SAN FRANCISCO — Shame on us. Despite the glaring, near-daily evidence that this 2016 Giants team was unfit to carry on the even-year magic, doubting a Bruce Bochy-led team with this much talent was beyond foolish in retrospect.
This writer was one of many, along with countless die-hard fans, who thought the sky was falling on their season back in mid-August. While a ‘mea culpa’ is due, it’s not like the Giants were doing anything to dispel the doubts until this last week.
But in sports, as we all know, it’s a ‘what have you done for me lately?’ world and lately, the Giants look like a team no other club wants to see in the postseason, despite Jake Arrieta’s ‘who gives a $#!*’ line.
While Arrieta and the Cubs have earned the confidence to not care, deep down inside they should. With all due respect to the Mets and the experience they gained during last year’s run to the World Series, a momentum-fueled Giants squad can’t be taken lightly.
There’s plenty of evidence to support that claim: the 2010 Giants, after winning the NL West title on the last day of the season and bouncing the Braves in the division series, were considered extreme underdogs against both the Phillies and Rangers. You think Wednesday’s Wild Card matchup on the road against Noah Syndergaard is daunting? That’s nothing compared to the Giants beating Roy Halladay in Philly when he was at the height of his powers. Ancient history, you say? What about 2012, when the Giants won six elimination games against the Reds and Cardinals before sweeping the Tigers. They had no business coming back after losing the first two games at home to a dangerous Reds team, but that’s what the Giants Twitter-verse likes to call “even year BS.” Subsequently, Barry Zito saved the Giants’ season against the Cardinals before outdueling Justin Verlander in Game 1 of the Fall Classic, thanks to a Babe Ruthian effort from Pablo Sandoval. Let’s keep the 2014 recap brief…just two words, in fact: Madison Bumgarner.
The point here is not to relive the glory days, rather it’s to illustrate that this team has been through much worse than a second-half swoon. Granted, this year’s version was longer and more extreme than in past years, but you still can’t bet against Bochy and his boys. Even though many of the characters from the past three championship runs are long gone (Pat Burrell is out ‘plucking from the herd’ somewhere) and there’s some fresh faces in the champagne-and-beer-soaked clubhouse (looking at you Conor Gillaspie), the core group is still there to inspire confidence in the newcomers.
And if that’s not enough to give the team and its fan base confidence heading into Citi Field, they’ve got the best pitcher in postseason history ready to toe the rubber in a win-or-go-home game, a format he’s had proven success in. Syndergaard is no easy assignment, but it’s not like the Giants are sending Jake Peavy to the mound to oppose him. Bumgarner starting is by no means a guarantee that the Giants advance to a best-of-five series with the Cubs, but if they do, their playoff rotation matches up with Chicago’s, the bats are getting hot at the right time, Sergio Romo looks like a reliable closer and Bochy seems re-energized after some sluggish stints on the bench during the second half’s near-collapse.
While #BeliEVEN is nothing more than a catchy marketing concept, it’s rooted in recent history. Based on everything we’ve seen from this organization over the last six years, counting the Giants out before the final nail’s officially hammered into their coffin is not wise. Bochy knows this and the players know this but media members and the fan base needed a quick refresher course. Consider the 2016 season just that: a reminder that the Giants are as resilient a team as the baseball world has ever seen.