Vogelsong pitching a baseball. Something clever here.

Admittedly, I was watching the Dark Knight Rises during the game, so I may have missed some of the finer points of the action. Spoiler: the Dark Knight is Batman.

But if I were to make a game summary without knowing anything about the game, I would have written something like this:

Ryan Vogelsong went 7 innings with less than 3 ER, Buster Posey and Melky Cabrera were excellent and the Padres continued to be the Padres.

We look up at the actual box score, and, say, what do you know! Ryan Vogelsong went 7 innings and allowed 1 earned run, Buster Posey and Melky Cabrera went 6 for 8 with 4 RBIs, and the Padres had Mark Kotsay batting clean up! That’s so Padres!

Still, there’s something to be said for doing exactly what you're supposed to do, especially against a team like the Padres. It’s baseball. Just because it was supposed to happen, doesn’t mean you should expect it to. I mean, the Giants are playing the Padres. The team that took in Scott Hairston as a pup, brought him in as their own, taught him the ways of the wild and how to fend for survival, nourished and cleansed his soul, and bred him into the fiend he is today. Scott Hairston, he of the career .245/.302/.447 slash line. He’s supposed to be useful for sure, a right handed power bat off the bench. But he’s not supposed to be a player that sends chills down your spine when he steps to the plate in the bottom of the ninth inning of a tie game. And yet, whenever that scenario arises, Giants fans hide in a corner and think about happy things like fish tacos. Then Scott Hairston happens anyways. Vinnie Chulk never forget.

Scott Hairston is everything the Padres are, even if he’s on the Mets right now. You’re not supposed to be afraid of Scott Hairston, and you’re sure not supposed to be afraid of the Padres. They’re 16 games under .500 and Mark Kotsay is on their baseball team, playing a prominent role in the 2012 season, and batting in the same spot in the lineup as Prince Fielder is for the Tigers. The Padres have a lineup like that, against a pitcher like Ryan Vogelsong, and their best case scenario should be a tie. But again, not to belabor the point, it’s the Padres, and in baseball, nothing is supposed to go as it’s as it’s supposed to.

This was one of those games 5 years from now you probably won’t remember because it was against the Padres on a Monday night and it was exactly what is was supposed to be. As a fan however, you’re scared of these games. The ones that have no build up, no extra Brian Wilson gnome day energy, nothing, just a normal baseball game on a week day night against a boring baseball team. It was set up for disappointment even though the Giants should've won handily. And yet, everybody is calm because it happened, and it was plain and it was glorious.

The Giants won because Melky Cabrera and Buster Posey did precisely what they have done the whole season and Ryan Vogelsong did what he’s done the past one and a half seasons. Vogelsong has made 18 starts this season, 17 of those have been quality starts, 14 of those he’s pitched into the 7^th inning or later, and 13 of those he’s given up less than 2 earned runs. What did you expect was going to happen?

*****

There was one weird thing that happened, and it was Brandon Crawford getting ejected. Why did Brandon Crawford get ejected? For not stepping on first base on a double, expect actually stepping on first base, except the umpire thought he didn’t step on first base and called him out. He wasn’t actually thrown out for that, it was for stomping on first base in his subsequent at bat in frustration at the call, and umpires don’t like players stomping on bases. Umpires are sensitive people. Umpires can’t step on first base, so when players step on it they gag a little. All umpires can do is stare at it all game long, but they can't touch it! They are like dogs when a doggy treat is placed in front of them for training. They want to eat it so bad, but they have to wait because it is all part of this silly doggy training exercise. The base is the umpires' treat, except they never get to eat it. It just stays there. So when someone steps on the base emphatically, umpires get angry. That is their rule. It's a weird rule. Brandon Crawford didn’t know that rule. 

Anyways, I’m probably reading too much into it, but I’ve never seen Brandon Crawford be this emotional in a game. He usually has that same look on his face:

Neutral. Thinking about hair product. 

So is this spout with the umpire a sign of confidence in the young man, who is older than me? Put it this way, it’s not not a sign of confidence. Crawford has shown life recently, and but remember: he has the 5^th worst wOBA in baseball. It’s gotten to the point where any weak, dimly lit sign is enough for us to think “what if…” Maybe this is Crawford becoming a major league hitter. But for now, I’m going to hold that thought and put it in the same section of my brain as “maybe some day I will ride a unicorn to Middle Earth”. Probably not possible, but I still hold a sliver a hope.