SFGate/San Francisco Chronicle
The Giants' surprising season had just ended with a 4-3, 10-inning victory Sunday when Kevin Mitchell darted into the clubhouse toward Pablo Sandoval. They shared a hug, the 1989 National League Most Valuable Player and a possible future MVP, a Boogie Bear and a Panda Bear.
"Panda, man, I knew he was going to strike today," Mitchell said.
Symbolically, the season could not have ended any other way. Sandoval led off the 10th inning with a 444-foot, home run to center to break a 3-3 tie. Brian Wilson then secured the Giants' 88th win with his 38th save. Also appropriate, Wilson struck out Chase Headley and Kevin Kouzmanoff with two aboard to end it.
The Giants finished their first winning season in five years at 88-74, fifth best in the league and good for third place in the West, seven games behind the division-winning Dodgers. Their 16-game turnaround from 2008 was their best since a 22-game improvement from 1996 to 1997.
Game 162 featured a lot of goodbyes and potential goodbyes. Rich Aurilia flied out in his final at-bat with the Giants and was given a gift by teammates who cheered him in the clubhouse. Randy Winn also flied out in his final at-bat, robbed by a sliding catch.
Randy Johnson's Hall of Fame career might have ended with a blown save. An unearned run against him cost Jonathan Sanchez a victory. However, Johnson's season and perhaps career ended with a critical strikeout of 40-homer man Adrian Gonzalez, the 4,875th of the Unit's career.
But this game ultimately belonged to Sandoval, whose final swing of the year produced a game-winning home run and a bunch of round numbers. It raised his final long-ball count to 25, his RBIs to 90 and his batting average to .330. He finished second in hitting to Florida's Hanley Ramirez, who ran away with the batting title at .342.
"That's just temporary," Mitchell said of Sandoval's numbers. "That's just to let them know, 'I'm coming.' "
When a reporter recited those numbers to Sandoval, the 23-year-old scrunched his face as if to acknowledge he had a special first full season in the majors and said, "I can't believe it. Every time I went to my house, I just wanted to say thank you to God for giving me the chance to play baseball every day. I'm excited to be in the big leagues and do that well."
Sandoval was excited to have all his bones intact after a scary incident on the play that tied the game in the seventh inning. He caught a pop foul by David Eckstein and flipped over the railing of the Giants' dugout head-first. A crowd of teammates raced over to try to catch him.
Bochy addressed players before the game to thank them for their effort, which clearly extended into the season's final game.
They dispersed for the winter with a sense of accomplishment, as well as longing for the few extra wins that would have gotten them to the postseason.
"I think in the years coming up to this one we made smallish strides," Tim Lincecum said. "We didn't know what our identity was as a team. Now we're finding that."
With the season over, the onus on relieving the frustration shifts to the front office, now charged with finding some punch the Giants desperately lacked in 2009. They scored 657 runs, only 17 more than last year's 90-loss team.
Assuming some offense is added, the Giants will go into 2010 with heightened expectations.
"That's what you want," Bochy said. "We want to go into next year expecting to win and play good baseball. It's a lot better than going in the other way, when you're not expected to do anything."
Lincecum and Matt Cain helped raise the bar.
Before the game, Cain walked across the clubhouse and asked Lincecum to sign a baseball. They embraced, and Lincecum said, "It was fun. Let's do this again."
 San Francisco (88-74) Won 1 | San Francisco 4, San Diego 3 |  San Diego (75-87) Lost 1 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Standings thru 10/4/09 | Recap: SF | SD | Wrap | Gameday |
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