Baseball Related Post About Baseball Related Victory

Pablo Sandoval swinging at a pitch probably somewhere near the Earth's core.

For the season, this one goes down as one more victory. Its value is equal to that of a Tuesday night win against the Astros in mid May. A month from now, we might not be able to distinguish this game from the 450 other games the Giants play against the Padres this year. But right now, this win was a little more than a victory against a team 14 games back in the division. It was a win that meant baseball can be a topic again in San Francisco. Actual live baseball where bats hit balls and Buster Posey does dreamy baseball things. This win picked up the giant glass of “PED discussion” that the city was drinking for the past 3 days and dumped it out into the Pacific Ocean where it will eventually be washed away.

I know PEDs are an important topic in baseball. Look I love a good “Baseball player getting injected in the butt by another baseball player” story as much as the next guy. But’s it’s just the absolute worst to talk about. It’s so tedious. The only good thing about PED discussion is it reminds me to read Jose Canseco’s twitter page and reassure myself about my life choices.

Tonight, baseball is back on the front page. A loss tonight would mean more questioning about the Melky affect, feeding that juicy narrative that the Giants clubhouse is in shambles in the post-suspension world. Yet Matt Cain stomped on that narrative and announced “Nay, thou art not doomed. Thy presence shall thwart ye struggles.” I’m paraphrasing.

There were faint, quiet whispers a few weeks backs, questioning Matt Cain’s performance post perfect game. After tonight, those whispers are surely to become silent. He carried a no hitter into the 5^th inning, and gave up 4 baserunners in 8 innings, 2 of which were allowed in one inning. All his pitches were working, and he worked efficiently throughout. It was vintage Matt Cain. This was a team in desperate need of a win to keep everyone’s mind off a grimy situation. There isn’t a better pitcher out there for the job than Matt Cain.

It’s really too bad Matt Cain couldn’t finish off that no-no he had tonight. You just don’t get those chances everyday.

*****

Hey look runs. 10 of them! Mommy can I keep them! I want them all! Maybe I can take some of them to use against Chad Billingsley when he is being annoying. That’d be just dandy.

It’s weird, but not something I’m going to complain about. The Giants have scored the most runs on the road in the all of baseball. It’s not the Tokyo Giants either! Rejoice! Here are the runs totals of the last 8 Giants road games: 16, 11, 8, 2, 4, 15, 1, 10. Half of them have been in double digits. There’s no rhyme or reason for these results. There’s that whole belief AT&T zaps hitters of their entire ability to be baseball players, except if that’s true, then Petco forces hitters to strike out twice in one at bat. And oh hey look, the Giants played in Petco tonight, don’t ya know, so it’s not like the ball park plays that big a role in this recent Giants run of offense. It’s just something odd that happens in baseball, because the Giants aren’t as good as their offense is on the road but certainly aren’t as bad as they’ve appeared at home.

Posey, Pence, Pablo, and Belt, sprinkled with Scutaro and Pagan, a touch of Blanco and a soft, faint stroke of Brandon Crawford. The loss of Melky Cabrera will hurt, but that’s far from the worst lineup in the world. That can actually be a good offense. 4 guys with .800+ OPS potentially and the rest of the hitters are competent major league hitters, sans Brandon Crawford, who has been showing dim flashes. Worth noting that in August he’s hitting .350/.409/.475 in 44 PA. It’s probably just a small sample, but who knows, this could be a sign Crawford is becoming at least a slightly below average hitter. I can just imagine little Brandon Crawford saying “Mama, when I grow up, ima be a below average major league baseball hitter! Nobody can stop me!”

*****

It'd be swell if more game were like this. Hooray Ross Ohlendorf!