Giants 4, Dodgers 2 (10 innings): When Pablo Sandoval watched his near home run in the bottom of the 9th, thinking he had a walk-off, but only got to second instead of taking the easy triple -- a bonehead move that changed the entire complexion of the inning -- I was ready to chalk this one up as the worst loss of the year. It had that smell. Oo-ooh, that smell. The smell of Happy Dodgers surrounds you.
But lo, the only way Juan Uribe could have redeemed himself more is by going on Oprah. Until the bottom of the 10th, he had had a worse day than the umpires, who apparently were passing around a bottle of "Go Blue!" Schnapps between innings -- "Bill, quit hoggin' the nectar. Hey, y'know that Bochy guy over there? Lookit his melonhead. You know what I say? I say fuck that guy!" -- that's about how their calls went all day. All series. Worst umpiring I have ever, ever, ever seen, because I was at Boy Scout camp or playing Atari 2600 or something during the 1985 World Series.
If the Giants lost today, Gary "Sherry" Darling would have become a notorious Denkinger for his horrific 9th-inning call that gave Furcal an infield hit. Furcal got to second, and with two outs, Ethier battled a heroic Tim Lincecum and finally got a hittable pitch: basehit, tie game. Lincecum left the field with his eyes on the ground, but as he got to the dugout he spun and screamed an obscenity at someone on the field a split second before the TV feed cut to a commercial. I'd like to think he was screaming at Darling. ("Move them big feet", perhaps?)
That brings us to the Sandoval moment that started this diatribe. Stupid Panda move, showboating out of the box like that, no doubt with a bit of revenge in mind for the 5th-inning hit-by-pitch (which the umpires said wasn't -- more weirdness) that led to a bench-clearing, uh, staring match.
There was so much action, we're gonna need another blog post!
But not tonight. I need to get to sleep early. I can't forget Uribe, though. His first three at-bats today went like this: 1) Bases loaded, no outs -- ground ball, force at home. 2) Man on second, one out -- strikeout. 3) Bases loaded, two runs already in, two outs -- strikeout. He could have won the game singlehandedly with a couple well-placed bloopers. For added drama, he dropped a pop-up in the 10th that put the winning run on base, but Brian Wilson got nasty and struck out the next two batters. That set the scene for Uribe's homer in the 10th, perhaps the most improbable Giant moment of the year to date. Whew.
Was this game a momentum-changer, or are the Giants lucky that Uribe saw an 0-2 Guillermo Mota meatball? And speaking of Uribe, do you want him back next year as a utility infielder? Discuss.
