Sure, pitching may be key but you gotta have hitting.Yankees’ Derek Jeter may have hit on at least part of it:
A team can get hot at the right time. In a short series a team can get lucky and beat a better team.
…or words to that effect Certainly, San Francisco is a perfect example.A .500 team through the All Star break, they came on the second half, with a great September.They seemed to have just enough to sqeak by, game after game… thus the ‘ torture ‘ moniker given them.San Diego had asimilar run earlier in the year, only to finally implode near the end.
In the playoffs, the SF guys were recipients of twice as many errors by Atlanta and Philadelphia than San Francisco and a lot of seeing-eye hits.Give secret weapon, Manager Bruce Bochy more credit than any player for getting the most of this motley crew. He puts everything into each game, playing for today, not looking ahead so much. He knows just how far his starters can go – and not often very far, knowing who and when to bring in relief, when to get a player in the game or out of there. So what if he and the front office keep getting rid of players who don’t work, they’ve got a few new ones to stick this year. Where other managers will sit and wait, Bochy is always maneuvering. He has to .
Here’s a team that hasn’t seen a regular lineup all season and with players coming and going with the wind. Yet, all the pieces have come together for the Gigantes so far this year. It happens. But , don’t expect it to continue next year. Other teams will finally wake up and realize who they’re playing – a mediocre team with some very good pitching. But they’ve been winning on fumes…very little gas left in the tank ofpatchwork and luck.
As Serius radio’s Chris Russo says, don’t be surprised to see the Giants
win the Series on a blooper on the right field chalk.It’s been that kind of year…
not one of the better ones for baseball. Coming out of the steroids era, power production was half of previous years. Mutli-million dollar players were pathetic
shells of their former selves…
None of the big guys acted like they wanted to win it in the end.The Yankees, Philadelphia, Minnesota.Then there are two, Texas and San Francisco, neither team expected to go anywhere this year. Expect one of the lowest-viewed Series, with the added effect from the National Vote November 2.