Giants pull off the impossible – has a curse been lifted?
Exactly two years after the last time they pulled off the kind of baseball feat that most teams would expect to accomplish once every couple of months or so, the Giants came back and won a game they were trailing after eight innings today. That’s right, the Giants were down 3-2 heading into the ninth, and didn’t lose 3-2.
Where would this team be if they didn’t bring up Christian Arroyo, who had the game-winning 3-run double in the top of the ninth? Probably about two games worse than they are. So … 10-25.
The Giants really did their best to prolong their comebackless streak, as Derek Law came in with a three-run lead and frittered away two runs of that advantage in predictable fashion. But after Buster Posey fielded Kevin Plawecki’s swinging bunt and made the assist to first, the Giants had an improbable 6-5 victory (first time they’ve scored six runs since the second week of the season) that gave them a 3-6 road trip that felt like 0-8 heading into today.
***
During “Postgame Live,” Ahmed Fareed reached below the desk for his “Wheel of Victory.”
Here’s what it looks like:
Two outs from using the #WheelOfVictory pic.twitter.com/IWwowEldBM
— Ahmed Fareed (@FareedNBCS) April 30, 2017
The date may not be familiar, but the game certainly is. Fareed’s tweet came before the Giants gave up two runs in the ninth and three runs in the 12th to lose to the Padres, 5-2.
So when Fareed picked up the wheel and said “people think it’s the jinx of the year,” I remembered a comment my wife made a week or so ago after one of the Giants’ many losses. I wasn’t recording her, because I’m not a psycho or a paranoid politician. So, all I can do is paraphrase, but I’m pretty sure she said something like, “It’s that stupid wheel. They should throw that thing into the center lane of the Bay Bridge during rush hour.”
Again, just paraphrasing. But I’m pretty sure that’s word for word.
I tweeted her thoughts on the wheel as it stopped on “CALL LOSING CITY.” No one on set really felt like pulling out a phone to call someone in New York, and Fareed placed his toy back on the ground.
It wasn’t a great finale for the wheel, but it looks like that’s what it will be.
My wife is certain that @FareedNBCS‘s “Wheel of Victory” is the reason the Giants have been so awful this year.
— Bay Area Sports Guy (@BASportsGuy) May 10, 2017
That led to the folks at NBC SportsNet grabbing a screenshot of the tweet within a minute or two and flashing it on the screen, which led to this exchange:
.@FareedNBCS “If that gets more than 10 likes, then I’ll start to get worried.” pic.twitter.com/bqqpwKdI92
— Bay Area Sports Guy (@BASportsGuy) May 10, 2017
Shawn Estes made a crack about there only being four likes on the original tweet, and you can see Fareed’s response in the tweet above with the embedded video. He upped his number to 100 a few minutes later, as the production crew at NBCS kept flashing the tweet, almost taunting poor Fareed.
As you can see in my tweet that started all of this, the likes zoomed past 100, and quickly enough that they were able to flash it on the screen one last time before the show ended.
.@FareedNBCS I almost feel bad, Ahmed. You sounded so sad about the wheel getting put on hiatus. But if the Giants go on a winning streak… pic.twitter.com/V3jHwP4awV
— Bay Area Sports Guy (@BASportsGuy) May 10, 2017
As the show ended, Fareed sounded almost like a defeated man — on the day of a rare Giants win no less! He must have really been attached to that wheel.
***
Of course all of this is ridiculous,* and maybe I should feel at least a little remorse. Fareed did mention how long it took to put the wheel together, after all. But something had to be done to flip the proverbial clubhouse spread, and if that meant using my wife’s offhanded remark to spur change to the postgame show … well, that’s a lot easier than convincing Giants ownership to blow up their budget to get a power-hiting outfielder, or brewing a magic elixir that fixes Madison Bumgarner’s dirt biking injuries.
And hey, maybe better times are ahead.
- Buster Posey hit a home run for the third straight game, giving him a team-leading five this season. He’s hitting .367 — barring any delayed concussion symptoms, it appears Posey’s season wasn’t derailed when he got plunked in the dome by a Taijuan Walker fastball in the home opener.
- Brandon Crawford should start tomorrow night.
- He hasn’t been amazing at the plate (.242/.288/.419), but the Giants have found an everyday starter in Arroyo, a guy who may need to tone down his aggressive plate approach but has more than enough confidence to stick. Bochy seemed to love the fact that he bounced back from an 0-for-4, four strikeout night to go 2-for-5 and win the game two days later.
OK, that’s all I can think of. The Giants need Hunter Pence to stop hitting like he’s Justin Maxwell, Brandon Belt (0-for-18 in Cincy and NY) needs to break out of this slump, Eduardo Nunez needs to use today (his best game in weeks) as a springboard, etc.
This is definitely a team that could use some luck. May the absence of Fareed’s wheel bring the Giants some good … fortune.
* The “there’s no such thing as a jinx” crowd has to think this whole thing is incredibly stupid. As proud of themselves as they are whenever they say “no-hitter” whenever a pitcher is in the middle of one, the idea that a small game show prop holds any sort of supernatural properties has to be infuriating.
Extra BASGs
— Did you know we have a shop full of exclusive sports apparel? We’ve got several Giants-themed collections, including our “Say Hey Catch” line, “Giant Bubble,” lots of new leggings, and Lefty O’Doul Bridge shirts and hats.
— What’s Jeremy Affeldt’s record as an analyst now, 2-6?
— How much longer can the Giants keep Gorkys Hernandez around? His OPS is .496. He’s replaced Ehire Adrianza as the guy who stays on the roster despite performing much worse than a replacement level player, simply because the Giants feel like his athleticism and ability to play a certain position makes him worthy of a spot.
— What if Law blew the save, and the Mets won in the bottom of the ninth? Or, perhaps even more painful, the Mets won the game in extras? Would the Giants call up another batch of minor leaguers tomorrow? This season has been a total feces storm, but I can’t even imagine what the reaction would’ve been. All the Mets needed was one more hit, too.
