The Giants are still very fortunate to be in first place in the NL West. Today they avoided a weekend sweep with a 9-2 victory over Milwaukee, but what business do they have losing a series to Milwaukee to begin with? And at home nonetheless? See, this is exactly what I'm talking about when I say that teams like the Giants have no business being in the playoffs. They lose series late in the year to teams they shouldn't be losing series to. It's one thing if you're the Padres and you lose three out of four on the road to a St. Louis team that still has a mathematical chance of making the postseason. It's another thing entirely to get shut out by Randy Wolf, not score enough runs for Tim Lincecum, and then take all of it out on Chris Narveson. Playoff teams don't have series like the Giants had this weekend. At least Troy Tulowitzki and the Rockies took two out of three from the Dodgers at Dodger Stadium, where historically they can never seem to muster up any success.
Performances like this weekend's by the Giants lend credence to the idea that their status as a first-place team is a joke. If you can't score against Randy Wolf and Yovani Gallardo, how do you expect to score against Roy Halladay and Cole Hamels? Or Mat Latos and Clayton Richard? Despite all the minor additions to their lineup, the Giants remain impotent offensively. Their pitching hasn't been enough to get them to the playoffs in the past couple of seasons, so why should 2010 be any different? Who's really a threat if you're taking the hill against the Giants in the playoffs, from a pitcher's perspective? Aubrey Huff? Maybe. Pablo Sandoval? Not this season. Jose Guillen? Today only. Buster Posey? Doubtful. Juan Uribe? Only in the late innings. The Giants don't scare you, they excite you if you're the Phillies, Reds, or Braves, because you know you'll sweep them right out of the postseason and punch an easy ticket into the NLCS. Phillies fans have to be on their knees right now, praying for the Padres to keep losing so they get the Giants in the first round. I know I would be.
Teams like the Giants don't belong in October. They're outcasts, dirty as a diaper, contaminating the pristine nature of the matchups October baseball seeks to create. The Brewers were 11 games under .500 coming into the weekend. The Giants were 19 games over. Give me a break. Bring some sock next time you decide you want to contend for a division title.
Or at least freshen up a bit.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment