Giants culminate up and down season with surprising World Series win
There was a day near the end of June on which a San Francisco Giants fan would have told you the boys in orange and black had no chance to be World Series champs again.
The Giants had surrendered a 10-game lead in the NL West in an epic midsummer collapse, frankly the type of collapse that you don’t expect a team to rebound from.
The Giants were nearly no-hit on June 29. It was a Sunday. The Los Angeles Dodgers tied them in the standings. Surrendering first place was bad. Surrendering it to the Dodgers was like your wife leaving you for the guy you hate the most in the world.
I remember this day well because I was driving for three hours, listening to San Francisco-based radio station KNBR the entire time. Giants fans were calling in, acting like they’d reached doomsday. One caller even suggested the Giants should fire manager Bruce Bochy.
Caller after caller, and the general message was the same: the Giants were screwed. The more optimistic callers thought that if the Giants could make a big trade and get someone like Chase Utley, maybe their season could be salvaged.
On Oct. 29, exactly four months later, the Giants won the World Series. They didn’t need Utley, they just needed to give their rookie second baseman a chance. They didn’t need to fire Bochy, no way they’d have won a third World Series in five years if they had. They didn’t even need to worry about the Dodgers too much, either. They would get into the postseason, hand the ball to Madison Bumgarner and let their workhorse do his thing.
As I’d watched the Giants play October baseball these past few weeks, I thought a lot about their life cycle. They were unseated as champions last October after a disappointing season. They were great in the early going of 2014. Then they were horrible. Then they were pretty good again. Then they barely made into the playoffs and finished with 88 wins. But the did make the postseason, and often that’s all that counts. Case in point: the Giants got hot again and here we are.
It’s been quite a year for the Giants — 365 days of ups and downs that their 2014 roster and the fans who followed it will never forget. It beckons a timeline.
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OCT. 30, 2013: The Boston Red Sox defeat the St. Louis Cardinals, dethroning the Giants as World Series champions. The Giants, after a particularly disappointing season, had finished in third place in the NL West and 10 games under .500. They were 76-86.
NOV. 18: The Giants sign free-agent pitcher Tim Hudson to a two-year contract. The move gives the Giants another veteran arm, but it’s somewhat risky too, as Hudson would turn 39 in 2014 and was coming off a season-ending ankle injury.
DEC. 17: After a couple seasons of needing a big power bat in their lineup, the Giants sign Michael Morse to a one-year contract. Morse isn’t the big splash that many power-hungry Giants fans are hoping for. He’s damaged goods, driving in just 27 runs in 2013 while hitting .215. His power is scary, but so is his injury history.
MARCH 31, 2014: The season starts. Most pundits expect the Dodgers to win the NL West. Many think they’ll be playing in the World Series come October.
APRIL 5: The Giants start hot, winning five of their first six games.
APRIL 25: After he’s released by the Pirates, the Giants sign Travis Ishikawa to a minor-league deal and send him to Triple-A.
MAY 5: After winning 10 of 11 games, the Giants are 10 games over .500 at 21-11. They have a two-game lead in the NL West and own the third-best record in baseball. They have a +25 run differential, second best in the NL.
JUNE 8: The red-hot Giants have a season-high 10-game lead in the NL West over the Dodgers. They’re 43-21, the best record in baseball.
JUNE 22: Not happy with their second-base options, the Giants call up rookie Joe Panik from Triple-A Fresno. He’s a former first-round pick. He doesn’t, however, immediately get the starting job.
JUNE 25: Tim Lincecum, the Giants’ up and down ex-Cy Young winner, throws his second career no-hitter, dominating the San Diego Padres.
JUNE 29: The Dodgers had gotten hot. The Giants had gotten cold. That 10-game lead had disappeared. After losing four straight games to the Reds, the Giants had allowed themselves to fall into a tie with the Dodgers. They were almost no-hit in a 4-0 loss, a day after they blew a lead and lost in 11 innings.
JUNE 30: The Giants demote Sergio Romo from the closer role, saying they’ll close by committee instead. However, Santiago Casilla eventually assumes the closer role.
JULY 21: Rather than trying to find a suitable second baseman on the trade market, the Giants sign Braves castoff Dan Uggla to a minor-league contract. Things don’t work out all that well. He ends up playing four games with the Giants and doesn’t get a hit.
JULY 26: The Giants, needing both a spark and another starting pitcher, trade two pitching prospects to the Boston Red Sox in exchange for Jake Peavy. The response is so-so.
JULY 27: The Dodgers sweep a three-game series at AT&T park. It’s part of a six-game losing streak. The Giants had reclaimed first place before the start of the Dodgers series, but lost in the sweep.
AUG. 4: The Peavy acquisition proves important, as Matt Cain is officially lost for the season. He needs surgery to remove bone chips from his elbow.
AUG. 6: Joe Panik records three hits, making eight in his previous three games while starting at second. He soon becomes the Giants starting second baseman.
AUG. 12: After five straight losses — coincidentally, three of them coming against the Royals in Kansas City — the Giants are 5 1/2 games back in the NL West. They’re 63-57, not the same team that was 22 games over .500 two months earlier.
AUG. 28: Yusmeiro Petit, the Giants sometimes-starter, sets an MLB record as he retires 46 straight batters, a streak that had been going for more than a month.
SEPT. 6: The Giants have turned it around and are contending again. Buster Posey is killing the ball. The Giants become a postseason threat again.
SEPT. 12: Hey now! The Giants beat the Dodgers 9-0 and they’re just one game behind in the NL West. They’ve won six out of seven games.
SEPT. 14: Catching the Dodgers wasn’t meant to be, though. The Giants lost 9-1 to them in L.A., thus allowing the Dodgers to clinch the NL West.
SEPT. 15: It wasn’t the most glamorous postseason clincher, but the Giants locked down an NL wild-card berth. They backed into the playoffs, actually, sealing their spot after an afternoon Brewers loss. The Giants played that night and won, thus getting to celebrate their playoff spot on a positive note.
OCT. 1: Madison Bumgarner throws his first postseason shutout of 2014, Brandon Crawford hits a grand slam and the Giants easily dispatch of the Pirates in the NL wild-card game.
OCT. 4: Brandon Belt’s 18th inning homer gives the Giants a win in Game 2 of the NLDS, the longest postseason game in history.
OCT. 7: The Giants advance to the NLCS after beating the top-seeded Washington Nationals 3-1 in the NLDS.
OCT. 16: Travis Ishikawa’s three-run walk-off homer gives the Giants the NL pennant and sends them to the World Series.
OCT. 29: The Giants reclaim the World Series trophy, beating the Royals 3-2 in Game 7 in Kansas City, completing a wonderful turnaround from a season earlier and rebounding from their midseason doldrums.
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Mike Oz is an editor for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @MikeOz
