For the first two and a half innings, the Giants may have pondered a return to the clubhouse to change. Bumgarner couldn’t find the strike zone and threw a lot of pitches. In the first inning, he picked off a runner at first, but shortstop Brandon Crawford took his eye off a runner at third during the rundown and allowed him to score. In the third inning, Rockies outfielder Carlos Gonzalez smashed a home run into McCovey Cove with a man on first to make the score 3-0. Seconds later, the scoreboard showed the baseball floating in the water, and I explained to Jillian that she had just seen a splash hit. The Giants, for their part, seemed totally mystified at the plate, managing only one baserunner on a throwing error after a dropped third strike. The game was looking much like the 9-0 playoff massacre, also pitched by Bumgarner, that I had attended in 2012.
I felt discouraged enough to leave for a restroom break in the Giants’ half of the third inning, figuring that the bottom of the lineup wouldn’t accomplish anything exciting. The Giants, however, began to figure out De La Rosa. Crawford, batting eighth, hit a long drive that hit the wall in center field beside the 421-foot sign—a home run in any other ballpark—and easily made it into third. Bumgarner then hit a long fly to the wall in left field to score Crawford. That was all the Giants managed in the inning, but then they broke through with five runs in the fourth. After the Giants loaded the bases, De La Rosa walked Crawford and forced in a run. Evidently determined not to do the same with Bumgarner, De La Rosa made the classic mistake of throwing too good of a first pitch. Bumgarner, who hits home runs regularly in batting practice, got all of the ball that time and put it into the bleachers, sending us and the rest of the crowd into delirium. At that point, regardless of the final score, I knew that the evening would be a success.
The Giants tried in subsequent innings to hand the game back to the Rockies. They failed several times to drive in runners on second and third, once with three straight strikeouts with a runner on second. They also nearly allowed the Rockies to tie the score in the top of the eighth inning when throwing errors by third baseman Pablo Sandoval and center fielder Juan Perez put the tying run on second with none out. After an out on a fielder’s choice, the Rockies fortunately returned the favor when catcher Jordan Pacheco strayed too far off first base on a fly to center field and was thrown out for an inning-ending double play. Overall, it was the type of error-prone game that drives baseball purists to distraction but delights fans at the park with a lot of excitement. The only calm moment of the game came in the ninth inning, when Giants closer Sergio Romo struck out the side to finish the proceedings.
During the game, Jillian mentioned that she had she had never seen the Giants lose when she was at the park. It made me reflect on the good luck we had enjoyed with Giants baseball over the last few years—three victories and a successful autograph expedition to our credit. I thought about explaining to her that the life of a fan wasn’t always this good, but I decided to let her enjoy the full measure of her experience. I remembered a story from 2010 when announcer Mike Krukow encountered Giants catcher Buster Posey, then a rookie, in an elevator in Philadelphia just after the Giants had won the National League pennant from the Phillies. “It’s not like this every year,” Krukow told him, remembering fourteen years of pitching in the majors with one post-season start in his career. Posey smiled and responded, “Why not?”
Indeed. Happy birthday, sweet sixteen.
