That Was Not A Swing
Look, I think we all knew where that at bat was going. Flores looked pretty lost, he was 0-17 vs Scherzer in his career, but come on, the game CAN’T end on that call. The SEASON can’t end on that call. That wasn’t even close to a swing. If the home plate ump who is right there doesn’t call it a swing then the only way the guy who is 100 feet away can call it a swing is if he’s CERTAIN it was one. And that wasn’t even goddamn close….
But hey, umpires are idiots. They’re going to make mistakes. The Giants scored 5 runs in 5 games. That’s the reason they lost not because of some incompetent look-at-me rogue fuck who had a plane to catch…..
For those who are incomprehensibly saying this *evened things out* after the Ruf at bat in August: Baggs said it best…..
I went to bed sick to my stomach but woke up feeling much better. That was an incredible series punctuated by one of the best baseball games we’ve ever had the pleasure to watch. After the last 2 years I am thankful for the chance to watch it all unfold. Credit to the Dodgers who just ended up slightly better with the right hit at the right time. We may be knocked out but we have a team to root for. Let’s go Braves!
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
Not a way to end a very unexpected season and Flores call will get tons of press attention as a hugely bungled call but we don’t know what Flores does on the next swing. What I am more incensed about is the first pitch to Crawford there in Bottom of the 9th on a clear ball one then gets Crawford swinging on an up n out that he would have laid off on at 1-0.
That changed everything and Scherzer was hittable and if Wade was a split second later in that swing he pulled hard foul that may have even a Bobby Thompson or Travis Ishikawa moment. Wade not swinging on a hittable strike three also stings.
I don’t think there is an excuse after allows two on and Bellinger up you don’t without blinking bring in a lefty. Kapler did not have any edit warmed up. Inexcusable to me. Will root for Freeman more than Braves but I am rooting ultimately for Dusty!!!
Meant up and in n Crawford with the second pitch.
On walk yesterday was thinking about inevitability of Doval losing command. Happens to everyone and as closer, results were bound to cost them a game. Unfortunate it was one as important as this one.
LA got gift of the HBP and then got 2 hits to score deciding run. Giants got gift of Turner flub on groundball and then 2 guys struck out.
Well said though Flav, tremendous game and season. Reload from bad old post 2016 days far ahead of schedule.
TOTAL bullshit call, but fuck it, I am over it. This one will sting for a while. To get eliminated is one thing, but at the hands of the fucking bums makes it sting that much more.
But as I said last night, I am extremely proud of this team. They all bought into a new way of doing things, and shocked the baseball world with an incredibly unexpected run. What a joy of a season full of resilience and torture.
Today I am as proud to be a Giants fan as I ever have been in my life and look forward to spring training.
Only 123 days until pitchers and catchers report.
Go Braves!
That was an awful way to end the season. I just powered everything off and went to bed and just laid there and stewed. I still haven’t checked in with some of my closest friends who are Giant and Dodger fans. Like Chuck I think said, I don’t plan on watching another second of this sham of a playoff. And like Snarkk, I will be pulling for Dusty to get a ring.
The thing that really pisses me off is that I think Scherzer looked hittable and I don’t think it is so far-fetched to think Wilmer could have gotten on base. That jack ass basically decided the World Series on a non check swing. No one is gonna beat the fucking Dodgers.
But what an incredible season and we’ve got a great manager and front office and roster moving forward.
And Logan Webb is a made man in my book.
I’ve never been so wrong about a team as I was about this one.
The comparison also is ridiculous since Ruf’s AB came down to a check swing thanks to this awful strike call.
Check swing hurts because it took away the hope for some magic. Flores might have K’d anyway, but maybe not. Longoria on deck. He was bad, but did have the monster homer of Schurzer! damn. The home plate ump screwed us more. Bryant, Posey, Craw AB’s all sting in a game where a walk or a more stressful situation leads to mistake pitches, just as happened after Turner HBP. I hate the braves and the stupid chop. Go Braves!
Go Braves.
composite stats show SF did pretty good job of holding down league leading Dodger offense.
Seager 5-21
Taylor 2-14
J Turner 1-20
T Turner 3-22
Bellinger 3-14 before hit off Duval
giants of course had their share of guys who struggled
Wade 1-10
Ruf 1-11
Flores 0-12
Yaz 0-13
Longo 2-17
Dogs slash line .242/.292/.347 for .639 OPS
Giants: .182/.211/.302 for .513 OPS 6 BBs 49 Ks
That’s what good pitching will do
Great season.
Unexpected, so the pleasure of it was magnified.
I have faith in Farhan as I have since he came on. He’ll figure out a new rotation, they have $ for FAs. That’s good, since it looks like the cupboard is pretty bare for starters in the high minors.
He MUST fix this outfield. Compare the Giants OF to LA’s, or other playoff teams. Oy. We need a group that is really athletic, can hit consistently, not just be good fielders. Yaz, Duggar, Slater, they were ghosts at the plate for large swaths of the season, and particularly the last 2 weeks. Ruf, Dickerson? Come on. The Giants OF is like the Niners and receivers. When are they going to put together an above average OF? I’ve no clue if Ramos or Bishop or any of these guys in the minors are the real deal. So, pick up at least one stud OFer, and another that’s an upgrade — pay the money. The Pen will change, it always does like any other team, Farhan will get it together. Doval has finished as the leader in the Scottsdale clubhouse for Closer. When he learns a third pitch, even if just for show, he’ll be awesome…
The fix was in. The Giants need to up their contributions to the umpire’s widow and orphans fund.
Back to reading, San Francisco Year Zero, a story about political upheaval, punk rock and a third place baseball team.
Dunno how accessible it is, maybe off twitter feeds of beat writers, but Bruce Jenkins had front page story in yesterday Chron about Doval. He was skinny 16 year old who hadn’t attracted much attention from scouts except couple Giants guys who liked his easy arm action and figured he’d get stronger and throw harder than high 80s he was doing at time.
He’s from small town an hour outside of Santo Domingo and a poor family. Giants offered him a contract of $100K In October of 2015 at age 18 and agent/family agreed. Perspective here, when Giants signed Luciano out of Int’l market, it was for $2.5 mil.
Went up ladder to then High A San Jose in 2019 but lost out on 2020. Promoted to Sac 2021, up and down, but never stopped working. Scouts credit player development program that he never slowed down at every level.
Good story.
Baseball is a religion in the Dominican…
Still have a lump in my throat, this hurts way more than I expected it to. Turned everything off and just went to bed. Probably gonna stay off social media for a few more days.
That blown call was BS of course, but there were no clutch hits after the first game, save for Longo in game 3. Completely agree with G Head about the strike 1 call to Crawford, that changed the complexion of the whole inning.
I trust Farhan to make the right moves in the off-season. He’s in a great position to make moves. Idk who does what in the playoffs as long as it’s not the bums. I won’t watch another pitch.
Yeah, I’m pretty much done with baseball. For now. Utter insanity how bad the umpiring was this whole series. Worst crew in the playoffs. Both Bryant and Posey lost walks to terrible calls on pitches 3 to 4″ out of the zone.
I’d like to find those stat trackers for the balls and strikes. If they were over 85% right, I’d be surprised.
The check swing was horrendous. Would Wilmet have struck out anyway? Probably. But we’ll never know. It was decided not by a play but by an ump. He has to live with the fact that he made the worst call in baseball history at the worst possible time, so there’s that, but Jesus.
The unwritten rule has always been you don’t end a game on a check swing call.
Yep, if you’re an ump at first or third in that situation, you have to know and plan that if you’re called on for a check swing call that could end the SEASON for one team, you better be damn sure the guy swung out of his shoes. If it’s not laughingly and obviously a swing, you do not, can not, call it a strike. Afterwards, confronted by the pool reporter, the ump would not admit he blew it, after admitting he had just seen the replays. The only thing he would admit is that the check swing is one of the toughest calls for an umpire. Total joke.
If you’ve got balls enough to call an out to end a team’s SEASON, you should have balls enough to say you blew the call. I’ve got very little respect for umpires, it’s declined over the years. Their strike zones are stupid, they blow calls at first and tags at second with regularity, and they play ego trips all the time, when they have no reason to even have an ego. Joe West has finally retired, I think he’s not in the post season. Good riddance…
Damn, so accurate.
This place was right across the street when I worked on Montgomery. Great place.
Right next to the Scientology Center. Once a week 2 giant buses would unload a shit ton of people into the building. The original 3-story Transamerica building.
Tell ya one thing, I’m pretty sure the play-in game next year will be expanded to 3 games, and there will be 3 check-swing challenges allowed per game per team.
If so, they should call it the “Mr. Ed” rule…
Looking forward to see what they do in the off-season. They’ve got their work cut out for them; flaws were revealed in that series. And yet… I had said a couple of weeks ago that I wanted St. Louis to beat LA because I thought the pain of losing to LA would be greater than the joy of beating them. Turns out that’s not really true; while I know I would be on cloud 9 had they won, not really feeling down the day after, afterall. Maybe a little emotionally hungover, but that’s all. Great season.
About the team next year: I don’t know, maybe I’m gettin’ old (well, obviously), but I kind of miss knowing who’s playing where. Yeah, who’s on first. Other than Crawford being THE shortstop, and I guess Buster at catcher and Longo being the 3rd bagger (though he would not be my choice for that role), indeed, who’s the 1st baseman? Who’s the 2nd basemen? Who’s the CFer? Who’s playing LF today? The answers this year were always “well, sometimes it’s (fill in the blanks) Wilmer or Ruf or Wade or Bryant or Solano or Estrada or Duggar or Slater or or or …” … That was kinda cool for awhle, and they made it work until the post-season, but I’m hankerin’ for a little more stability in the lineup next year. Just my thinking at this time. Subject to change.
Dodgers have everyday guys that are always gonna be in there up and down lineup. Giants have lot of platoon guys that are only in there depending on who is pitching, and often are replaced once there is a pitching change.
What they do with Belt and Bryant will dictate what else happens, but yes more everyday guys the better and as Snarkk said OF is first place to start adding talent beyond what’s in Sac.
Pitching of course needs to be sorted out, especially for rotation. I realize Z/H did that this offseason around Gausman (who cost $18 mil) but having to cobble together 2-3 SPs among Brebbia aisle every year isn’t sustainable either. See what happens as roster continues to churn and evolve.
Good post.
After the 2002 nightmare ending, the team was significantly overhauled.
I’m expecting the same this time around.
Among those who very well may not be back are Yaz, Bryant, Longoria, Flores, Belt, GD, Slater, Barrels, Dick, Casali, Ruf, and any pitcher not named Webb, McGoo, Castro, Doval, Rogers, and Alvarez. That’s off the top of my fuckin head.
I am extremely miserable.
109 wins for nothing…
I feel your pain. I’m sitting in my apartment this morning with a list of things to go do, and I’ll bet I don’t leave my easy chair today. Just feeling kind of ick. And I agree about those players you listed: wouldn’t be at all surprised to see half the team turn over. And I’m fine with that, actually… Will make for an active off-season.
Only position players that I’m sure will be back are Buster, Craw, LaSpitta, and Wade (possible flash in the pan, btw). Maybe I’m forgetting someone. Hope they have the guts to eat some $ and get old man Shorto the fuck out of here…
$19,666,667 for Longo next season, with $5M paid by the Rays, plus $5M buyout in ’23. Unfortunately, he’s probably not going anywhere.
Who pays the buyout?
I guess the Giants?
Great post, I’m not as sure about Buster as you are, but i agree with ya.
Would 113 or 117 wins for nothing have been worse?
No.
Would’ve got us past LA at least…
I’m still in a funk after the way that game ended!
Can’t even use the phrase:”
“Well atleast they went down swinging” The ass wipe ump at 1st Gabe Morales took care of that!
Doubt Mr.Ed would of been charged with battery if he pulled a Marichal and gave him what a half swing to your head looks like!
Really just an incredible job by Farhan,Kapler,the coaching staff the whole organization turnaround in just 3 2019)years! He was burdened with bad long term contracts ( some will now becoming off the books but some will still stay because they adjusted to a new staff that preached patience and analytics both at the plate and defensive alignments and produced incredible results)a bottomfeeder farm system which now with good drafts are ranked top 10 are so. Yes there’s away to go with the development of the pitching staff,and the rise of some of the younger position players, but all things are looking great for the future of this team.And they’ve done a great job with the Luxury Tax with money to use on upgrades as well..
Work on who stays and goes later after I decompress from the way it ended..
Longo is a complicated problem. I don’t know… the money’s gone anyway, they’re going to have to pay him either to play (when he’s actually playing) or to disappear. I could see them eating it and letting him go if there was actually a young stud chomping at the bit to crack the lineup at 3rd base, but there really isn’t at this time.
Getting rid of Longoria will be like throwing out bags of old clothes.
You feel bad while you’re packing them up because they cost you some bucks,
but once their gone you’re happy to have the closet space…
Wonder what Yaz could bring back in a deal.
Managed 25/71 in a season where he was constantly dinged up and never got on a roll.
Who the hell knows with Bryant?
Krissy and all his cute little singles didn’t dazzle me…
His last postseason AB was a foul pop out. Just like gramps.
Only you, Mac.
Can you name 2 WS that ended on foul pops to the 3B?
Ouch. Are you talking about that one-game “play off” between Yanks and Sox in ’78? Remember that game and that last at-bat well.
One of them is obvious. Not sure about the 2nd..
’96 Charlie Hayes?
Paul, yes about Yanks-Sox game.
’14 Pablo. Now the other one….
You got ’em both!
And quick!
Astros take Game 1.
Well I still want Bryant back he hit .471 in the playoffs.They don’t have enough everyday sluggers to compare with the Dodgers and he can play multiple positions 3B/CF/LF/1B where their always a need.He’s a talented player that’s not easy to replace imo..