SF Examiner: All the stars are aligning for Giants

By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

It doesn’t get any better than this. Any more one-sided. Any louder. Any more entertaining. Any more unbelievable.

“When the lights go down in The City ...” That’s Journey’s song, which was sweeping through AT&T Park on Thursday night. That’s San Francisco’s song. And quite possibly, the way this World Series is blasting along, this is San Francisco’s time.

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Copyright 2010 SF Newspaper Company

SF Examiner: Bochy pushes all the right buttons for Giants

By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

SAN FRANCISCO — He’s so very San Francisco, Bruce Bochy — unpretentious, unaffected and competent to the max. Maybe not a genius, but as far as managing the Giants, he’ll do until someone better comes along.

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Copyright 2010 SF Newspaper Company

Giants were 90 feet away

By Art Spander

SAN FRANCISCO -- Ninety feet. Red Smith called the 90 feet between bases the closest man has come to perfection. But Wednesday night the Giants were not quite perfect. They were gutsy. They were exciting. But they couldn’t get the tying run home from 90 feet.

They lost to the Colorado Rockies, 4-3. They lost a game in the wild card standings to the Rockies. They could have been 1½ games behind, but now they are back 3 games. Now the playoffs are even more remote. Not impossible, but remote.

There was Eugenio Velez on third. Two outs, bottom of the ninth. A game that meant everything. The crowd chanting like a college football crowd. “Let’s go Giants.’’ Clap, clap. “Let’s go Giants.’’ AT&T rocking. For eight innings the Giants had done little -- done nothing, if you want to refer to runs.

For eight innings they had been shut out by the Rockies' Jorge De La Rosa, who owns the Giants. He had pitched six times previously against San Francisco, and the Rockies had won all six, five of those victories going to De La Rosa. And now it was the bottom of the ninth, and the Giants trailed by four runs.

But De La Rosa had been taken out for pinch hitter in the top of the inning, and Franklin Morales was pitching now for Colorado. And Freddy Sanchez singled. And Pablo Sandoval singled. And Bengie Molina singled. Then Juan Uribe came up. The 38,696 fans were standing, and one side of the park would shout “Oooh,’’ and the other “Ree-bay.’’ Again and again.

Uribe grounded to short, but Troy Tulowitzki threw the ball to right. And now it was 4-2 and Velez was put in to run for Uribe. He stole second. A runner on third, a runner on second and still nobody out.

Edgar Renteria is a clutch hitter. “He’s the guy we wanted up there,’’ said Matt Cain, who would be the losing pitcher. “But sometimes it doesn’t work out.’’ Renteria popped to second. The runners held. But when pinch hitter Randy Winn grounded to first, Eli Whiteside, running for Molina, came home and Velez moved to third. Now it was 4-3 and Nate Schierholtz was coming to bat.

“You always want to be up there in the bottom of the ninth with the winning or tying run on base,’’ said Schierholtz. Which he was. But on a 3-2 pitch from Rafael Betancourt, Schierholtz struck out. The collective groan carried out to the bay.

“I swung at a bad pitch,’’ confided Schierholtz. “I couldn’t get it done.’’

Maybe it shouldn’t have come to that. Maybe the Giants should have been in front or no less than tied by the eighth. Andres Torres opened the fourth with a double, but after Sanchez struck out, Torres was caught in a bizarre double play. Sandoval grounded to Tulowitzki. Torres was trapped off second. Not on a line drive, on a grounder. Tulowitzki tagged him then threw out Sandoval at first.

“I had a big lead,’’ said Torres. “I tried to come back. I took too much.’’

The Giants took nothing in the sixth. Schierholtz walked, and reliable Rich Aurilia dropped a pinch-hit single into center. Two on, no one out, the top of the lineup, Torres, Sanchez and Sandoval coming to bat. De La Rosa struck out each, swinging.

“We had a real opportunity,’’ said Bruce Bochy, the Giants manager. “We just missed.’’

So the Giants head to Los Angeles. As players dressed, bats nosily were being shoved into canvas bags. Suitcases and travel bags lined the entrance to the clubhouse. San Francisco hits the road, to where no one can be certain.

“We’re in a situation where we need to win ball games,’’ said Bochy. “This was a tough one.’’

A tough one but also an uplifting one. Four runs behind and then one run behind, with a man on third base, 90 feet away. “We couldn’t get a timely hit or earlier a productive out. But we fought back.’’

The crowd loved it. For eight innings, the situation seemed hopeless. Suddenly the Giants were alive and the fans were alive. When Tulowitzki tossed away that possible double play, the belief was nearly palpable. Somehow, the Giants would do it. Somehow, the baseball gods would smile on them.

They did not. The Giants got close, got 90 feet from the tie. But it might as well have been 900.

SF Examiner: Things going right for Giants as they aim for playoffs

By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

SAN FRANCISCO — They blow one in 14 innings, they lose one 11-0, they are frustrating. They make too many errors, they don’t get enough hits and they may get into the playoffs.

Randy Johnson might have another start, Eugenio Velez lacks baseball instincts, Aaron Rowand has done less than expected and they may get into the playoffs.

It’s a year too early for the Giants. It’s five years too late. This is next season’s team. It’s also for the moment, a team that is doing it with pitching and mirrors, heart and hustle. A team that for the first time in a long while has made September baseball relevant.

Brad Penny joins the ranks. The Red Sox didn’t want him. The hated Dodgers didn’t want him before that. But now the Giants want him. Maybe he has a month of fastballs left. Maybe he can be the difference, and if he isn’t, it was worth the try.

Something has gone right at AT&T Park. For all the criticism of Brian Sabean, for all the knocks on Bruce Bochy, for all the agony caused by Edgar Rentaria — who, naturally, beats the Rockies with a slam in Sunday’s version of the biggest game of the year — something has gone right.

Baseball’s a strange sport, not so much a team game as a linking of individual performances. There are no passes to an open man, no trap blocking. Each man does his thing, but if he does it correctly and if there’s harmony in a clubhouse, baseball becomes a collective group effort. That’s what the Giants are giving.

They aren’t as good as the Dodgers, not as good as the Cardinals, probably not as good as the Phillies, but the Giants are better than they were supposed to be. That’s no small virtue after the losing seasons, after finishing 18 games below .500 in 2008. They won 72 games last year. Total.

They had won 72 games this year before the end of August. Progress, more progress than a Giants fan, or Bill Neukom or Larry Baer could have dreamed.

Out of the shadows, into the sunlight, into the pennant race. To borrow a Duane Kuiper quote used frequently of late: “unbelievable.”

In April, before the first pitch, Baer was touting the garlic fries’ green booth at the park, in effect selling the clean sizzle rather than the spuds, trying to persuade us there were reasons to buy tickets other than to suffer with the ball club.

Now that’s small potatoes. Now it’s the ball that counts. Being there, that’s the whole idea, being there when the final month arrives and every pitch is a reason to gasp or grimace, a reason to hope or agonize.

“Here we are approaching September,” Bochy said last weekend, “and we’re playing some very important games.” Now September has arrived, and because of the unforeseen sweep of Colorado, the games are no less important, no less suspenseful.

Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain are on the cover of Sports Illustrated, if only the upper corner. The country has been alerted. Baseball again matters by the Golden Gate.

Art Spander has been covering Bay Area sports since 1965 and also writes on www.artspander.com and www.realclearsports.com. E-mail him at typoes@aol.com.

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Copyright 2009 SF Newspaper Company