SAN FRANCISCO — “Two different teams.”
That’s how Bruce Bochy explained the San Francisco Giants failure to score a single run in Wednesday’s 2-0 loss to Colorado, just 24 hours after scoring 12 in the team’s best performance at AT&T Park this season.
It’s also the only way to describe the truly bizarre 2016 Giants season, one in which they were the best team in the season’s first half, and the worst in the season’s second, despite being healthier.
Two different teams, alright.
The Giants World Series teams of the past were also known to run hot and cold. The 2010 Championship team was a game over .500 in the first half of the season, and needed a second half tear to clinch a playoff berth on the season’s final day. The 2014 Giants stumbled towards the end of the season, playing .500 ball for the final two months. Both those team’s were hardly considered the best team in baseball entering the playoffs, and ended up going all the way.
This year feels different, however, and it’s not just because the dichotomy between the Giants and their best and the Giants at their worst is so, historically, drastic. It’s because those Giants teams were known for playing imperfect baseball until it mattered. They always got the timely hit. They always seemed to get the final out in a high stress situation.
The 2016 Giants are the opposite.
Take the ninth inning of Wednesday night’s game as an example. The Giants offense put together a limp performance through eight innings, due in large part to a stellar performance by Colorado starting pitcher Tyler Chatwood. Chatwood finally exited in the ninth, and the San Francisco bats suddenly came to life. Kelby Tomlinson pinch-hit for Conor Gillaspie to open the inning, and smacked the hardest hit ball of the night off the wall in left-center, a no out double.
The previously demoralized AT&T fans started to come alive.
Then Gorkys Hernandez struck out swinging. No matter, still two outs left. Then Denard Span struck out swinging. That’s alright, still a man in scoring position, still an out to play with. Still hope.
Then Brandon Belt hit a hard ground ball to first base that should’ve ended the game, but Colorado reliever Adam Ottavino failed to cover first. Now the Giants had runners on the corners, and the winning run, talisman Buster Posey, at the plate.
It was all perfectly set up. These are the Giants we remember. The teams that snatch victory from the jaws of defeat time and time again, to the point that it becomes expected. There’s a reason they used to call it torture.
If this was 2010, 2012 or 2014, Buster Posey hits a the three run shot that not only wins the game, but also marks the official start of another memorable run.
But then Buster Posey grounded to third and everybody snapped back to the reality that these are the 2016 Giants.
Even Bochy, who’s been in the dugout during every magical moment of the last decade, found himself surprised.
“I am a little bit,” Bochy said. “That’s kind’ve been our thing, coming back in the ninth, finding ways to win games, and it hasn’t happened for quite a while.”
It didn’t happen for the Giants again on Wednesday night, at a time when they sorely needed it.
With four games remaining, San Francisco is still in control of their postseason fate, sitting a game up on the St. Louis Cardinals in the NL wild card race. The Cardinals play their final series against a Pittsburgh Pirates team with nothing to play for. The Giants face the rival Dodgers, who are still trying to clinch home field advantage in the first round. They are also trotting out Clayton Kershaw, Rich Hill and Kenta Maeda.
The Giants will probably have to play good baseball to make it to the playoffs in 2016. They are capable of that, but they are also capable of the opposite.
The latter version is the team that has taken the field more often than not in recent months, and unless the Giants can figure out a way the channel the better version of themselves, the team on Wednesday night is the one we’ll remember.