Giants Season Ends At The Hands Of San Diego
The Giants are sent home to watch the postseason. Recap our final series with the Padres that ended it all.
Well that’s it, tough ending to an unexpectedly good year by the Giants. The Giants finished the regular season 29–31 with our postseason hopes coming down to the very last pitch. It was called a night after Austin Slater struck out on a called third strike that wasn’t anywhere close. It’s easy to be upset about that as that was the final nail in the coffin, but that’s not what kept us out.
Remember those two games against the A’s where Trevor Gott blew huge 9th inning leads? Even in the last two weeks, remember our last game with the Rockies? Wilmer Flores hits a bomb to center field that missed having the title of “big fly” by just a matter of feet in the 10th inning? And the one that hurts the most, Coonrod blowing a two run lead in the second game of our recent double header vs. the Padres.
Game one vs San Diego was awesome. We came out to play and carried a commanding lead into the last inning. Tony Watson allowed for some drama, but we held on and took the victory winning 5–4. Now game two, I could write a freakin book on the emotions I felt in game two, but I’ll do my best to sum it up.
It didn’t end the way that I had hoped, so it’s hard for me as a Giants fan to unbiasedly call it a great game, but I’ll nut up and say it, game two of that double header was an awesome baseball game. It was back and forth, it was dramatic and exciting, but it ended with heart break. I can’t believe that I never got a noise complaint after watching this game. When Flores hit that three run bomberrrrr in the 6th I lost my ever loving mind, I was legitimately screaming. It was all taken away however, all us Giants fans watched Coonrod come in and give the game away in bottom of the 7th. For those of you that watch most of the games our Giants play, we know Coonrod. He’s either going to be pretty good, or absolutely terrible. The answer on this night was terrible. I could tell after three pitches that he doesn’t have it and frankly, he can’t handle a moment like this.
I was already sitting on the floor before this game had ended and once it was over I struggled to get myself off. I sat down with my arms and head pulled in my shirt stewing in silence. Pathetic? Some might say so, but I love baseball and I love my Giants, this one hurt. My girlfriend and I had plans for that evening after the game, those plans were most definitely cancelled.
Game three sucked, we didn’t put up much of a fight and San Diego was in control from the first pitch to the last. Sundays final game of the regular season was a bit different. We were out played for sure, but we weren’t out hearted…that’s a word. Down 5–1 in the 7th we battled back with two big home runs. Crawford hit a two run jack to bring us within two followed by a solo shot from Flores in the 8th to bring us within one. Unfortunately we weren’t able to come up with one more run in the 9th to tie the game.
The Brewers had already lost so control was back in our hands, win this game and we’re in. Easier said than done I guess. We got some rough calls from blue in this final game that surely didn’t help, but we can’t say that was the difference maker. Aside from game three it was a great series of baseball. It just came down to the better team won. There isn’t any denying that the Padres are a better club than the Giants, and I think we all knew that going in. I was just hoping that the magnitude of the moment would allow us to rise above and use our drive to get past that. We simply didn’t have what it took to make it into the postseason this year.
It’s still so fresh so it’s hard to be proud of what we did accomplish with our season being over. I mean, there’s still so much baseball left to be played for 16 other teams. The truth is though that we played well above expectations. We surely did a hell of a lot more than I imagined we would have at the beginning of the year. I’m hurt, but I’m proud of the Giants and all I can do now is enjoy the postseason and look forward to next year.
Originally published at http://mysfgiantstop.com on September 29, 2020.
