One: The Sportswriter and the Pitcher
“I need to warm up,” says the blond woman to her friend in the garage where media, VIPs and other hangers on enter Mission Creek Ballpark. I ask if I can take her picture. She doesn’t respond. I ask again; she ignores me again. What’s the big deal? As she prepares for another pitch, I ask a third time. She hesitates, then nods, looking at me strangely. I think she’s a student. Only when she is introduced to the crowd as supermodel Marisa Miller do I get it. She opens the game with a perfect strike.
Two: Plan C
With lead-off batter and center fielder Andres Torres out for the rest of the regular season, manager Bruce Bochy faces the fiendishly difficult task of trying to replace him. Sunday he went with Aaron Rowand, who was lead-off hitter and center fielder when the year began. Last night he tried newcomer Cody Ross. Tonight he’s trying an old newcomer, Eugenio Velez, who is lucky to be alive, let alone playing major league baseball.
During a July game in Arizona, Velez was sitting in the dugout when a foul ball hit him in the head. He suffered no more than a concussion, but it could have been worse. Now if Velez has any more luck left over, Bruce Bochy wants it and the Giants need it.
Velez swings at the first pitch of the game, breaks his bat and grounds harmlessly to second. Never swing at the first pitch, cries Ted Williams from the quasi-grave, NEVER!
Three: Call PG&E
No, there’s no gas leaking, but the power’s out. The Giants opened the first inning against nemesis Chad Billingsley with a two-out bases loaded rally which Pablo Sandoval killed by striking out. Grounding out again in the third inning, Velez does not seem to be the answer to he Giants’ hitting problems.
Fortunately Matt Cain has the Dodgers completely befuddled as he matches Billingsley pitch for pitch and then some. Cain the solid, the stolid; a Giant pitcher who does not star in his own soap opera. He’s been tough most of the year, but in his last three outings, he’s taken his work to a new level. With accuracy and speed, he adds an array of subtle and strong breaking balls. Nothing but zeroes at the end of three.
Four: The Race
Washington has beaten Atlanta and Colorado is trashing San Diego. Can the Giants take advantage of the opportunity?
Five: More Curious than the Game
On the Club deck I meet Carmen, Marcus and Christopher who just flew in from Berlin. They speak little English, but they’ve learned to say “Beat L.A.” which endears them to Giants’ fans. This is their first baseball game ever, but what they really want to know is why people sit in the bar the whole time watching the game on television. I have no answer. When I leave, they wish me a cheerful “Beat L.A.” The whole section takes up the chant, then the whole stadium.
Six: Tension Builds
Again in the sixth, the Giants get base runners at first and second with the Pablo Sandoval at bat and again the poor Panda, back in his slumping ways, strikes out. Wearing a white long sleeve shirt under his white Giants jersey, the Panda looks more like the Michelin Tire Man. The Giants have scratched Billingsley, but can’t break through the zeroes they’ve posted over two nights.
Though Cain continues to pitch a marvelous game combining fastball, changeup and curve, he makes the best play of the game so far at the end of the sixth when he bare hands a surprise bunt by Rafael Furcal, and just barely throws him out.
Seven: Score!
Yes, there are shouts, cheers and pure ear-splitting human noise when Mike Fontenot hits a cracked bat single into center to score pinch-hitter Travis Ishakawa. But underneath the noise and the high-fives all around the Promenade, we let go a collective sigh of relief as in — finally!
Eight: True Love
In the last row of the right center field bleachers, Cindy and Fernando huddle together under a thick Dodger blanket wearing Dodger hats and jackets. Not only has the wind picked up, but after the Giants’ score, fans feel entitled to taunt the Dodger lovers among us. I ask Cindy and Fernando if they came up from L.A. No, they’re from Petaluma. Then why the Dodgers? Is it family? Friends? Movie Stars? None of the above; they don’t know.
“Love is blind,” says a woman wearing orange and black who will only identify herself by the letter J. Cindy and Fernando laugh and huddle closer.
Nine: The Pitcher or the Supermodel
The Giants got another run in the bottom of the eighth inning when Pablo Sandoval again came to the plate with two runners in scoring position. This time he hit a soft ground ball to second. It’s not much, just enough to get Aubrey Huff home, beating Theriot’s throw by a hair. Now, in the ninth it’s Brian Wilson time.
In the bleachers the celebration has already begun. It intensifies after Wilson gets the first two batters out. Dodger All-Star Andre Ethier cuts the celebration short when he hits a ball straight our way. I watch it slowly grow in size as it gets nearer until almost the size of the moon when it crosses the wall and lands six rows deep. 2-1, tying run at the plate. What will Bruce Bochy do? Let Brian Wilson get everyone worked up, or bring in Marisa Miller to say goodnight?
Wilson, after taking him to a full count, strikes out Jay Gibbons and the Giants are back to a half-game out of first place in the NL West and a half game behind Atlanta for the wild card.
