So much to touch on...
Okay, so here's the basic outline of today's post:
Jonathan Sanchez turned in a typical performance for game #162: very few hits, but quite a few walks/strikeouts. And as long as he can keep the other team from scoring, this formula works....He pitched five scoreless innings, allowing just three hits, walking five, and striking out five.
- Game Summary
- Jonathan Sanchez
- Giants Final Season Stats
- Brian Wilson
- Sept/Oct
- Final day of season
- Umpires...
- Bullpen
- Rotation
- Images
- Latos/Sanchez
- Rob Neyer Quote
- True fans
The highlight of his day, though? -- what he did to get scoring going for the Giants. In the third inning, with one out, he crushed a triple into the home of triples -- Triples Alley. Freddy Sanchez would later line a single up the middle to knock him in, giving the Giants a 1-0 lead. They weren't done yet, though...Aubrey Huff hit an opposite-field double that was out of the reach of the diving Chris Denorfia, and knocked in Freddy for the second run. With a 2-0 lead, the Giants didn't look back.
The bullpen came in and did as they have done for all of September and October, shut the opponents down. Santiago Casilla relieved Sanchez in the sixth with runners on first and second and nobody out. He promptly yielded a groundball to Pablo Sandoval, who made a spectacular heads-up play, touching third base and quickly throwing to second to turn a double play. Casilla got out of the inning with ease, and the bullpen dominated the rest of the game, turning in a total of four scoreless innings with five strikeouts...and only one runner reached base for the Padres against the Giants' bullpen.
In the eighth, Buster Posey ended an 0-for-12 slump with a leadoff solo home run to left field -- just to give the Giants' bullpen a little more insurance.
Brian Wilson came in, retired the Padres in order, and the champagne showers began.
In what's been the 2010 tradition, the Giants waited till the last minute to succeed, taking the National League West division title in game #162. It's their first playoff berth since 2003, but what's more impressive is what the Giants overcame to get to the playoffs. On July 4, the Giants were seven-and-a-half games back in the National League West. Today, they have won the division title and are two games ahead. The obstacles they've overcome to get here are a testament to their strength and willpower as a team, and will bode well for them in the playoffs.
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Jonathan Sanchez...as recently as last year, Giants fans wanted to trade him for Nick Johnson. This year, the desired trades were for Corey Hart or Prince Fielder. As brilliant (or lucky) as some of Brian Sabean's moves have been this year -- Aubrey Huff, Pat Burrell, Juan Uribe, Javier Lopez, Ramon Ramirez, Cody Ross -- none of them were as significant as the move he didn't make...trading Sanchez. Sanchez has become an elite pitcher -- one who came into today's game ranked first in the NL in hits per nine innings, and eighth in the NL in strikeouts.
He finished the year with a six-game-streak of 5+ IP and fewer than five hits allowed -- which is tied for the longest such streak by an NL starter this year.
Lastly, he secured his place in Giants franchise history with 205 strikeouts -- the fourth-most by any Giants southpaw in a single season.
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Now that the season's over, so are the regular season stats for the Giants...here's their leaderboard for the regular season:
ERA -- Jonathan Sanchez, 3.07
K -- Tim Lincecum, 231
WHIP -- Matt Cain, 1.08
SV -- Brian Wilson, 48
AVG -- Aubrey Huff, .290
HR -- Aubrey Huff, 26
RBI -- Aubrey Huff, 86
R -- Aubrey Huff, 100
They hit a total of 161 home runs, with a .257 batting average. Their team ERA was 3.38
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Brian Wilson turned in one of the best seasons by a Giants closer, ever, with an ERA of 1.81, and a franchise record (T-1st) of 48 saves. He will not be winning the Rolaids Relief Man Award, which is awarded objectively based on a point system. You can look at the leaderboards here. I personally find that award to be meaningless -- based merely on the fact that the Padres' bullpen stud, Luke Gregerson, ranks 271st on the leaderboards.
I'd rank Brian Wilson's 2010 as the third best season by any Giants closer -- the best two seasons being Robb Nen's seasons from 1998 and 2000.
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The Giants finished the season with a great final month -- going 19-10 in September/October. Perhaps the most amazing part -- they posted a 9-1 record in series finales in September/October.
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The Giants won the final day of the season for the fourth consecutive year, and now own a 10-1 record on the final day of the regular season, dating back to 2000.
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The Giants have been the victims of bad umpiring all season long. Some notable incidents were Phil Cuzzi's bad call in the Mets series, and Jerry Crawford's terrible strikezone in the most recent Giants series in San Diego. Sunday's game had yet another incident...Andres Torres knocked a double down the left field line, which bounced on the chalk in fair territory. The umpire, Mike Everitt, called the ball foul, taking away what would've ended up being a run for the Giants in the first inning.
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The Giants' bullpen was spectacular down the stretch, posting an ERA of 0.90 in September/October. They finished the season with a streak of 24 consecutive scoreless innings.
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The Giants' rotation was equally incredible, putting up yet another dominant season, finishing in the top five in the majors in starting pitching ERA, and logging a total of 95 quality starts, which is the third-most of any team.
Their trio of Cain, Lincecum, and Sanchez each logged 175+ strikeouts, marking only the 18th time a trio has of starters for a team has done so since 1961.
| Rk | Year | Lg | Tm | #Matching | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1990 | NL | New York Mets | 4 | David Cone / Sid Fernandez / Dwight Gooden / Frank Viola |
| 2 | 2010 | NL | San Francisco Giants | 3 | Matt Cain / Tim Lincecum / Jonathan Sanchez |
| 3 | 2003 | AL | New York Yankees | 3 | Roger Clemens / Mike Mussina / Andy Pettitte |
| 4 | 2000 | AL | Cleveland Indians | 3 | Dave Burba / Bartolo Colon / Chuck Finley |
| 5 | 1999 | NL | Houston Astros | 3 | Mike Hampton / Jose Lima / Shane Reynolds |
| 6 | 1990 | AL | Seattle Mariners | 3 | Erik Hanson / Randy Johnson / Matt Young |
| 7 | 1988 | NL | New York Mets | 3 | David Cone / Sid Fernandez / Dwight Gooden |
| 8 | 1987 | NL | Los Angeles Dodgers | 3 | Orel Hershiser / Fernando Valenzuela / Bob Welch |
| 9 | 1986 | NL | New York Mets | 3 | Ron Darling / Sid Fernandez / Dwight Gooden |
| 10 | 1974 | NL | New York Mets | 3 | Jerry Koosman / Jon Matlack / Tom Seaver |
| 11 | 1970 | AL | Baltimore Orioles | 3 | Mike Cuellar / Dave McNally / Jim Palmer |
| 12 | 1969 | NL | Chicago Cubs | 3 | Bill Hands / Ken Holtzman / Fergie Jenkins |
| 13 | 1969 | NL | Houston Astros | 3 | Larry Dierker / Tom Griffin / Don Wilson |
| 14 | 1969 | NL | Los Angeles Dodgers | 3 | Claude Osteen / Bill Singer / Don Sutton |
| 15 | 1967 | AL | Minnesota Twins | 3 | Dave Boswell / Dean Chance / Jim Kaat |
| 16 | 1966 | NL | Los Angeles Dodgers | 3 | Don Drysdale / Sandy Koufax / Don Sutton |
| 17 | 1962 | NL | Los Angeles Dodgers | 3 | Don Drysdale / Sandy Koufax / Johnny Podres |
| 18 | 1961 | NL | Los Angeles Dodgers | 3 | Don Drysdale / Sandy Koufax / Stan Williams |
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 10/3/2010.
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Here it is...How great does this feel?!
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As I said yesterday, "Funny thing, because last time a Giants pitcher made comments about the Padres, he lost the game. Maybe Latos will learn this lesson tomorrow..." Latos learned his lesson. Don't mess with magicians...
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Here's a fun Rob Neyer quote from a while back...
"I can't quite figure why the Giants would be worried about Ross going to the Padres. Granted, the Padres could use a center fielder. But the Giants really don't have to worry about the Padres, who are close to uncatchable. The Giants need to worry more about whoever doesn't win the East and whoever doesn't win the Central."
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Props to Henry Schulman. He got it right on the money. He said on August 30, "Well, a 20-11 finish would get them to 92-70, pretty much assuring they'd be in." He was completely right.
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What's coming up next on Splashing Pumpkins? A series preview for the NLDS (Giants vs. Braves), and recaps of all of the playoff games. Then eventually we'll possibly get into "2010: Year in Review" evaluations and looks at acquisitions the Giants should make this offseason...
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An ode to the true fan ---
For those of you Giants fans who haven't just jumped on the bandwagon -- who have been through all of the torture, the worries about Lincecum and Sandoval, the devastating losses to the Padres, the struggles of Freddy Sanchez, Barry Zito, Aaron Rowand, and Edgar Renteria, and all of the beautiful clutch home runs courtesy of Pat Burrell, Juan Uribe, Aubrey Huff, Buster Posey, etc....Props to you for following them from day one. You are a true fan and should take pride in this.
If you are a true fan, you can look back on this team and see how much has changed. As Henry Schulman said:
"Of course, The Giants I was talking about had Mark DeRosa in left field, Todd Wellemeyer in the rotation, Aaron Rowand in the starting lineup and Edgar Renteria at short. Pat Burrell was in Tampa, Ramon Ramirez in Boston, Javier Lopez in Pittsburgh, Madison Bumgarner and Buster Posey in Fresno, Mike Fontenot in Chicago and Cody Ross in Florida."
