A painful but inevitable end for the Giants

By Art Spander

SAN FRANCISCO — It hurt. Don’t doubt that. To have the Dodgers, the team that infuriates Giants fans even more than their own team enthralls them, clinch the division at their home, was painful. And, sadly, inevitable.

Finally, emphatically, the Dodgers, with all that talent, but with all those questions, ended the chase and for the Giants the hope. It was a rout Tuesday night.

It was Clayton Kershaw in full domination. It was an 8-0 victory that had the message board at AT&T Park offering L.A. congratulations — imagine that, and telling us to “#respecttherivalry” — and the defending World Series champion Giants staring in dismay, if not disbelief.

“You have to remember that in the off-season,” Madison Bumgarner said of the opposition celebrating in what in effect is his house. “You don’t want to be part of that. It’s always tough.”

Even tougher when your own fans began departing as the score built, and in the stands behind first base there were only spectators in blue jackets or jerseys shouting, “Let’s go Dodgers.”

Infuriating. And to the Giants, unacceptable.

Bumgarner was the San Francisco starter this fateful night by the Bay. He was the World Series hero last fall and the one reliable pitcher this summer. But the game and the moment — and the Dodgers — got to him, while the Giants couldn’t get to Kershaw.

Thirteen strikeouts for Kershaw. One hit for the Giants, that by Kevin Frandsen, who spent most of the season with Sacramento, the Triple A farm team. And, after seven straight defeats at AT&T this year, a momentous Los Angeles victory.

Bumgarner, trying to win his 19^th game of 2015, more significantly trying to save the Giants, understood the task and the difficulty, maybe too well. “I don’t want to say it got the best of me,” said Bumgarner, a standup guy as well as a brilliant athlete, “but I was a little more emotional than I like to be. I didn’t have what I wanted to have.”

The Dodgers scored in the first, which it turned out was all they would need but not all they would get. Kike Hernandez homered in the third, Justin Ruggiano and A.J. Ellis homered back-to-back in the sixth. Mad Bum had thrown 112 pitches but would throw no more.

The game was over if there were innings left to play. The season was over, if there were five games left to play.

Yet, properly, there was little remorse from the Giants. “Four concussions and two obliques,” said Giants manager Bruce Bochy, reminding of a year too filled with injuries and trips to the disabled list. “And yet here we were on September 29^th finally getting knocked out.

“It’s always tough when it happens, but with everything, the new kids, the injuries, to go to the last week of the season you still have to be proud of these guys. Bumgarner had a tremendous year. He had good stuff today.”

Until he wore down. Until the weeks and months caught up with a man who a year ago pitched through October and surely must have felt weary, not that he ever would suggest as much. He wanted the ball, and the Giants, who had watched him outduel Kershaw earlier this season, wanted him to have it.

“There was a lot at stake,” said Bochy, stating the obvious. There also was an uphill climb. The Giants had three long losing streaks during the season, and after allowing leads to get away last week, twice against San Diego and once against Oakland, were eight games behind the Dodgers. They cut the margin to five, but sooner or later L.A. would stop losing. Sooner happened on Monday night.

“We had no margin for error,” said Bochy, repeating a theme of the past few days. Now they will have an autumn without the playoffs. Now there will be no more pennants or paraphernalia.

It’s hard to fault a team that didn’t have Hunter Pence except for a few games, that had Brandon Belt and Nori Aoki get concussions, that for a while lost Jake Peavy and for most of the time didn’t have Matt Cain or Tim Lincecum.

In spring training gleeful Giants fans wore T-shirts that read, “We like the odds,” a play on words noting the team had won titles in even years. But the odds were not on the Giants’ side. And the Dodgers were too strong.

“We were very competitive,” said Bumgarner. “We were there to the end.”

And now it’s the end.

Giants stay alive and unbeaten against Dodgers at AT&T

By Art Spander

SAN FRANCISCO — Still alive. “We can’t lose a game,” said Bruce Bochy. Not if the Giants want to keep themselves in the dying pennant race. Not if they want to keep the Dodgers from ending it. And Monday night, late, very late, they didn’t lose a game. They beat the Dodgers, and they’re still alive.  

Twelve innings, a minute short of four hours. Dozens of deep breaths. What seemed like dozens of relief pitchers, but in actuality was only 12. A crowd that seemed overloaded with Dodger partisans who came to watch their team clinch a division but in the end a crowd that reaffirmed its loyalty to the home team, chanting, as always, “Beat L.A., beat L.A.”

And because Jake Peavy was brilliant as a starter and Kelby Tomlinson at second turned a wicked grounder with two runners on into a double play in the 11^th and pinch hitter Alejandro De Aza’s sacrifice fly scored Marlon Byrd from third in the 12th, the Giants did beat L.A., 3-2.

We agree. The lead is too large, now five games for the Dodgers, and the magic number too small, still two, meaning an L.A. win Tuesday night, Wednesday night or Thursday afternoon closes the deal. But the water drips slowly and the streak continues.

Monday was the seventh time the Dodgers have played at AT&T Park this season — and the seventh time the Giants have won. Things like that don’t happen in baseball. Or do they?

“A great game,” said Bochy. “A great outcome. Well played, entertaining. A lot of good things happened, and that starts with Peavy.”

Sunday, in the clubhouse at the Oakland Coliseum, Peavy was talking about the thrill of the chase, how being able to pitch against the Dodgers in a must-win situation was the challenge he embraced, the moment of truth, if you will, when you a man finds if he’s equal to the task. Peavy was more than equal.

“As an athlete,” said Peavy, “you want to face the best in league, knowing you have to win.”

Peavy faced Zack Greinke, who if he isn’t the best (he came in with an 18-3 record) is one of the three best, along with teammate Clayton Kershaw and the Giants’ Madison Bumgarner — who pitch against each other Tuesday night.

Peavy went seven innings, giving up a run and three hits. Greinke went seven, giving up two runs and four hits. Neither was in on the decision but both were in on the trend of the game, which was the sort of pitching battle one might have predicted.

Peavy’s catcher, Trevor Brown, was the guy who drove in the two runs off Greinke, in the second. “Ten days ago,” said Peavy about Brown, “he was sitting on a couch.”

Maybe not literally, but Brown was finished with his season at Triple-A Sacramento and had gone home to the Los Angeles suburb of Valencia.

He got a phone call at 1:30 a.m. on September 15 from Giants GM Bobby Evans and headed to the Bay Area. Then, with Buster Posey taking over at first base for the injured Brandon Belt, Brown steps behind the plate and also steps up to lash a double off Greinke.

“What a great performance,” said Peavy of Brown. “A huge hit. As great as he was behind the plate, he was just as great with the bat.”

When Peavy was on rehab at Sacramento he threw to Brown, so the pair communicated well against the Dodgers. Brown said he let Peavy dictate the pitches and pattern.

Greinke had two strikes on Brown in the second with Brandon Crawford — like Brown a one-time star at UCLA — and Tomlinson on the bases. “I was just trying to be as calm as I could.”  Calm or frantic, he powered a ball deep to center to get the runners home.

“And Kelby saved our neck a couple of times,” said Bochy of Tomlinson, another rookie, if one with a few more weeks on the Giants. “All around, this was a well-played game, then De Aza gets the hit that wins it.

“They tied us in the ninth, and that might have been discouraging, but we have fighters on this club. We’re tired, but we know what’s at stake.”

Just the season, that’s all.

For Dodgers, a magic number; for Giants, magic words

By Art Spander

OAKLAND — The Dodgers, the dreaded, despised Dodgers, are down to magic numbers. The Giants have to rely on magic words, those of manager Bruce Bochy. “Still alive,” said Bochy Sunday evening. And so they are, if not for long.

Giants-Dodgers, four games at AT&T, starting Monday night. Four games that could delay the inevitable. Or lead to the Dodgers clinching the division on the Giants’ home field. Which would be the cruelest of blows for the fans of San Francisco. But it doesn’t mean that much to a professional such as Bochy.

“We don’t think of that,” Bochy said of what by the Bay would seem to be the ultimate disgrace, to watch one’s eternal foe celebrating on your diamond. “We play to win the game. What happens happens. The standings are what they are.

“We’re in a tough situation, but we’ll come out fighting.”

What happened Sunday was the Giants managed a 5-4 victory against the stubborn Athletics. And in Denver, the Dodgers lost to the Rockies, swept in three games. So the magic number for L.A. to take the division stayed at two.

Which if the Giants were to sweep the Dodgers still would be two after Thursday. But we know that‘s virtually impossible, right, even though L.A. is 0-6 so far this season at AT&T, right? Hmmm.

For the Giants, yes, there’s hope. For the A’s there’s just the road. The game Sunday before a second consecutive sellout crowd of more than 36,000 was the last at Oakland until April.

The Coliseum belongs to the Raiders now, and infield dirt will be covered by turf. The green and gold departs. The green grass arrives.

The Giants are still alive, because after losing three straight games by scores of 5-4, the first two at San Diego, the third at Oakland, and having led in all three, they won the last two against the A’s.

“We wish were in a little better position,” Bochy conceded, “but we lost some tough games on this trip. That’s baseball.”

A cliché. Another cliché: Every major league team wants to be there in September, to be playing for something. The Giants are there, clinging, clawing, thriving.

“I’m excited the team has a chance for the playoffs,” said Jake Peavy. He’s the Giants starter for the first game against the Dodgers. He understands the gravity of the situation — sure, it’s only sports, but from that perspective, it’s serious — and he understands his role.

“Obviously it means us having to win,” said Peavy. “But it’s fun to play when everything rides on it. We, as professionals, get up for these games.

“This rivalry is great for baseball. The fans get into it every time we play the Dodgers. Look. I have the utmost respect for most of their guys over there. The Dodgers have incredible talent. But I expect to win.”

Who knows about expectations? In spring we expected the A’s to contend in the American League West. But the relief pitching was — to be kind — ineffective, and the defense is the worst in baseball. Hitting and pitching enable a team to survive unless you allow the opposition extra outs, as did Oakland.

A week left for the A’s. Their bags were packed and outside the players’ entrance to the Coliseum before the first pitch Sunday. Next it's on to Anaheim. The Giants only had to fight the Bay Bridge traffic and their own emotions.

“I’m proud of these guys,” said Bochy, ever the cockeyed optimist. “We’re still hanging in there.”

The Dodgers packed cases of sparkling wine when they left a few days ago for Denver. Now the bottles, still unopened, are in San Francisco. One win over the Giants, cutting the magic number to zero, zilch. One win in four games is all L.A. needs.

What the Giants needed, and what they received, were strong performances from the kids. There were five rookies in the starting lineup Sunday, including pitcher Chris Heston, who earned his first victory in two months.

The others were Kelby Tomlinson, Trevor Brown, Mac Williamson and Jarrett Parker, who after a home run Friday night and three homers Saturday had only two singles and a walk Sunday.

“He’s been impressive,” said Bochy. “A lot of these young players have been. We’re going to have some decisions to make during the off-season and in spring training.”

Without question, as the new players seek to replace the old. But now it’s the possible last dance, the series against the Dodgers. Can’t ask for more than that.

Giants-Dodgers: Disdain, Paranoia, History

By Art Spander

SAN FRANCISCO — This is what baseball wanted. This is what the Giants hoped. The Dodgers are coming to the Bay, coming to play a three-game series, which could mean everything and then again, because there’s such craziness in the long season, might mean very little.

Dodgers-Giants, so much background, so much disdain. And up here, even after two World Series victories, so much jealousy. The chant isn’t “Go Giants,” it’s “Beat L.A.”  Short and pithy. Resonating with paranoia.

Watching the Dodgers lose gives San Francisco fans as big a thrill as watching the Giants win, and if both can be accomplished in one fell swoop — well, Brian Johnson’s 1997 home run against L.A., which sent the Giants to the postseason, is the stuff of legend.

It’s a sporting matchup, the one-two teams in the National League West. It’s a societal matchup, the glitz of Hollywood against the garlic fries of North Beach.

“It’s good for baseball the way the schedule worked out,” said Bruce Bochy, the Giants' manager. “This is where we were hoping to be.”

He means in the chase, two games back of L.A. He also means at AT&T Park, where on a fine Thursday afternoon San Francisco beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 6-2, a ninth straight win at home.

“There’s a lot of history between these two teams,” said Bochy of the Dodgers-Giants battle.

There’s Bill Terry, back in 1934, when the Giants were in New York and the Dodgers in Brooklyn, chiding, “The Dodgers? Are they still in the league?” Oh yes they were, and they beat the Giants the final two games of the season to give the Cardinals the flag.

There’s the Dodgers building up a 13½ game lead over the Giants in 1951, ending up tied and losing the playoff on Bobby Thomson’s momentous home run in the bottom of the ninth at the Polo Grounds, the “shot heard ‘round the world.”

There’s Juan Marichal smashing John Roseboro over the head with a bat, and Reggie Smith — a Dodger who would become a Giant — climbing into the stands at Candlestick Park to attack a pesky fan. And, of course, there’s Joe Morgan’s home run in 1982, which KO'ed the Dodgers and left Tom Lasorda apoplectic.

Three games in San Francisco this series, then three games next week at Dodger Stadium. “We’re feeling good,” said Giants catcher Buster Posey. And why not? Four days ago the Giants were 3½ games out, a month ago 5½ games behind.

“We also know that’s a pretty good team coming to town.”

No, that’s a very good team. A team that overtook the Giants in July and hasn’t been out of the lead since.

Over the last couple of weeks, the Giants, finally out of their funk, also have looked like a pretty good team. Their pitching is back where it belongs — the Diamondbacks scored only three runs in losing all three games of the series. Now the Giants are hitting when needed, and they’ve won 12 of the last 15.

So much of it is attributable to Angel Pagan. He missed 34 games with back inflammation. The Giants had no leadoff hitter. The Giants had no spark.

On Wednesday, he began the game with a double, then had a single and walk, scoring twice. “He’s our catalyst,” said Bochy, emphasizing the obvious. “We’re a different team with him out there. He’s our get-on-base guy. It’s funny how one guy can mean so much.”

Pagan went 7-for-12 in the three games against Arizona and is hitting .488 (21-for-43) in 10 games against the D-backs. With Pagan on base, opposing pitchers think and throw differently when they face Joe Panik. And Buster Posey. And Pablo Sandoval. And Hunter Pence.

Dodgers-Giants, pitching against pitching. Hyun-Jin Ryu, Zack Greinke and the remarkable Clayton Kershaw for L.A., Madison Bumgarner, Tim Hudson and Yusmeiro Petit for San Francisco.

“Pitching gives you a chance to win,” said Bochy.

It did Wednesday. Jake Peavy started for the Giants. In 5 2/3 innings he allowed only one run, striking out eight.

“Since we got him, he’s been solid,” said Bochy said of Peavy, whom San Francisco acquired from Boston in July. “It’s been fun watching him. He’s a guy who plays the game the way it should be played, as hard as anyone.”

Bochy is upbeat. He knows what’s ahead, and he’s confident.

“This club has been through quite a bit,” he said, meaning the great April and early May, the awful June and July.

In the three games against the Dodgers, it will go through a great deal more. Just as it hoped. Just as baseball wanted.

On Jackie Robinson Night, Giants win in early morning

By Art Spander

SAN FRANCISCO — The game was everything baseball could be and should be, full of passion and tension, and carrying with it thoughts of a pioneer whose courage and skill helped shape the sport to what it has become.

This was the night the Major Leagues honored Jackie Robinson, and at AT&T Park, the timing was perfect, even if the game time, 4 hours and 54 minutes, may not have been.

The Dodgers, Jackie’s team, against the Giants, which almost were Jackie’s team.

The Brooklyn Dodgers, of course, when Robinson in June 1947 became the first African-American to play in the major leagues. And the New York Giants, who nine and half years later, in December 1956, traded for Robinson, unaware — as were the Dodgers — that Jackie had retired.

So much on this Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning, 12 innings of baseball coming to an end at 12:14 a.m., a beautiful end for the several thousand fans who remained from the sellout crowd of 42,469.

Hector Sanchez singled home Brandon Crawford from third, and the Giants were 3-2 winners.

The rivalry. The revelry. The reminders that major league baseball was off-limits to African-Americans until 1947 when Jackie, as beautifully planned by Dodgers general manager Branch Rickey, was elevated to the big club.

You know the story. You’ve seen the movie “42,” a slightly embellished version of Jackie’s life, as Hollywood biopics tend to be. That was Jackie’s number, 42, and Tuesday night it was worn by every player on both teams, by every player in the majors.

A grand gesture by the Giants, who used both their main radio announcer, Jon Miller, and famed Dodgers broadcaster Vin Scully for the pre-game introductions. For the 86-year-old Scully, there was great meaning.

Beginning with the Dodgers in 1950, Scully not only knew Robinson but that winter he somehow got involved in an ice skating race with Jackie.

“We had some sort of symposium up at Grossinger’s in the Catskills,” Scully said earlier in the long evening. “There was a rink. I had grown up in New York, so I knew how to skate. Jackie, I don’t think had ever been on skates.

“He said, ‘I’ll race you.’ I was surprised. ‘But you don’t know how to skate.’  He told me, ‘That’s the way to learn.’”

What America learned was that baseball truly became an American game when the doors were opened to all races.

Another African-American who followed Robinson into the majors was Monte Irvin, who joined the Giants out of the Negro Leagues and played his way into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Irvin, 95, was invited to the pre-game festivities but sent a note, read to the crowd, that at his age air travel was too hard on his body. 

Irwin played with Willie Mays, and Mays, heading for his 83^rd birthday, was in the Giants' clubhouse before the game, although he didn’t take part in any ceremonies. Too bad.

Another nice touch was the tribute to Boston on this first-year anniversary of the bombing at the marathon finish line. Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline,” the Red Sox’ theme song, was played over the sound system, and the AT&T crowd sang along, as the fans do at Fenway Park.

There was a full moon peering down from beyond McCovey Cove, further embellishing an evening made even more special when Sanchez, who had struck out as pinch hitter in the ninth and then replaced Buster Posey at catcher, ripped a pitch off Brandon League with two outs in the bottom of the 12^th.

“I had to do something,” joked Sanchez. “My wife was sitting in our car in the parking lot for three hours.”

League was the seventh Dodgers pitcher. Yusmeiro Petit, who got the victory, was the eighth used by the Giants.

“It’s great that every year we honor Jackie Robinson the way we do,” Giants manager Bruce Bochy said in his pre-game interview in the dugout. “No man had his impact on baseball and society.”

Bochy made his comments at 4:30 p.m. nearly eight full hours before he and his team were done for the evening. And the morning.

This one won’t be forgotten for a long while.