Does anyone have the foggiest notion if S.F. will be able to right its ship?
The fog rolling in before Jeff Samardzija’s first pitch Wednesday night, and the bonechilling 55-degree temperature (coldest of the season at home) lent just the right atmospheric touch to an important chapter of what could wind up being a classic murder mystery: “Who Killed the Giants?” Because if the Giants don’t make the playoffs, somebody’s got some explaining to do. Down at headquarters, in the basement, under the bright light.
“I’ve got an air-tight alibi,” Samardzija said, with his body language, as he walked off the field in the top of the seventh inning, shaking his head, possibly out of sheer frustration.
The Shark put up 11 strikeouts in his first six innings, but left trailing 2-0, because of a shaky defensive play, a broken-bat single and then backto-back line-drive hits off great pitches. As the great Curtis Blow once rapped, “These are the breaks.”
The Giants lost 2-0 to the Rockies, but held on to control of the second wild-card spot as the Cardinals lost 2-1 to the Reds. The Giants conceivably could lose their last five games, starting with Wednesday’s, and still stagger into the postseason, whereupon they surely would win the World Series.
Or all the Giants could be teeing off the first thing Monday morning at Disappearing Dreams Country Club.
But doesn’t history and destiny tell us that the Giants will find a way? In 2010, ’12 and ’14, they took dramatic routes to the playoffs, and to World Series titles. This, however, would be the topper: From kings of the hill at midseason, to epic pratfall, to zombie-like rise from the grave.
If the Giants do manage to stay alive through Sunday’s final regular-season game, and face a wild-card tiebreaker game Monday, they have to feel good about their starter: Samardzija.
If the Giants get into the playoffs without a tie and win the wild-card game, Samardzija probably would pitch NLDS Game 2 against the Cubs at Wrigley Field.
Despite Wednesday’s tragedy, the Giants couldn’t pick a better man to lead them the first step into the promised land. Johnny Cueto has a questionable groin, and Madison Bumgarner isn’t himself.
And Samardzija is ready. Ten consecutive solid starts, a fresh and live arm — throwing in the mid-90s, hitting spots — and a flair for the dramatic. With Samardzija, you never have to ask, “I wonder how he felt about that last play?” Elation, anguish, he has the repertoire of reactions to what goes on behind him.
Like in the fourth inning, when Carlos Gonzalez sliced a high fly to left field. Angel Pagan looked like he might have a shot at it, but pulled up at the warning track as the ball caromed off a foot below the top of the 8-foot-high wall. Then Nolan Arenado cashed in the game’s first run with a shattered-bat single to center. Of Arenado’s 130 RBIs this season, that might be the least impressive.
Samardzija was pulled in the seventh after back-to-back hits off excellent pitches. These are the breaks.
Wednesday’s frustration should make Samardzija all the more eager for a taste of the postseason. He had a sniff in 2008, one inning against the Dodgers, giving up two hits and a run. He would have pitched for the A’s in the playoffs in 2014, but something happened.
The question is, can the Giants get Samardzija his first real shot at the playoffs?
If you go by Wednesday’s offensive performance, uh, outlook not so good. The Giants got the leadoff man aboard six times, and five of those times that man was put out at second base.
You know the old saying, “As Buster Posey goes, so go the Giants”? On Wednesday, Posey went 0-for-4, hitting into a double play and ending the game with a groundout, the night after homering for his 1,000th big-league hit.
Hey, it all just adds to the drama. The loss had to give the Cardinals a little jolt of life, and who wants to see all the excitement drained out of the wild-card chase by the Giants winning a couple of games in the final week?
The suspense builds. It’s Cueto on Thursday night, coming off a layoff with that strained groin. If he’s healthy, and the Giants make it past Sunday, they become maybe the most dangerous slumping team ever to go into the playoffs. Everyone (except Eduardo Nuñez) is healthy, they’re loaded with proven big-league hitters, albeit light on long-ball pop.
They’ll have a solid, almost imposing, starting rotation, a rebounding bullpen and a manager who keeps his players calm and, in the end, finds a way.
But that finish line to get to the playoffs’ starting line just keeps hanging out there in the distance, in the fog.