Following a heartbreaker like last night's, fans of the team on the losing end hear a lot of sports cliches on radio, and read them in print and computer screens. These cliches are designed to make us feel better about our team's situation. Here is one of my (usually) least favorite:
"If someone had told you in April that the Giants would be up 3-2 following Game Six in the NLCS, you would have taken it."
Of course I would have taken it. But I've watched enough sports to know that that phrase is only said in the aftermath of something really heartbreaking happening. So I would have known that this future guy who is telling me this knows about the aforementioned heartbreak. "What happened Future Man! What horrible thing just happened to my Giants!!!"
But there are a lot of things to take from this particular cliche:
The Phillies are an awesome, awesome team. Their lineup is full of threats top to bottom. They have an amazing starting three pitchers. I knew this before the series started but after watching five games I know now that it wasn't just hype. Something I learned while watching the series is that Rollins and Werth are incredible defenders.
What's encouraging is not just that we are up 3-2 but in games the Phillies win, they are not blowing the Giants away. The fact that these Giants, with this lineup, are in the position that they are in right now, while playing their style of baseball is what is amazing.
The Giants drew the Phillies into their kind of fight. There's been one game for each team that was a decisive victory (Game Three for the Giants, Game Two for the Phillies), but besides that it has been tight games, with the team making the least amount of mistakes winning.
We have to not lose two in a row. And we won't, as long as we make the least amount of mistakes.
So what if we're going back to Philadelphia? The ballpark itself is not as much of advantage to the home team; We've hit more home runs in the two games there than they have. And the fans? I don't think fans affect the outcome of the game as much as we think they do. They can scream and yell all they want, but these guys are professionals. In all the outfield flies that have been hit by a home team in the history of baseball, how many of them have been accompanied by the fans screaming for the opposing defender to drop it? Probably all of them. What percentage of those are dropped because of the screaming? 0.01%? 0.001%? It's only annoying for us Giants fans watching Phillies fans freak out when something bad happens to the Giants, but we're not on the field.
Bruce Bochy is so even keeled he's almost dead. The players are calm and focused and they have no need to fear THE GREATEST TEAM OF ALL TIME THE PHILLIES. They played THE GREATEST TEAM OF ALL TIME THE PHILLIES five times already and they turned out to be a team that the Giants are capable of beating.
Full speed ahead, Giants. Steady as she goes.
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