Hitting Of Santiago Casilla Propels Giants To Victory

Pablo Sandoval plays the "I'm not touching you" game at an odd time

The Giants have a 7.5 game lead in the NL West. I know they had that yesterday too, but I was on vacation for the past week and I wasn’t able to process the information until today. Vacations are great opportunities to let you mind go dormant, and when a college student’s summer vacation mind goes even more dormant than it was previously in the summer, that’s basically thinking at a level lower than a fetus.

Of course, I followed the Giants on twitter and whatnot, but coming home seeing the Giants 7.5 games up after being on vacation is like waking up from a good dream is now a great reality. This is true when I dream about baseball, but not when I dream about girls, so there is something that’s important about me. But anyways, 7.5 games. In an attempt not to get overly jynx-happy, 7.5 is a heck of a lead.

The Dodgers won tonight, in a come from behind victory, a win that on any night previous to tonight would elicit some type of rage in Giants fans. I probably would have tossed in a few stupid Shane Victorino jokes. But alas, not tonight. The lead is still sitting at 7.5 game. Scoreboard watching is becoming less and less significant by the day. For the 2.5 weeks remaining in the season, there is a renewed sense of calm in watching Giants baseball. Calm before the playoff storm. It’s easy to watch a contending Giants team.

Every year there are a few playoff teams that earn a relatively tranquil stretch before October when they have everything wrapped up and have nothing to play for before the playoffs. That is what is coming right now for the Giants. For the first time since 2003, a playoff contending Giants team is approaching a stretch of baseball where the question isn’t if they will get in the playoffs, but where they will be in the playoffs. It's been 9 years since Giants fans been able to do that. Buster Posey was learning how to shave. Although judging by a recent growth of neck hair, he is still working out the kinks.

But man, sure is nice to relax. 

Yeah so anyways don’t blame this passage when the 2012 Giants experience the biggest collapse in NL West history and don’t make the playoffs.

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Watching the Diamonback hitters tonight was like watching a replay of the 2011 Giants offense, except with hitters that are adept at said skill. A team that last season was extra innings away from the NLCS is now toiling on the outskirts of contention, and tonight, their offense couldn’t hit a lick with runners on base, stranding 1500 base runners. Justin Upton, 4^th in the 2011 MVP voting, stranded over half of them (7). Matt Cain escorted players down to first base, and yet, the Diamondbacks ended up scoring a fat goose egg against him. A former division winner that failed miserably with runners on base and is about to miss the playoffs. Sounds familiar. This is an offense with Aaron Hill, Jason Kubel, Paul Goldschimdt, Justin Upton, and Miguel Montero. That’s 5 varying levels of above average major league hitters.

Should be noted that the offense and “clutch” hitting haven’t been the problem for the D’Backs this season. But when you watch a fading team desperate for oxygen flail like they did today given the number of opportunities they had, it just brings back the memories. It's especially gratifying when the same thing that happened to the 2011 Giants, happens to the same team that knocked the 2011 Giants. 

And of course it’s Matt Cain who gets lucky tonight.

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Hunter Pence in his last 70 plate appearances .274/.348/.500. Small sample size applies. But that pretty much confirms what we already thought. Hunter Pence is finding his stroke, and he’s talented enough to where this isn’t some type of fluke production that is bound to stop. He’s still lunging for sliders like an untamed Aaron Rowand, but I’m starting to think that’s just his thing. Not imitating Aaron Rowand I mean, just the lunging for sliders part.

As a result of this performance, here's a video of Hunter Pence goofing around with Logan Morrison.

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Then there is Santiago Casilla. A man who became the feature of not one, but two articles breaking down his approach into its component parts. His at bats are something of a national event these days, with the unique approach of young Santiago. But tonight, his at bat resulted in something not even the greatest oracles could have ever predicted. Santiago Casilla hit an RBI single. (via @gidget)

An incredible strike at the baseball. Here is visual proof that Santiago Casilla has put himself on the all-time hit leaderboard. Let the chase begin.