Mercury News
Giants fans yearning for the team's bats to thaw, awaiting that refreshing 13-hit game, got their wish Sunday.
It was not the fireworks display they might have imagined.
It was a maddening and frustrating 21/2-hour grind that kept 42,366 fans on the edges of their seats until the final out.
They're used to it. So when the throw from second baseman Mike Fontenot reached the mitt of first baseman Aubrey Huff before Jimmy Rollins could cross the bag, recording the final out of a 3-1 win over Philadelphia, the reaction was less of complete satisfaction than of momentary relief.
The Giants had dodged the measure of humiliation that would have come with being victimized by a four-game sweep in their China Basin home.
They also regained their fragile dignity against a Phillies team always in mind, a club San Francisco expects to see again should it find its way back to the postseason.
The Giants did it as they have for the better part of their 292 games since the beginning of last season, reaffirming their identity as more pluck than power, always and forever the determined crew of the Good Ship Panic, staying on course while keeping passengers uneasy.
If ever a team can inspire anxiety while lashing 13 hits and drawing four walks behind a solid Tim Lincecum outing, it is the Giants. For as welcome as those runners were, that only three scored is symptomatic of their perpetual difficulty at crossing the plate.
So constipated is this offense, it sometimes seems easier to squeeze oil from the fog hovering over the ballpark. The Giants raked Phillies starter Roy Oswalt for eight hits over his first 31/3 innings yet scored only once.
"I hate using up all our runs the way we did today," manager Bruce Bochy cracked, smiling at his own sarcasm.
Bochy could grin because his team had avoided the bottom-of-the-well feeling that comes with a winless weekend at home. Or because he knows the next three games come against the Pirates, who have reverted to being the Pitiful Pirates.
The manager also could take comfort in knowing that through it all -- losing eight of 10 and 11 of 17 -- his team remains atop the N.L. West, if by only a half-game over Arizona.
Yet the most satisfying aspect of this day for Bochy and the Giants had to be winning despite spending most of the afternoon spinning a web of despair around Lincecum's artfully resolute pitching. He labored through 63 pitches over his first four innings, allowing one run, before eventually getting a lead and protecting it with the ferocity of a nursing badger.
Hey, Lincecum had a rival to contend with and a losing streak to halt.
"He's going to go out there and try to dominate, regardless," catcher Chris Stewart said of the right-hander. "But, yeah, maybe there was a little extra incentive."
Lincecum also seemed to grasp the value of having a lead, quite the fleeting feeling among Giants starters. The Giants tied it in the fourth and went up 2-1 in the fifth, after which Lincecum responded by retiring the Phillies in order in the sixth and seventh.
Yet the clubhouse hummed mostly with the hope that comes with seeing bats actually make contact. Jeff Keppinger sprayed four singles, Stewart added two, and Pablo Sandoval smacked a single and a double.
"Finally, it's exciting," Sandoval said.
"Getting hits can do a lot for a player's confidence," Bochy said. "I know it's been shaken a bit."
See what the joy of winning, even one game, can do? It allowed the Giants to bask in the glow of Keppinger's four hits rather than wallow in the fact that he scored zero runs. It allowed them to overlook such ugliness as Lincecum's failed two-strike squeeze attempt and the stranding of 12 runners.
Almost nothing got in the way of the vibe. But because it's the Giants, there's always something.
That something was Carlos Beltran experiencing soreness in the back of his right hand, near his wrist. The right fielder said he felt a sharp pain and that his hand felt noticeably weaker, after which the Giants removed him in the eighth. X-rays were negative.
Though Bochy speculated Beltran would be day-to-day, the player seemed to believe he could return soon, perhaps Monday.
It may not be that easy, though, because nothing with the Giants ever is. This is a team that is 11 games over .500 (63-52) despite being outscored 406-399, a team always living on the edge, keeping its fans on the verge of panic.
With 47 games left in the season, expect more of the same from the Giants. It's all they know. It's who they are.
No comments:
Post a Comment