The San Francisco Giants were on the brink of elimination Tuesday night. Down two games to none they faced Cincinnati Reds righty Homer Bailey who pitched liked he had Zeus’s hand planted firmly in his butt.
To make a long game short: Bailey delivered the goods. He went seven solid innings, striking out 10 and only allowing one run. He was the opposite of whatever you think a Jerk is.
It should have been the performance that sealed the series. The Reds should be nursing hangovers tomorrow morning from the gallons of cheap champagne they may or may not have chugged after the game. Do teams celebrate a Divisional Series with champagne?
But it didn’t matter anyway as the Reds could not get their own bats going.
A Giants pitching combo of Ryan Vogelsong, Jeremy Affeldt, Santiago Casilla, Javier Lopez and Sergio Romo held the Reds to one run on four hits.
Side note: has anyone every seen Romo and Rafi from The League in the same room at the same time? I didn’t think so.
The pitching duel turned sour in the tenth inning when Jonathan Broxton took the mound for the Cardinals and his defense just completely failed him—kind of like Rafi’s bowels. If you don’t know Rafi, he sometimes poops when he pukes.
That’s pretty much what the Cardinals did in the tenth inning. Broxton gave up a singles to Buster Posey and Hunter Pence. But Broxton struck out Brandon Belt and Xavier Nady. Two outs, two on.
And then it happened:
Catcher Ryan Hanigan was charged with a passed ball allowing Posey and Pence to advance. Joaquin Arias followed with a grounder to third base. Scott Rolen completely botched the play, allowing Pence to score. The Giants took a 2-1 lead and would never look back.
It’s the kind of game that can haunt a team. If San Francisco manages to win the series this will be the game, the tenth inning in particular, Reds fans will fume about all winter.
Stay tuned Reds fans, your team has a chance to redeem themselves tomorrow at 4 PM.
