SFGate/San Francisco Chronicle
In a season of wild momentum changes, the biggest might have occurred when Brian Wilson fired a 2-2 fastball that got too much of the plate's inner half. Jeff Baker sent it into the foggy San Francisco night, and the Giants moped at a time they should have been merry.
They were one strike from cutting their wild-card deficit to three games with nine to play Thursday night, but Baker turned a noisy China Basin crowd quiet. His two-run homer with two outs in the ninth inning accounted for a 3-2 Cubs victory and left the Giants a lot-tougher-to-take four games behind the Rockies.
"It's tough. If you look at the numbers, tonight was huge for us. Unfortunately, we didn't get it done," said Brad Penny, who pitched eight innings of one-run ball before yielding to Wilson. "Mathematically, we're not out of it. We've got to win nine in a row and hope (the Rockies) lose."
Wilson was gone by the time the media arrived in the clubhouse, but neither manager Bruce Bochy nor Penny (who threw 94 pitches) second-guessed the decision to summon the closer. Wilson entered with a 1.27 ERA over his previous 19 outings, going 9-for-10 in save chances.
"In a situation like that, I would've faced the 3-4-5 guys for the fourth time," Penny said. "You've got a fresh guy in the bullpen who throws 100 (mph). To me, it's a no-brainer."
Wilson began the ninth by walking Derrek Lee but retired the next two batters on popouts. Lee stole second on a play in which Eugenio Velez sustained sore ribs but stayed in the game. Baker then smacked Wilson's fastball over the left-field wall. The Giants put two runners aboard in the ninth, but Carlos Marmol struck out Aaron Rowand and Fred Lewis to end it.
If the Rockies win the wild card, they should give Baker a full playoff share. They traded Baker to the Cubs on July 2, and he did his old team a gigantic favor on a night the Rockies failed to take care of business in San Diego, blowing a 3-0 lead and losing 5-4.
Before Thursday's game, Bochy said the Giants must "win out," give or take a loss or two - meaning 10-0 at best, 8-2 at the least - and receive an awful lot of help from the Rockies.
Through eight innings, it was playing out perfectly. Penny, 3-1 since joining the Giants, surrendered one run, the only damage coming on Baker's fourth-inning double play that scored Micah Hoffpauir.
The Rockies-Padres final was posted on the Giants' out-of-town scoreboard in the fifth inning. Two innings later, the Giants broke a 1-1 tie with John Bowker's home run off Ryan Dempster.
The same Bowker who homered into McCovey Cove off the same Dempster on July 2, 2008. In fact, Bowker now is 4-for-8 off Dempster, including a double in Thursday's fourth inning that pushed home the Giants' first run.
"I see the ball out of his hand pretty well," Bowker said.
Bowker had been 2-for-12 this month after arriving from Triple-A Fresno and was hitting .178 in 23 big-leagues games on the season. Bochy played him not just because of a little success off Dempster, but because Nate Schierholtz, another lefty hitter, had food poisoning.
The Giants play six more home games against the Cubs and Diamondbacks and finish the season with three in San Diego.
 Chi Cubs (79-73) Won 1 | Chi Cubs 3, San Francisco 2 |  San Francisco (82-71) Lost 1 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Standings thru 9/24/09 | Recap: CHC | SF | Wrap | Gameday |
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