Game 162

There was no tomorrow. Well, for Giant fans that wasn’t really true, but it was true for the Padres, who won 90 games and for that got to go home to their good weather for a few months. But for the Giants, well, if they lost there would have been today, and if they lost today, there would have been another tomorrow.

When I got to the ball park for the big game yesterday, the scoreboard showed the Braves up 8-4. This meant that if they held on to win, the Giants were not the automatic wild card. Then in the 8th inning the Phillies put up a 3 spot to make it 8-7, but that was as close as they came. The Braves had their 91st win fairly early in the Giants-Padres game. That’s when everyone started to sweat, and not just because the sun had finally come out.

It was Jonny Sanchez on the mound AGAIN against Matt Latos, a guy who despite a poor September had dominated Sanchez along with the rest of his teammates all season. Latos is only 22, and he is a keeper. He’s also a tattoo nut, and I understand he loves to go to the tattoo parlor with his mother. Really.

Sanchez led the NL in walks. This is reminiscent of Roger Craig’s comments about losing 20 games for 2 consecutive seasons with the Mets. Craig always insisted that to lose 20 games twice you had to be a very good pitcher. I think that would also be true of a starting pitcher on a good team who leads his league in walks.* If you walk too many, you won’t get that many chances to walk a huge number.

*BTW, who leads the major leagues in career walks allowed? It’s actually kind of an easy question, and it’s not Cy Young with his eight hundred something decisions. It’s Nolan Ryan, and it is an ABSURD record - 2795. Second place is Steve Carlton with 1833. Look at that difference. I’ve always said that his strikeout record is untouchable (5714 to 4875 for Randy Johnson), but this one is in a different galaxy. That’s even a bigger percentage increase (52.5%) than Rickey Henderson's stolen base record (1406 to 938 for Lou Brock, 49.9%). You have to be really great to walk that many guys.

Back to Sanchy. He pitched well yesterday, but only went 5 innings because he walked too many guys. Guys on the radio were praising him to the heavens after the game, and yes, he didn’t allow any runs. But like most of his late season starts, he didn’t last as long as he should. Sanchez finished the season 13-9 in 193.1 innings pitched. His ERA was an excellent 3.07, and his WHIP a much improved 1.23, but he walked 96 in those 193 innings. But he finished strong - he was 4-1 in his last 7 starts, with an ERA of 0.99 in those starts. Yet only went more than 6 innings 3 times during those 7 games, and he walked 21 in those 45.2 innings. It is to be seen if that kind of pitching can survive against the playoff teams.

But the Giants utilized their real secret weapon, a bullpen that was just untouchable at the end of the year. Yesterday we saw almost all of it – Santiago Casilla, Ramon Ramirez, Javier Lopez, Sergio Romo and Brian Wilson went 4 innings, giving up 1 hit, no walks and no runs to finish the game. These guys looked shaky at mid-season, but down the stretch, they were unhittable. Here are their ending season ERAs: 1.95, 0.67, 2.34, 2.17, and 1.81 for Wilson. Yikes! Giants pitchers only have to go 5 or 6 innings, and then the supermen take the mound.

And with pitchers like Lincecum, Cain and Sanchez, knowing they don’t have to pitch 8 or 9 innings, the Giants are going to be dangerous. Nobody wants to face them. And unlike most of the teams in the playoffs, they’ve had to go out there day after day after day under playoff conditions, right to the last day, #162.

It was fun out there yesterday, and at moments, it was like the 2002 World Series. It got LOUD when Pablo turned the 5-4 double play. He says he was trying to start a 5-4-3 triple play, and I saw him do that once. But what he did was a thrill, with runners on first and second and no outs, the only real threat the Padres were able to mount.

And it was LOUD when Buster hit that ball out in the 8th. The insurance run was not necessary, but it was a national statement by the guy who will be the NL ROY. This kid is the real deal. We all know it here, just like we knew it about Lincecum. Check him out during the playoffs.

And of course it was LOUD when BWeasey came in to close it, with his absurd beard and his semi-legal orange shoes. He tied the Giants save record at 48 yesterday, tying a true Giant legend, Rod Beck, whose family was in the house. And he said he was happy to share the record with Shooter.

So the Giants will get to participate in the playoffs for the first time without Barry since the earthquake in 1989. It’s a likeable team full of characters like Aubrey Huff and Juan Uribe and Lincecum and Pablo that the country doesn’t quite know yet.

As for no tomorrow games, well they are special. Hey, Knicks fans, remember game 7 in 1970, with Willis dragging his bad leg onto the court? Red Sox fans certainly remember game 7 against the Reds in 1975 and against the Yankees in 2004.

I previously wrote about my favorite sports moment, which was a no tomorrow game 7. Warriors v. Chicago Bulls, 1975, NBA Western Conference Championship, played here in Oakland. The Warriors came back from 19 down to win it* and head to the finals to win their one and only championship. That game made me a Californian – I had only lived here for less than a year. But that great team, and that great season, and that deafening, thrilling game made me a local fan. I no longer cared about New York teams, even the Knicks.

*Al Attles, who has been with the Warriors for 50 years, said it was his all-time favorite game. And remember - Al was in Hershey, PA the night Wilt scored 100. In fact, Al and Wilt hold the record for most points by two teammates in a game - 117.

That was 35 years ago, and the Warriors haven’t been back to the finals, and for the most part, they haven’t been back to the playoffs. That’s because you never know when a team is going to come together in just the right way to make it possible.

For the Giants, who have never won a World Series for San Francisco, we get another shot. If yesterday’s game is any indication, it’s going to be fun.