The Dynasty Is Born

October 7, 2010 wasn’t just the beginning of the dynasty, it was Game 1 of the NLDS. The first postseason game for the Giants since 2003. As the Barry Bonds home run parade faded into the distance, this Giants squad was no longer relying on power. Pitching was about to reign. The starter that night was The Freaky Freak Tim Lincecum. By this time, Timmy had 2 Cy Young awards under his belt, but he had never played in the postseason before. He had just struggled in August going 0-5 leaving fans wondering if he had lost it. But in the final stretch of the year, he dug deep and found his stuff, going 5-1 in September, enabling the Giants to win the division. So here he was, taking the mound for the first postseason game in San Francisco in 7 years. After allowing a lead off double, he immediately showed why he belonged on the biggest stage by getting a pop out and striking out Derek Lee and Brian McCann to end the threat. His catcher, also playing in his first postseason game, was Buster Posey. Little did Giants fans know at the time, but it would be Posey leading the young staff of stellar Giants pitchers into the 3 in 5 dynasty. All dynasties need to start somewhere and this was the game that got them rolling, thanks to the young battery of two kids named Timmy and Buster.

Let’s dive into Game 1 of the 2010 NLDS.

The Most Important Play

Sometimes the most important play of a game is a walk off sac fly in the bottom of the 11th, sometimes it’s an E5 that let’s the winning run get on base. For this game, however, it was Buster Posey’s steal of 2nd base off Derek Lowe in the bottom of the 4th. Buster lead off the 4th with a liner into LF for the Giants second hit of the game. I think the Braves were just as stunned as we were watching Posey run. Given that it was a 0-0 ballgame in the 4th with a full count on Pat Burrell, it was a steal situation. But with Buster? At that point in his career he had zero stolen bases. That’s 0 (zero). He also had zero career speed at that point. But Bochy sent him anyway. And it worked! The throw from McCann was high and to the 1st base side. Buster, going in feet first, did well to get down early, although awkwardly, as he ended up basically laying across 2nd base. Replays showed that Brooks Conrad (not the last time he would play a role in this series) put a tag on Buster’s hip just before he reached 2nd, but the angle umpire Paul Emmel had didn’t allow him to see that and Buster was safe. But let’s face it, if this was a major league baseball game in 2019 there would have been a 3.5 minute phone call to New York and the Braves and Giants would have played into October 8th. But instant replay was still 5 years away and Bobby Cox and the Braves had to accept that Buster was in scoring position. His first career steal! After Juan Uribe struck out and Pablo Sandoval was intentionally walked, Cody Ross (soon to be NLCS MVP and #ForeverGiant) snuck a 2-0 slider that eluded Omar Infante and rolled into left field. Buster with his never speed scored easily. 1-0, ballgame, 1-0 series.

The Most Important At Bat

For this game there were two at bats that were huge for the Giants. The first was Aubrey Huff’s in the bottom of the 3rd with guys on 2nd and 3rd and 2 outs. At this point it was a 0-0 game and a base hit would have scored 2. But Huff struck out on 3 pitches so his AB gets bumped. The most important at bat belongs to Cody Ross who drove in Buster after his miraculous steal of 2nd. Ross worked the count into his favor to get to 2-0, a typical fastball count. But Lowe through him a slider that ran in on him. Ross somehow got the barrel to it and chopped it hard towards 3rd. There must have been a tricky hop because Infante didn’t even touch what could have been an inning ending, game saving out. But when you’re chasing a World Series, you need to catch some breaks. Ross’s ball got through and Buster scored. The Giants were 1-8 with RISP and the Braves 0-5 so Ross really came up huge.

The Weirdest Thing

The weirdest thing was also the Posey steal of 2nd. The Giants, never known for their collective speed, won a playoff game because their slowest guy stole second. But how odd is a Buster steal? In the 9 full seasons of baseball since then, Buster has played in 1,143 games and has stolen a total of 23 bases. That’s 1 stolen base every 50 games. And if you think Buster is bad at stealing, consider he’s only been caught 9 times. 23/32 is a 72% success rate. In a game where you are considered great if you succeed only 3 out of 10 times, 72% is pretty good. In 2016 he was 5-6 in attempts. Buster’s not bad at stealing, just bad at speed. So why was it the weirdest thing of NLDS Game 1? Because it had never happened before. Also, when is the last time a team’s catcher stole a base and then came around to score the team’s only run in a 1-0 win? Especially in a playoff game. The catcher’s first playoff game. Never.

The Most Interesting Stat

Tim Lincecum’s line: 9 IP, 2 Hits, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 14 SO, 119 pitches

Even given Lincecum’s dominance in 2010, he only threw 1 complete game that year in a shut out of the Mets in July. Now in October with 212 IP under his belt, you might have been asking yourself how much gas he had left in him? Well, it appeared he found a jet fuel station earlier that morning and didn’t put the cap back on. Timmy matched his season high in IP and threw 119 pitches (season high 123) while striking out 14 (a Giants postseason record and Timmy’s season high). This wasn’t against the Marlins, this was a 91 win Braves team that scored 738 runs in 2010. They could hit. Omar Infante was 3rd in the league in hitting at .321 and Jason Heyward was an All Star and finished 2nd to Posey in Rookie of the Year voting. But Timmy, The Freaky Freaky Franchise, was better that night. After he struck out Lee to end the game he looked like he could throw 7 more innings. Absolute filth that night. The energy at the yard was so electric that the atmosphere felt different. I remember thinking I had never felt a crowd’s energy like that before. The spark that Timmy brought was something different and it ignited the even year magic.

Great At Bat

The Great At Bat award doesn’t always go to the guy that had the game winning hit. You won’t win this award with a first pitch single that puts the team on the board. You have to grind it out. This award can be won with an infield hit, a walk, or a triple you turned into a double. Hell, I’ll even give it to you on a dropped 3rd strike if you reach base, but it helps if you get a rap. The Great At Bat tonight goes to Buster Posey’s AB to lead off the bottom of the 6th. He worked the count to 2-1 and then launched one over Rick Ankiel’s head, bouncing up against the centerfield wall. Ankiel then booted it allowing Buster to reach 3rd with nobody out. He put himself in the best possible scoring position with 0 outs in a 1 run ballgame on a 4 pitch AB. To top it off, the Giants win probability went up 9% on that hit, the largest change in the game.

This concludes my first blog post. I intend to do this as much as possible in the 2020 season. Until then, I will be writing about the best Giants postseason games from 2010 to 2016. Follow me to keep up.

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Next Blog: 2010 NLCS Game 4