Of all the Cubs fans who have come with me this year, I think Pheast is the one who deserves a win the most, but he’s the only one who doesn’t get it; what he gets instead is pretty rough treatment at the hands – or the bats – of the Giants, who wake up as they have occasionally this year and deal out a thorough shellacking. After a sweep in Colorado comprised of one 10-4 beatdown and two improbable and astonishing come-from-behind wins, the Giants have come back to SF with light hearts and high hopes, but the Cubs took care of that quickly, winning the first two games pretty handily. Today, the Giants play a game that makes you think they should be winning the World Series. The final score is 13-3, and it’s not as close as it sounds.
Pheast also gets a trucker hat, the last Pride weekend giveaway. Generously, he sells his hat for far below market value to a Giants fan who didn’t get one at the gate. Pheast is wearing his Cubs pride, with a hat and a jersey, which is good to see – I take a particular delight in being able to welcome fans of the visiting teams; it makes me feel like I’m part of a sister city program or something. Somewhat surprisingly, he knows his stuff. I don’t know why I find that surprising, except that most people who come to the games with me have some family history that makes them want to see a particular team rather than a keen interest in their current fortunes. Pheast, on the other hand, doesn’t approve of David Ross, the Cubs’ manager. It takes a real fan to have legitimate criticisms of a manager – most people just grumble about generalities, but Pheast could make a case. He’s not all that happy about Nick Madrigal either, which is another sign of someone who knows stuff. Madrigal has played well the last couple of days, but Pheast isn’t swayed. He knows the game, the history, and what’s going on right now, which puts him at least one up on me.
He hasn’t been to this ballpark before, in spite of having been in the Bay Area for a while, so I get to give the full tour before the game. It’s the usual, from around the 415, up across the left field attractions, then up to the third deck and back down, then around to 152. Pheast isn’t a big talker, but not because he isn’t interested; he just seems like a self-contained guy. (I don’t know why, but it took me nearly a week to get this post up. There’s a lot of interesting stuff to say about him, but none of it seems to fold together into a coherent narrative. I could write twenty bullet points about him, but it would just be a random list of facts. What I remember most is quiet conversation and introspection).
The hitting, of course, seems like it’s going to be the story of the day. I was going to say that it’s not every day you see the bats really exploding like this, but given the last two weeks, during which the Giants have scored ten or more runs in four different games and have won ten of twelve, including a six-game road win streak with two series sweeps, it seems like maybe that’s just the way things are now. So, yes, the hitting was spectacular, but the real surprise is the announcement, at the top of the ninth, that Brandon Crawford will now be pitching for the Giants. The only reason that this isn’t an absolutely stunning bolt from the heavens is that I still remember a similar announcement being made about Pablo Sandoval in May of 2019. I remember at the time thinking “Wait…what? That’s not right, is it?” It was, though, and because it was, I am psychically prepared to see Brandon Crawford, who has started as a shortstop in more than 1600 games, step up and throw. It’s not as weird as it was to see Sandoval pitch, but it’s still one of those very rare and very precious moments when everyone in the park is delighted, except for maybe the people in the bathroom who didn’t hear about it. Position players pretty much only pitch when one team has a huge and insurmountable lead, which means somebody is way behind and probably not happy about it, but when it happens, every player on both teams is up at the rail in the dugout watching and laughing. If you ever want to see fifty professional ballplayers having the most fun they’ve had since they were in little league, find and watch the Giants/Braves game from May 16, 2022, when Luis Gonzalez and Albert Pujols pitched the last couple of innings. The Braves won it 15-6, but every single player on both teams walked away feeling like they’d just had a vacation day.
For the record, Crawford kind of half-asses the first few pitches, walking the first batter and giving up a hit before getting three quick outs, preserving the 13-3 victory that would be the first of seven consecutive wins. Way to be the spark plug, Craw.
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