5 Days Left: Forever Young

5 Days Left

2 games ahead in division, .5 games ahead in wild card

Yesterday's Giants game started out dubiously. Jonathan Sanchez walked the first 14 batters he faced, gave up a sac fly to the pitcher, a homerun to the DBacks' 3-hitter, an almost-homerun to the DBacks' 4-hitter, and looked generally like a young pitcher who has never pitched a meaningful game in the last week of the season.

No worries. He was calmed down by the veteran cool of 15 year old Buster Posey, who took command of the pace of the game, reminded Jonathan Sanchez that nobody ever hits the ball off him when he throws it in the strike zone, and helped the Giants fight back for a huge 4-2 victory in front of a packed, loud, excited, nervous, 40,000 people.

This was in contrast to the Padres, who apparently played, and lost, in front of 10,000 Padres fans and 15,000 Cubs fans, including three people dressed up in full bear costumes.

"He's texting!" Collin yelled at the tv at one point. "The bear is texting!"

Of course he is.

Meanwhile, the Braves won but lost their #3 hitter for the season.

The Rockies lost, dropping them to 6 games back with 5 to go, which downgraded their chances of winning the west to only 74%.

This morning on KNBR, the talking heads actually spent their time talking about the Giants instead of the Niners but they insisted on talking about how last night "felt like a clinching game" and how the Padres "are cooked". Thank you, geniuses. You're talking about a Giants team that has now won a total of 2 games this year since April on days when they were in first place. A lock? A clinch? Perhaps you were on a different planet in 2002?

(shudders violently)

But despite my text to my friend Marcus this morning (who was watching with me in 2002): "we're so close I can taste it...still bracing for horrifying collapse", I have nothing but good things to say right now.

Nothing but good things to say about:

-Jonathan Sanchez, against whom hitters are batting .206 this year. .206. And he's our 3rd best pitcher! That's ridiculous!
-Kung Fu Panda, who is trying SO hard and sucking SO much but who came up huge last night and played a Panda-esque game.

-Carlos Marmol, who again shut down the Padres in the 9th inning. Can he pitch again tonight, too? Please, don't deprive me of more Marmol. I need my Marmol.

As the Giants high-fived, it struck me how much I love this team, and how much personality they have. Our leadoff hitter is a 32-year old rookie. Our #3 hitter and #5 hitters are reunited after playing together in college. One won a world series and now returns home after being cut by the Rays, the other has toiled on bad teams his whole life and never made the playoffs. Our #4 hitter is Jesus, sent from heaven to save us, but with some mystical humility and maturity way beyond his age. Buster Posey is comically perfect. Our #6 hitter is a "clubhouse cancer" who has been on 12 teams in 14 years and only made the playoffs once, but now is on his best behavior. Our #7 hitter is the nephew of a former Giant killed tragically in a car accident, a shorstop with 22 home runs who somehow nobody else wanted. Our #8 hitter is nicknamed Kung Fu Panda. Our closer once uttered the phrase "there's too much awesome in my shoes."

Sigh. I could go on.

Watching the Giants last night, I felt like I was 10 years old again. And that's awesome, because when I was 10, most of my meals involved Top Ramen and Mac and Cheese and..wait...hold on...apparently most of my meals still involve those things. Hmmm. But back then, my biggest worry was that the Giants would lose, and my biggest joy was when the Giants didn't lose. And without making any predictions, and no matter what else happens, right now I can say with absolute certainty that the Giants are magic, inside.

Today's Poll Question:

Carlos Marmol or Meg Whitman?

A) Carlos Marmol.