Tiny Miracles

It was like a tiny miracle. After the pomp and the circumstance, after the game ball was presented to the fans, and the flag was presented to the team, and Brian Wilson made his mad dash to the flag poles in center field, and the crowd roared as it was raised into the crisp cobalt blue sky on one of the prettiest San Francisco days you'll ever see...

Like everything else about the 2010 Giants, one of the final codas came together like a fine cocktail or a tasty salsa. As the words of Freddie Mercury rang throughout the park, the air was still over McCovey Cove, and as the music behind the words swelled to a crescendo, and the orchestral choir joined in to sing out "We are the champions!" a breeze caught the banner and set it ablaze in a wash of orange and black, and the words "2010 World Series Champions" unfurled for the 43,000 faithful to admire and enjoy. And we did bask in the glow of the achievement of our baseball-loving lives. And the air smelled sweeter. And the sausages were delicious.

And then, they played a game. I'm not going to bore you with the particulars of the 5-4 epic battle that took place by the shores of San Francisco Bay on April the 8th in the year 2011. I'll leave that to scribes more talented than myself. Like this guy. Or this guy. Or this guy. If you want to know what I thought of the game, you can check my Twitter timeline. I will say this: No matter how much we want to ditch the torture idiom, it will always be there for this team. We are not Red Sox Nation. We'll never blow anybody away with our talent on paper. But boy, when this team comes together, they can do just about anything at any given moment. And they did it all yesterday.

I feel kinda bad for Eli Whiteside. Poor dude was the only guy on the 25-man who didn't get into the game. But that happens when you're the backup catcher to the reigning Rookie of the Year. And I have a feeling he was just as keyed up as anyone else in the park. He'll get his chance to contribute to this season's success or failure. Baseball finds everybody on that bench sooner or later, and makes them answer for themselves.

It also finds new ways each and every day to make you turn your head and say to the person next to you, "Damn, I've never seen that before." Case in point: Tonight, we #PutARingOnIt...

Countdown to Scottsdale #15: Eli Whiteside, C

I sing the song of Eli Whiteside, the toughest backup backstop in baseball. I was at Safeco Field for Eli's Gigantes debut in May of 2009. I remember it well because it was the morning after Juan U-RIBE's huuuuuge bases-clearing double that pretty much turned the entire season around. I took the trip with the girl I was seeing at the time. Ostensibly, we were in Seattle to visit some buddies of hers from the old home place. But you can't fault a fan for being a little distracted when his ballclub's in town. She didn't quite understand why I was so ecstatic over Uribe's big hit or why I was so giddy to catch the first game of this new catcher with the unnaturally white hair, but she played along admirably. Eli rolled his first hit as a Giant through the 5-6 hole to get the boys on the board and came up late with a chance to tie the game, but it was not meant to be for the Orange and Black on that particular Sunday.

Little did I realize at the time that was Eli's first MLB appearance since 2005. Little did any of us know the impact he would have on the next two years of Giants baseball. You'll recall the night that Eli became Jonathan Sanchez's personal catcher. It was the same night Dirty held the Padres without a hit at AT&T Park. Yes, that's right: The lone Giants no-hitter in the past 35 years was caught by none other than Eli Whiteside. He should thank his lucky stars from here to eternity that Bengie Molina's wife went into labor that night. After that, Eli had his spot in the catching rotation — and his place in Giants lore — secured. And as Big Money began to slowly deteriorate, the simple country boy from Mississippi became more and more of a fixture on this team.

Then came Gerald "Buster" Posey. And the rest, as they say, is history. Eli did his best to get some playing time after Bengie was traded away to the Rangers and Gerald became the everyday backstop. He even fought his way into a few games during the dog days to give a breather to the future Rookie of the Year. But by the end of September, Young Goodman Whiteside was pretty much an afterthought. He can always brag to $126M man Barry Zito that he made the postseason roster, but he didn't make it into a single game. Regardless, he was there to share in the champagne shower when it was all said and done, and he deserved every moment.

Thanks, Eli.

Live tweeting space filler

Instead of reflecting on Monday night's game while my head is still throbbing from beating it against the wall, I offer you the following history of Sunday's contest via my Twitter feed. Do check it out and give a brother a follow while you're there...

12:17 PM Aug 29th
Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated. Live tweeting from Section 104 to commence shortly. Stay tuned. #sfgiants

2:26 PM
Back up again after issues with AT&T Park WiFi. Ironic considering I rock an iPhone. Anyway, back to the game... #sfgiants

2:32 PM
Catching up on the game: Matt Cain = horse. Andres Torres = beast. Eli Whiteside = not Buster. Pablo Sandoval = Panda. #sfgiants

2:34 PM
@sfgiants Can we hear some "Good Vibrations" on the #SFGOrgan?

3:03 PM
Shotgun gave us just what the doctor ordered today. This rotation needs a leader. Cain might be the guy. #sfgiants

3:17 PM
Well, I always like to be there when the season ends. #sfgiants

3:22 PM
#sfgiants and #Padres with dueling four-game slides. G's could be on the verge of being 2 out. Could be.

3:26 PM
Guillen's had all kinds of chances to make up for beefing that 1st inning popup yesterday. He just came thru big time. #sfgiants #BeatAZ

3:28 PM
We. Will. Not. Lose. Today. RT @GSWJim  @ArcadeDreams Maybe spoken too soon.

3:32 PM
First time I've seen the McCovey Cove suite unoccupied. Might have to run a guerilla maneuver and bum rush the joint. #sfgiants

3:40 PM
Yeah. #thathappened #sfgiants

3:41 PM
Yeah. #thathappened too. #sfgiants

3:48 PM
SURGEON GENERAL'S WARNING:  #sfgiants baseball may be bad for your health.

3:55 PM
Even my usher is ripping Bochy for his machinations. I usually cut him some slack, but why put Wilson in Nate's spot & not Ross'? #sfgiants

[Butch's note: That last one turned out to be a prophetic tweet.]

The Big Payback

Series of the year, game of the year, hit of the year, not necessarily in that order.

Friday, August 28th
Giants 2, Rockies 0
WP: Lincecum (13-4); LP: Jimenez (12-10); S: Wilson (31)
HR: SF - Sandoval (20)

If there’s one player the Giants can’t afford to lose, it’s Tim Lincecum. If there’s one more, it’s Pablo Sandoval. They needed both of them to win this one. They’ll need Panda to win the next two. No doubt about it now. They have to sweep, and they’ve set out to do just that.

Yeah, of course they need to do better with situational hitting. Tell me something I don’t know. It’s as if by writing and talking about it incessantly, folks think they can actually change the status quo. Do they seriously think Carney Lansford, Shawon Dunston, Roberto Kelly, and every other hitting instructor in the dugout hasn’t reamed every man on the roster about this at one point or another? They probably bitch and moan about it all the time. Eventually, we have to accept that this team is chock full of free-swinging pine tar gamblers. They see the ball, they hit the ball. Sometimes they make 27 quiet outs, sometimes they don’t.

That said, it looks as though Gino Velez has righted the ship to some extent, though it makes me smile to think of a guy who’s been up in the Show less a month righting the ship. Truth is, he’d have to spontaneously combust to return to the level he was playing at in the weeks after he got the call.

My inner child smiled a bit when starting catcher pro tempore Eli Whiteside nailed Troy “Hometown Boy” Tulowitzki not once, but twice while trying to steal second base. I’ll admit, I have no idea why I hate the man known as “Tulo,” but he seems to have replaced Matt Holliday as my least favorite Rocky. Maybe it’s the cheer they do for him at Coors. Maybe it’s his cocky home run trot. Maybe it’s just his ass face. Whatever it is, guy bugs is the point, and Whiteside flashed some serious skills that made me forget that Bengie Molina’s still riding the pine.

While Matt Cain’s gone winless since July, Ubaldo Jimenez has been the ace of my fantasy staff. The decision to start him against the Giants was not a hard one to make, particularly after their abysmal performance against him in Colorado in his previous start. But if you don’t mind my saying, it worked out pretty well for all those concerned. The G-Men got the W, Jimenez didn’t get lit up too much, and nobody got hurt. The only better scenario would’ve been eight shutout innings from Jimenez and a ninth inning walk-off victory against the bullpen.

Once again, the Giants recover within 24 hours of a demoralizing defeat and add to the legend of 2009: The Team That Wouldn’t Stay Down.

Stat of the Night

This marked the sixth time Lincecum has pitched at least eight scoreless innings this season. No other pitcher has done that more than three times.

Quote of the Night

"You want to get that game one, then go for tomorrow, then the sweep. Obviously it's tough to sweep a team, but right now is the time to do it, and if we can do that, we can just get a little momentum going." - Brian Wilson, who picked up save #31

Saturday, August 29th
Giants 5, Rockies 3
WP: Zito (9-11); LP: Marquis (14-9); S: Wilson (32)
HR: COL - Hawpe (19); SF - Sandoval (21)

Barry Zito got a curtain call. By now you know that is not a typo. It’s been the talk of the town since he walked off the field in the top of the ninth after surrendering what could have been his first shutout since 2003.

Updating previously-reported stats, ZIto is 4-2 with a 1.77 ERA since the All-Star break. Is that line good enough for $5,000 a pitch? Of course not, but at least it doesn’t suck.

The patience of Giants fans has been tested over the past three years by Peter Magowan’s $126 million impulse buy. (Funny how he only splurged on guys named Barry.) Only now are we witnessing the potential of the stoner with a curveball who left UC-Santa Barbara after his sophomore year and finished up his collegiate career at another party school, USC. To say that I’m rooting for Mr. Zito would be a drastic understatement.

Two years ago, in the Summer of 2007, I attended a three-game series at Chavez Ravine, as I’ve done every year since returning to the place where thing make sense (every year but last year, when something more important got in the way). Zito won the rubber match with seven strong innings, and lost in the postgame haze, I stuck around outside the gates with the autograph hounds.

At the start of the season, I’d bought a new home jersey complete with the All-Star patch and the number of the Giants’ big free-agent acquisition, my fellow Trojan, Barry Zito. Just like the decision to hang around in hostile territory after dark, my choice of jersey was made in a haze. It just made sense at the time. It made even more sense when I found myself wearing it in the parking lot waiting for players to emerge from the clubhouse and struggling to recognize them in street clothes.

Zito came out last and was swarmed immediately. A crowd of twenty to thirty men in their late teens to early fifties, all carrying Sharpies and 8x10 glossies of Zito in action — many of them taken while he was with the A’s — followed him like a pack of rabid dogs to the car he’d driven to the game. He was gracious and signed for everybody, even chatting up the guys who engaged him.

Eventually, he had to stop in the middle of the lot as the crowd got too thick, and I squeaked to the front of the pack. I borrowed the silver pen of a guy with whom I’d struck up an earlier conversation over a cigarette, took the jersey off my back, and passed both to the 126 Million Dollar Man. He thanked me for some kind words about his performance and signed the vertical line of the 7 in his number. I got the jersey back, returned the pen to its owner, and watched him sign something for every single person in that crowd.

Maybe the scene would’ve played out differently if he’d been lit up by the Hated Ones that night, but I don’t think so. The raindrops just seem to roll right off this guy.

The postscript to that story is I’ve had the jersey hanging in my closet untouched ever since and still haven’t procured another home jersey to replace it. Even without Zito’s autograph, I would’ve retired it anyway. That same night, I was struck in the shoulder by a hot dog thrown by a disgruntled fan of the Hated Ones. The attack left mustard stains on my jersey, but I didn’t stress the mess. In fact, I wore it as a badge of honor.

Butch’s Btw

Yes, my sphincter was just as tight as yours while the Rockies rallied in the ninth, but if you think anything’s gonna come easy for this team, you’ve got another thing coming.

Stat of the Night

Zito struck out the side to start a game for the first time since July 29, 2001, against the Kansas City Royals.

Quote of the Night

"I don't think it's gonna be a good night. I'm tired." - Pablo Sandoval, just before he crushed the 50th Splash Hit by a Giant despite playing through a strained right calf and flu-like symptoms

Sunday, August 30th
Giants 9, Rockies 5
WP: Medders (3-1); LP: Betancourt (1-3)
HR: COL - Helton (13), Tulowitzki (24); SF - Rentería GS (4)

Revenge is a dish best served cold. I prefer it with a healthy portion of karma on the side. Edgar Renteria’s grand slam in the bottom of the seventh had plenty of both.

Forget the inability to score with runners at second and third with nobody out in the sixth. Forget working only 23 pitches out of Jason Hammel the first time through the lineup. Forget Ryan Spilborghs and 14 innings of frustration at Coors Field. Edgar made that all go away with one swing of the bat, and if your head didn’t hit the ceiling when it happened, either you’re not a Giants fan, or you were standing outside. I can tell you this much: If you were watching that game, there’s no way you weren’t on your feet.

Among all the heroes to emerge from this improbable season before Sunday, Renteria was almost an afterthought. Maligned by fans for his lofty contract before he’d even had a chance to step into the batter’s box, he’s quietly been a leader in the clubhouse. Recently marginalized by the revelation of bone spurs in his elbow, which will require off-season surgery, he’s responded with his best ABs of the season. Disrespected on a daily basis by the likes of Damon Bruce and Mychael Urban on the 50K-Watt blowtorch, the man finally stuck it up their collective ass.

What a way to end an August in which the Giants went 16-12 and experienced every fathomable emotion and faced an endless string of must-win situations. Much has already been written about the tremendous turnaround of the past week and the miraculous finish to this game in particular, and I won’t add to the redundancy except to say that of all my years as a baseball fan and a fan of the Orange and Black, I’ve never felt as funny as I do right now. There have been many good years, a couple prolonged runs of success, players with exceptional talents, a new ballpark, and several South Bay ballpark initiatives, but for the first time in my adult life I feel as though, with this team, anything is possible.

That said, there’s still one long month of stressful games to negotiate, but after surviving a week like this, Giants fans should be ready for anything.

Some game notes:

• Give it up to Jeremy Affeldt, the workhorse of the Giants’ bullpen, who got himself into a tight spot in the eighth but was man enough to get himself out of it. Hopefully an appearance like this can help him forget his one poor stretch of the season and propel him the rest of the way.

• How ‘bout that Ryan Rohlinger? I’m not discontinuing my membership in the Franny Fan Club, but that was one crucial hit for a almost-rook still searching for a batting average. And how classic was it to watch him relive the entire AB with Roberto Kelly once he got to first. I can hear Roberto now, “Nice hit, kid. Now shut up and pay attention.”

• The wait is never a long one for a visiting player to look awful goofy trying to defend right field at 24 Willie Mays Plaza. Even when an out is recorded, the play usually looks so bad it makes Giants fans appreciate guys like Randy Winn and Nate Schierholtz even more.

Stat of the Day: Former Giants Edition

Rockies backstop and past San Francisco fan favorite Yorvit Torrealba singled in the eighth to extend his career-best hitting streak to 10 games.

Quote of the Day: Full Circle Edition

"If you have ambitions of playing baseball in October, when you get knocked down you've got to stand back up.” - Rockies Manager Jim Tracy

Series debrief

There’s a lot to be said for chemistry. Can a team win without the players going out for coffee? Sure it can, and Giants fans need look back no further than 2002 to know that’s the truth. If you’ve got the talent top to bottom of a team like the Yankees, Red Sox, Cardinals or Phillies, you can live with a little bad blood in the clubhouse. When you’re scratching and clawing to stay in the playoff race on a team playing far beyond it’s career stat lines, chemistry is everything.

A team of haters would have imploded after a game like the Giants experienced a little less than one week ago in Colorado. A clubhouse full of prima donnas would have eaten itself alive. A chartered plane full of spoiled brats, no matter how talented, no matter how overpaid, would have folded the season and made reservations for Pebble on October the 5th.

This team rebounded with a resiliency only a tight-knit brotherhood of professionals can produce. They trumped everyone’s expectations once again and shot themselves back into the pennant hunt like a Saturn 5 rocket.

P.S. Brian Sabean just pulled a Brad Penny out of his ass to lock down that five hole in the rotation, so it looks like the MadBum faithful will have to wait ‘til next year. Meantime, Butch is ticked because he figured off days would allow the No. 5 spot to be skipped twice before his trip to L.A. for the final series with the Hated Ones. That would line up Lincecum, Zito and Cain to pitch those three contests, which still might go a long way toward determining the season’s endgame. With this addition the starters for the L.A. trip should be Sanchez, Penny and Lincecum. Not bad, but we just caught a glimpse of what the big three can do in a short series.

Hot to Trot

Used to be the G-Men owned Enron Field. Good to see we're getting back to basics now that the place is named after orange juice.

Monday, August 3rd
Astros 4, Giants 3
WP: Hampton (7-8); LP: Cain (12-3); S: Valverde (13)
HR: HOU - Blum (6), Matsui (5)

Matt Cain’s had a tough time trying to collect his unlucky 13th victory, but nobody can fault him for lack of effort. In his last two outings, he’s turned in a nine-inning shutout of the Bucs and an eight-inning gem against the ‘Stros. The first was spoiled by a non-existent offense; the second by a chip shot and a fluke. In a gimmicky park like this, the team with the most homers will generally prevail, and the home club had more of those on this particular night.

BREAKING NEWS: Eugenio Velez human after all! Of course, he also picked up a pair of hits and scored a run.

We’ve still got at least a week before Nasty Nate returns from his gruesome injury suffered while being a baddass, so the jury’s still out on what the starting outfield will look like when he does. But as much as I love the kid from San Ramon Valley High, the new-and-improved Velez is opening a lot of eyes — mine included. No clue he had this kind of talent, and there’s only so much longer we can go on expecting it not to last.

Here’s a play that got me thinking of a possible solution, and I’m pretty sure the bone spurs in Edgar Renteria’s elbow had nothing to do with it. The guy’s just lost a step... or two, and I’m pretty sure EV could play a little short if his manager asked.

Quote of the Night

“Why not? I gave up 35,000 Big Macs already.” - Matt Cain, who gave up a dinger to Kaz Matsui that clanked off the Chick-Fil-A ad that runs along the screen on the right field foul pole, awarding free chicken sandwiches for anyone with a ticket stub from the game. Last year in St. Louis, The Great Pujols took Cain deep into the Big Mac seats. You can guess what fans got for that.

Stat of the Night

Velez’s BA stands at a blistering .439 during a 10-game hitting streak.

Tuesday, August 4th
Giants 8, Astros 1
WP: Sanchez (5-9); LP: Paulino (2-6)
HR: SF - Sanchez (7), Sandoval (17)

There’s a lot to be said about the awakening of the Giants road offense, and a lot of it has to do with the newest additions to the club, but Jonathan Sanchez deserves some major kudos tonight for picking up his first road victory of the season. Better late than never, right? Don’t look now, but this team’s most dangerous and unpredictable lefty starter is beginning to figure things out.

Getting back to that awakening offense...

How sweet was it for Freddy “Boom-Boom” Sanchez and the Kung Fu Panda to go back-to-back to put the game officially out of reach? I was on the phone with a friend who ended up getting an unexpected earful of nonsensical shouting. By the time I remembered I was s’posed to be contributing to a conversation, I’d nearly blown out her eardrums.

BREAKING NEWS: Eugenio Velez still a robot!

Quote of the Night

“Baseball works in funny ways. You hit the ball hard, that’s what you’re supposed to do, and you don’t get hits. It can happen to anybody. It happened to me. Hopefully the hits will all be at the end of the year.” - Bengie Molina, who collected three hits in a breakout game. As his fantasy owner, I’m hoping for the same thing.

Stat of the Night

Jonathan Sanchez collected an infield hit in the fifth inning to snap out of a horrendous 0-for-40 slump that stretched to June 12 — of last season.

Wednesday, August 5th Giants 10, Astros 6
WP: J. Martinez (2-0); LP: Moehler (7-7)
HR: SF - Whiteside (1) GS; HOU - Pence (14)

Three cheers for Joe Martinez! Not only did he come back from an injury that would’ve sent many a man to permanent obsolescence, but he’s been born again hard, and this team has rallied to his side. Joltin’ Joe’s teammates willed him to victory by overcoming a deficit of more than two runs for the first time since Sept. 20 of last year.

These are the games you need to win if you’re going to make a splash come October, and the Giants finally have the offense to do it. I can’t express how deflating a 3-0 second-inning deficit would’ve looked prior to this week. But with contributions from the new kids on the block and a landmark shot from Babe Whiteside, worry has been replaced with a calm I haven’t felt in a long, long time...

This victory puts the Giants twelve games over for the first time all year — indeed, for the first time in five years! It also marks the first time since Randy Johnson went on the DL that the team won back to back games started by the fourth (J-Sanchez) and fifth (Sadowski/Martinez) starters. Put that in your pipe and smoke it.

One final note about this piece of s**t ballpark and I’ll leave it alone: Something has to be done about the grassy knoll in centerfield that should’ve stayed in Dallas. One of these days, somebody’s gonna get seriously hurt, and when that day comes, all the Cassandras like me will be there to say, “I told you so.”

Stat of the Day

Since joining los Gigantes via last week’s trades, F-Sanchez and Donnie Garko have a combined line of 14-for-44 (.318), HR, 3B, 2B, 7 R, 6 RBI.

Series debrief

Regular McCovey Chronicles contributor Grant has a great piece on the trials and tribulations of being a die-hard fan of the Orange and Black. Reading it took me back to a time when all I did was wait for the other shoe to drop, walking around with a scowl on my face after a three-game sweep because the offense only went 2-for-15 with RISP. But let’s face it, after five disappointing seasons that ended without an October and 51 years of frustration piled upon aggravation, it’s high time someone brought a little bit of optimism to this idiom.

I’m typically more than comfortable in a cynical mode and would not hesitate to point out that this team has let us down many times before and could very easily do so again, but I can admit that I’m looking ahead with a smile on my face. After all, we weren’t even supposed to be in this position at this point in this season. Remember when our new Managing General Partner made .500 the benchmark for success in 2009? How easily winning can turn us into spoiled little children.

This is baseball, everybody. It’s not energy independence, comprehensive immigration reform or universal health care. In other words: There are more important things in life for us to fret about. Let’s do ourselves a favor and treat this game for what it is: entertainment. Our happiness should not ebb and flow with Pablo Sandoval’s OPS.

I will now descend from the soap box.

Miracle at 24 Willie Mays Plaza

There's going to be an awful lot written about Jonathan Sánchez no-hitting the Padres Friday night at the Cove, and I don't want to repeat any of what's already been said. This opening salvo of Under the Bleachers is about a personal moment for me, for my family, and anyone who truly, madly, deeply cares about this team.

Around noon, a friend Facebooked that he had an extra ticket to the Giants game and would anyone like to join him? Normally, I would've been the first to comment back that hell yes I would love to go to the Giants game and when and where can I meet you? But last night, I had a previous engagement. So I declined. And why not?

Tim Lincecum had thrown a gem the previous evening, Matt Cain was scheduled to go today, and in between was the problem child with confidence and concentration issues, starting only because the Big Unit had just landed himself on the DL by taking what has to be one of the ugliest swings in baseball history. I'm not going to say our chances for a W were slim. After all, we've got the second-best record in the league, and the Padres are, well, the Padres. But the matchup certainly left a lot to be desired. So I declined.

I went to the dinner I'd planned to attend, figuring I'd leave around 8:30 and pick the game up on the radio around the fourth inning. I was one frame off. By the time I returned to my car, I was listening to Sánchez set down the side in the top of the fifth. I remember hearing Kuiper say the Pads had none baserunners through five and thinking, "Well, 'bout time for our head case pitcher to fall apart."

After stopping by work to pick up a forgotten file, I got back in the car in time to hear Panda's monster three-run jack land somewhere in Hayward. If you'll allow me to digress from the no-hitter thread for a moment... After watching a replay later in the evening, I'd have to say that's right up there among the two or three most impressive dingers in the short history of our waterfront ballpark. The other two I'd place alongside it on the mantle? The Big Cat's bomb to the left field promenade above the bleachers in '01 and Bonds' 10th-inning Splash Hit walk-off against Ray King and the Braves in his return to the lineup direct from his father's deathbed in August '03. (The former for sheer audacity, the latter for the pure emotion. Did I mention Bonds hit another extra-inning walk-off in the same series?)

By the time I reached my abode and had the TV tuned to Kruk-n-Kuip-ville, Little Johnny Sánchez was striking out the side in the top of the seventh. The knowledge of Giants fans in the park who cheered the K of Tony Gwynn, Jr., really impressed me and filled me with a sense of pride. All year, I've felt like the faithful have been slowly but surely taking back the ballpark from the wine-and-cheesers more interested in saying they were there for another Bonds milestone than actually pulling for the team. It says a lot about our progress that the majority of the 30K in attendance last night recognized that Gwynn had broken up Timmy's no-no in the very same inning one night before.

My eighth inning was absolute hell as I struggled to resist the temptation to call every Giants fan on my cell's contacts list, but Sánchez looked cool as the other side of the pillow, especially after "El Dictador" U-Ribe! got hit with the wet noodle of bad karma. Most pitchers can't get over moments like that. Hell, we just watched The Great Lincecum practically fall to pieces after Gwynn got his aforementioned hit on Thursday. It only took one pitch to bring Johnny back into the game. He threw one to the backstop, but recovered to retire the next two batters, including former Giants catcher Eliezer Alfonzo, who I thought for sure would break it up for the sake of synchronicity.

After Eliezer swung over the top of another perfect breaking ball, I called three people: my younger brother, my father, and my mother. I didn't have to say a word to my brother. He was a nervous wreck, watching the game with our middle brother and a room full of friends with no concept of baseball or the implications of what was transpiring on the television. Consequently, they couldn't utter a word to each other for fear of having to explain the situation and thus "jinx" it.

Satisfied, I rang my father, who it turns out was in another room of the same house as my brothers surfing the net and chatting on the phone — a.k.a. snurfing. I demanded he turn on the game or go watch it with his sons.

"Why?" he asked, and I almost cursed him out.

"Dad, how many times in this life have I called you and ordered you to turn on a game?"

"Why? What's happening?"

"Turn on the game. Look at the line score. That's all I'm gonna say." And I hung up.

Mom was the easiest of the bunch. All I had to do was say, "As your son, I'd advise you to pause the movie you're watching and switch over to the Giants game." Her response? "OK. I won't say a word." I love my mom.

Waiting out our rally in the bottom of the ninth was agony. I bit my lip when Sánchez took a huge rip on an 0-1 fastball at the letters. Just our luck that he'd pull an oblique right there. By the time he came out for the ninth, my heart was racing, the crowd was on its feet to stay, and my immediate family was poised in front of three different televisions in three different rooms, watching something a full 3/5ths of them had never seen in their lives.

Again, there is much that could be written about those last three outs, and much of it has already been said. All I remember is kneeling before the television like a penitent man in church. I had to stop pacing, but I couldn't sit down.

When Rowand went into the wall to save it all I pounded the floor with my hands until they stung.

When Cabrera watched that last back-door slider slip through a corner of the strike zone, when Brian Runge rung him up with the gusto of a trained actor who knows he's playing the role of his life, when Sánchez met Whiteside for a hug about 30 feet, 3 inches from home plate, I didn't cry, I didn't pray. I just kept uttering the words: "Unbelievable... Absolutely unbelievable..."

It was as close as I'd been to that level of bliss since Game 5 of the 2002 NLCS. I went so ape shit I missed eight calls and spent the rest of the night on the phone. Then, I woke up this morning and figured it was about time I dust off my fingers and finally put some content up on this here blog thingy. Because there's something happening at 24 Willie Mays Plaza, and if you don't believe I suggest you attend a game sometime soon. (Did I mention Matt Cain is pitching tonight?)

I'm no fairweather fan. I'll tell it like it is, and I'll opine as to why it is. But I pride myself on being honest about my team. In many ways, I think the true fanatics are the only ones who can achieve the level of objectivity we all wish could be found in sports journalism. Reactionary I'm not. Passionate I am.

If you want wall-to-wall doom-and-gloom or non-stop homerism, you're gonna have to go somewhere else.

Such is baseball. Such is life.