2nd Best Game I Have Ever Been To

When I think about the best Giants games I’ve ever attended, there are several that come to mind. For a long time the greatest game I had ever been to was Game 5 of the 2002 NLCS when Kenny Lofton drove in David Bell to win the pennant. You may recall the Giants tied the game at 1 in the 8th on a Barry Bonds sac fly and won it in the 9th on the Lofton single. It would take 8 more years of torture for a game to surpass that one. When I talk about “good games” I don’t mean a complete ass whooping by the Giants where they score 7 in the 1st and cruise the rest of the way. A “good game” means the lead changed a couple times, there was doubt, anguish, shouting, clutch hits, and an exciting finish. With that in mind, let’s talk about the 2nd best game I have ever been to: 2010 NLCS Game 4.

The Most Important Play

There were huge moments in this game: Buster Posey’s 4 hits, Pablo Sandoval’s clutch double, Juan Uribe’s walk off sac fly, but we’re getting ahead of ourselves. You might have forgotten about the most important play of this game. It came in the top of the 5th with 1 out and the Giants leading 2-0. Aaron Rowand had only started 1 game this postseason and it was the game before this. Rowand, 32 that year, played in 105 games and batted .230 with 11 home runs and 34 RBI. He was definitely in this game for his defense and in the 5th inning he showed it. After a great 7 pitch AB to lead off the inning, Ben Francisco smoked a liner into CF. Then on the 5th pitch of his AB, Carlos Ruiz lined a single into right to make it a very stressful inning for a young Madison Bumgarner (#ForeverGiant).

Joe Blanton, the opposing starter, then bunted them up to make it a 2nd and 3rd, 1 out situation. Bum needed a strikeout. But Shane Victorino (a nemesis of mine) had other ideas. Victorino lined the first pitch he saw into center field. Rowand came charging in and played the hop perfectly. Ruiz, not known for his speed, was trying to score and tie the game. But Rowand unleashed an almost perfect throw to Posey who picked the short-hop and tagged Ruiz right in the chest for the out. The crowd, who had just be silenced by Victorino’s hit, had erupted into euphoria by home plate umpire Wally Bell’s call. The 2-1 lead was saved and Victorino had not moved up to 2nd on the throw. It was huge!

Now there were 2 outs! For the moment, Rowand was the Game 4 hero. However, Chase Utley (an even bigger nemesis!) singled in the next at bat, then Santiago Casilla came in and gave up a 2 run double to Placido Polanco and the Phills eventually scored 4 times, taking a 4-2 lead. But Rowand’s throw still loomed large. If he had bobbled that ball or Ruiz was a little faster, the Giants would have gone into that 9th inning down by 1 to face Brad Lidge instead of Roy Oswalt.

Lidge was dominant for Houston in 2005 (42 saves, 3rd in NL) and closed out the 2008 World Series over Tampa. With only 27 saves in 2010, he didn’t have the numbers but he was still scary (Lidge would actually get the save the following night in Game 5). So Rowand’s throw eventually lead to Roy Oswalt taking the mound who the Giants had just seen 8 innings of in Game 2. So they beat him.

The Biggest Hit

It came in the bottom of the 6th in a great at bat from young, Mr. Pablo Sandoval. Heard of him? Remember he got paid $95 million by the Red Sox, broke his belt, then came back? Anyway, at this point in the game he was 0-2 with 2 groundouts and was looking to totally redeem himself. With Chad Durbin on the mound, Pat Burrell started the inning by not striking out and then Cody Ross flipped a little double down the LF line. In comes Panda with RISP and nobody out. He has to be productive. The at bat started with a bang as Panda ripped the first pitch down the right field line that appeared to hit chalk! But no! First base umpire Jeff Nelson called it foul! Bochy came out and argued with Nelson and right field umpire Ted Barrett to no avail. Replay was still a fantasy so Panda was robbed.

As a fan in the seats, it felt like this at bat was over now. That was our best shot. But, the Panda is a free swinger so anything can happen. Then he flailed miserably at a curveball in the dirt on the next pitch and was waaaaaay behind 0-2. Ugh. Can’t strike out here. 3rd pitch was in the dirt, a good take. Pablo then smoked the 4th pitch foul into the seats down the RF line, a much better swing. All right. He’s seeing it. Then it happened. Durbin threw a high fastball and Panda lined it into the left center gap passed Victorino and it rolled all the way to the wall! The Giants retook the lead 5-4 and the crowd was losing their freaking minds. Panda jogged into 2nd raising his arms up in the air and clapping his hands. A fantastic 5 pitch AB in his first start in the NLCS. The Giants winning probability went up 17 points on that double and it fired up the boys!

The Weirdest Thing

In the postseason, often times the pressure lies on the home run hitters or your ace starting pitcher. Not your rookies. Rookies are expected to be blinded by the bright lights of October. But this wasn’t the case for the soon to be Rookie of the Year Buster Posey. Those bright lights just made it easier for him to see the ball. Fresh off a hot series with Atlanta where he batted .375, Posey was actually struggling against the Philadelphia pitching. Through the first 3 games of the NLCS he was 1-11. But great games can come out of nowhere and that night Buster became the first rookie to have 4 hits in an LCS game. That’s weird! Buster went 4-5 that night with 2 doubles and 2 RBI, and had to put up a hell of an at bat against Oswalt in the 9th to do it. What a moment for the rook. The next 2 games in that series he went 0-7 so he wasn’t going to be MVP, but he impressed that night and played a huge role in winning that game.

An Odd Stat

Game 4 was the first time in 14 games (Sep 25) the Giants scored more than 4 runs (going 10-4). The Phillies, on the other hand, scored 7 runs or more in 5 of their last 6 games of the season and they outscored the Reds 13-4 in the NLDS. Even more interesting, the Phillies outscored their opponents in the postseason 33-23 and were knocked out of the playoffs! Hooray, Giants pitching! Oddly enough, the next time the Giants would score more than 4 runs in a game would be Game 1 of the World Series against Cliff Lee a week later.

Great At Bat

This was incredibly hard to choose. There were 3 incredible at bats I could write about (Panda in 5th, Buster in 9th) but there can only be one! The guy who wins at bat of the game came into this game in the 9th inning to play SS. Then he won it in his first plate appearance. You guessed it, Juan Uribe!

Ooh! Reebay! He doesn’t win it purely because of his sac fly. In fact, the outcome of his AB, if not for winning the game, wouldn’t have won it for him. But he grinded this one out. It was not a comfortable at bat. With the winning run on 3rd and less than 2 outs, he had to be productive. Oswalt was throwing fire, but Buster just showed that he was touchable. Easier said than done. The first pitch to Uribe was swung and missed at 95 mph. Great cut though. The next pitch was 4 inches from his face at 93, ball 1. Pretty sure Juan could smell that pitch. There was controversy on the third pitch when Uribe claimed it hit him. Replays couldn’t show it clearly, but it may have just hit the knob of the bat. Also, Uribe showed no signs of being in pain. Whatever. That would have just set up a force at every base. Better he’s still in the box. The next pitch was another fastball way inside that tipped off Uribe’s bat again. He should have been hit by 3 different pitches already! 4 pitches, 4 fastballs. Fifth pitch has to be a fastball too, right? Nope. Oswalt tossed up a little 83 mph slider that Uribe just flipped into left field deep enough to score Huff and win the ball game. You gotta be tough as nails to hang in there and drive that slider after those 3 face seeking fastballs. What a great at bat. Giants were now 1 win away from the World Series.

As stated above, Game 4 of the 2010 NLCS was the 2nd greatest game I’ve ever been to. I will write about the greatest game in a future blog. Stay tuned. All of the above photos are my own except for the shot of Buster tagging out Ruiz. Credit to the photographer.

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Next Blog: 2010 NLCS Game 6