San Francisco Giants Bounce Cincinnati Reds Out of Postseason
By Josh Hill
Things were going good in Cincinnati at the end of September. The Reds were cruising through the National League and they were fighting for the best record in all of baseball. Now, weeks after the regular season ended, the Reds fate in 2012 is no different than that of the 23 other teams that missed the playoffs this year. Talent wise the Reds are far superior to the Houston Astros, baseball’s worst team in 2012, but their chances to win the World Series are painfully the same.
That chance would be a big fat goose egg.
After taking a commanding 2-0 series lead, the Reds sputtered out and burned losing Games 3, and and today 5 to be eliminated from the postseason. Buster Posey hit a grand slam to seal the comeback win for the Giants, and it pretty much summed up the series as well for the Reds.
“You get tired of the disappointments, but then you get over it,” manager Dusty Baker said. “It hurts big-time.”
The series started out great in theory for the Reds who jumped out to a 2-0 lead and had the Giants up against the wall in Game 3, but the loss of starter and ace Johnny Cueto in first inning of Game 1 ended up being much more severe a loss than anticipated. With their ace out of action, the Reds had to rely on the rest of their staff, which wasn’t bad during the season, to pull things out.
They simply could not and it goes to show that even the team with the second best record in baseball didn’t have what it takes to win when it counts. As for the Giants, they’ve been here before and it was business as usual. Despite casting doubt and agony with news that the club was passing up former ace Tim Lincecum in the NLDS rotation, the Giants showed that unlike the Reds, they have a pitching staff that goes beyond one guy.
Sure, new ace Matt Cain was on the mound to help things along, but Cain was pitching for the first time since Game 1. That means the Giants were able to use Madison Bumgarner, Ryan Vogelsong and Barry Zito to comeback and eliminate the second best team in baseball.
Not only did they show off the ability to comeback, but the Giants showed off that this under-the-radar staff is for real and they clearly know how to tap into their best stuff when it counts. Zito struggled in his outing, throwing 76 pitches through 2.2 innings, but that just meant the Giants could flex another muscle they have: bullpen muscle.
With Lincecum coming out of the pen in the NLDS, the Giants were able to show off what could perhaps be the best relief staff of all the LDS games. The question now is does it have the longevity to survive a potential 7-game series against the Nationals or Cardinals? With three bonafide starters already proving they can pitch games 1-3, the question becomes will Lincecum get the nod for game four or will Bruce Bochy decide to stretch a three man crew as far as he can?
These are questions that, for the time being, Giants fans have no problem pondering. Another World Series is just at minimum four games away and that’s right where the Giants want to be.