The Giants and I had a little texting back-and-forth. It went like this. (My texts are in blue. The Giants texts are in grey.)
We beat LA. We swept LA. We took first place from LA. They kind of took It’s Magic Inside from us but, really, that’s fine, they’re welcome to it. They’re also welcome to It’s September Inside. (You don’t say! Here was me thinking it was a different month inside and outside the stadium. Nice to hear it’s September inside, too.)
Diamond Girl
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I am a Giants fan, so I am genetically programmed to like low-scoring games. Especially when those low-scoring games feature Madison Bumgarner going eight innings, scoreless, and the offense squeezing out enough to just win it by a final of 2-1. The Sergio-Romo-can’t-deal-with-Hanley-Ramirez-and-D-list-celebrities is a blip on the map. This series in LA, which is a pretty huge one, couldn’t have gotten off to a better start. Sure, a little more offense might have induced a little less nail-biting, but overall, the Giants pretty much did what they’ll have to do to win games down the stretch. Additionally, they took first place in the National League West – up half a game up from the Dodgers – and set a slightly suspect record. Per @MLB: For first time in liveball era, pair of LHPs (Bumgarner & Kershaw) reached double digits in K’s and issued 0 walks in same game.
Which is kind a cool statistic, despite the multitude of modifiers which make it roughly similar to me telling you that I made lemon cupcakes on the third Tuesday in August for the first time ever and expecting you to be really stoked. Okay, maybe not exactly similar. But roughly. Definitely roughly.
Anyhows. Lincecum is taking the mound tonight, so I’m kind in limbo about how to feel. I’m just going to try to be mellow and peace out, because that’s what we do in the Bay Area when we’re stressed, right? No? Well, it’s worth a try. The rivalry with the Dodgers is certainly a lot of fun this year, with both teams being in contention again, but I may not think it’s fun at all after tonight. Right. Optimism only. Tonight is going to be fantastic, people!
Lastly, one more thing for GMs to consider before finalizing a deal! Make sure the player has a current passport and he knows where it is and all that jazz. Especially if you’re in the American League, but even if you’re not, because Bud Selig does love his Interleague Play, you know. And if the thing that’s scared the guy away from getting a passport is the dreaded photo, never fear, USA Today has lots of useful tips for that! Playing Jose Bautista and whoever else is on the Blue Jays, come hither.
Diamond Girl
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Why does Hunter Pence inspire acrostics? Good question. I’ll let you know if/when I find out.
How can you predict baseball?
U are just resigning yourself to
Never getting a good deal at the
Trade Deadline, leastways not
Eugenio Velez (irrelevant line, keep moving, guys.)
Right now, in 2012.
People have short
Evaluation windows and
No one was absolutely thrilled with Hunter Pence’s
Clutch hitting to start off his career with
Emily’s Giants (because they are Emily’s Giants, aren’t they?)
I know I wasn’t and
Some random person on Twitter wasn’t, so…
Anyway!
We were all feel kind of downerish about this.
Everyone hates the Dodgers and we needed
Someone to be that difference-maker
Other than Buster Posey, ‘cause he goes without saying
My personal opinion was that Pence was doing fine but
Everyone knows fine is not the same as
Absolutely awesome.
Fate intervened!
The Giants were having a seriously up-and-down game today when
Everyone’s (new) favorite Hunter Pence drove home the point that the
Rockies are toast. (Which means Dan O’Dowd is still welcome for toast and tea at my place.)
A homer! The first in his Giants career!
Let’s all chill out and do yoga or whatever.
Let’s also acknowledge the undeniable fantasticness of Hunter Pence, even aside from that neat little homer.
Diamond Girl
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It’s not like Colorado is all that fantastic this year (understatement of the century? Perhaps.) but still, coming off of that sweep, seeing a little momentum carry over would have been good. The Cardinals very unceremoniously killed any momentum that might have been there, taking the first game of the series by a final of 8-2. Angel Pagan led off the game with a homer and is staying hot, along with Buster Posey who is way beyond hot right now, but then Carlos Beltran gave it right back. We love you too, Carlos. Not. (That’s out of my system now. I will attempt to cease being bitter to him.) The story just got sadder from there, basically, with Matt Cain continuing his iffy numbers since the perfect game back in June and the offense proving that even though the high in St. Louis is 99° there today, they can still hit like they’re in a fog.
Our home stadium, ladies and gents.
ButyouknowStLouiswontheWorldSerieslastyearsoitsnotlikeyoucanblametheGiantsforhavingtroubleagainstthemright? Eh. Maybe not. Logic is not exactly in my favor.
Still, Barry Zito’s on the mound tonight for San Francisco so this one should be interesting. He’s 8-8 on the year with a 4.27 ERA and has basically taken a nosedive since starting the season very strongly. It’s not like our chances look fantastic for tonight, but I am curious to see what he’ll do tonight and haven’t completely written him off for the year. The win-loss statistic is this side of meaningless, but if he could squeeze out a win and take a winning record for the moment, it might mean a tiny something in his Giants career.
Seriously, though, if you’d like to feel better about the Giants chances at winning this division, check out who the Dodgers lost 2-zip to, yesterday. Colorado, people. They went 0 for 8 with RISP. Against the Rockies. And they do not have anything close to the excuse of theywontheWorldSerieslastyear.
Diamond Girl
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Look, I know today didn’t go terribly well (understatement of the century? Perhaps.), but if anyone can help these Giants out of the hole they are rapidly slipping into, Marco Scutaro is the one. The One, in the romantic comedy sense of the term. To start with, he’s played on pretty much every team that’s ever existed, which has to count for something. That something might be figuring out accessories to match his various uniform colors or it might mean some fab experience that will really boost this team down the stretch. I vote for both. All of the teams he’s played on, per Wikipedia, just ‘cause:
(Let’s play, Catch the Fake Team Name, shall we?)
There’s also an interesting article about him over on ESPN, which you can read right here and it features his kind of fantastic welcome-to-the-Big-Leagues story.
It was a Sunday day game, so he went into the hotel coffee shop to have breakfast by himself. A couple of seats down, he recognized the Mets’ manager, Bobby Valentine. “Oh my God,” he thought to himself.
He hesitated. Should he go introduce himself? If he didn’t, Valentine might ask him later at the ballpark why he’d avoided him.
So he overcame his shyness and spoke to Valentine. “Hello, Bobby, I’m Marco Scutaro.”
Valentine answered, “Hi, kid, how you doing?” and resumed eating. Then Valentine, a gregarious type, looked up and said, “So, kid, do you live around here, or are you going to school in Cincinnati?”
“I’m Scutaro,” he said.”I’m your new player.”
Anyhows, beyond all of that, I am of the opinion that Charlie Culberson was not a piece of the future in the way you could argue Zach Wheeler was and while this deal is obviously less flashy than that one, it’s also lower risk with a potentially good and productive return. Hey, it’s not like going big with Beltran worked out, after all that, and I think Scutaro makes a good deal of sense. The Rockies may be a cool 18.0 games out of first but even so, I am secretly very partial to trading within the division. Weakening teams that have a flag on our standings pole? That makes me happy. And while I’m admitting embarrassing things, it’s worth noting that I do have a Justin Timberlake song on my iPod. I mean, I bought it to use it for a certain video I was making. But I do still have it.
Willkommen aboard, Marco. We have lousy weather and overenthusiastic fans (cough, cough) but we’re pretty fun all the same. Also, we do not usually lose 10-0 to the Dodgers. Like, that never happens. Other than today. Want to make sure it never happens again? Please and thank you.
Diamond Girl
p.s. In heartwarming news, Chris Stewart hit a big ole bomb in New York this evening and the Yanks setting a franchise record for homers in first 100 games of a season at 157. (Speaking of cool and meaningless stats.) Am I the only one who misses that guy? Because I seriously do.
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