Giants baseball......TORTURE!!!

And you thought that the path to the post-season was going to be easy. The San Francisco Giants are living up to their 2010 regular season mantra of GIANTS BASEBALL.....TORTURE!!!

Thanks to Andrew Baggarly we have the four possible outcomes for tomorrow for the Giants. The outcomes are below.

The good news is that no matter what happens tomorrow the Giants can not be eliminated from playoff contention on Sunday. However, if they lose then it is possible they will have to play one or two more games before they make it into the playoffs.

In order for the Giants not to make the playoffs they would have to have lost five games in a row to end the season, four against the Padres, of which they have already lost two, and another one against the Braves.

Something else of note is that it is possible the Giants could clinch a playoff spot before game time. The Braves-Phillies game starts at 10:35. It is important to note that the Giants still need to beat the Padres. They want to win the NL West and have home field advantage for the first round.

I like the Giants chances, especially tomorrow when yours truly will be in the house.

And as promised, the four possible outcomes:

Outcome No.1: Giants win, Braves win. 
The Giants are 92-70 and win the NL West. The Braves are 91-71 and win the wild card. The Padres are 90-71 and are eliminated. (The Giants and Braves would match up in the Division Series.)

Outcome No.2: Giants win, Braves lose. 
The Giants are 92-70 and win the NL West. The Braves and Padres are 90-72 and would have a one-game playoff for the wild card Monday at Atlanta. (If the Braves prevail, the Giants get them in the NLDS. If the Padres are the wild card, the Giants would match up against the Cincinnati Reds. In either event, the Giants would have home-field advantage for the NLDS.)

Outcome No.3: Giants lose, Braves lose 
The Braves are 90-72 and are eliminated. The Giants and Padres tie atop the NL West at 91-71, and both clinch postseason berths on the same field (!!!). The Padres are awarded the NL West title without a tiebreaker because they captured the season series against the Giants. Thus, the Giants enter as the wild card. (The Giants would begin an NLDS Wednesday against the Phillies while the Padres would get the Reds.)

Outcome No.4: Giants lose, Braves win 
OK, now this is the crazy part. The Giants, Padres and Braves would finish with identical 91-71 records, necessitating a tiebreaker game for the NL West that would be held Monday at San Diego. (Time TBA.) The winner Monday would be NL West champ. The loser would be forced to play a second tiebreaker game Tuesday at Atlanta for the wild card. (The rules governing NLDS matchups are the same. The Phillies get the wild card winner, unless it’s the Braves. In that case, the Phillies get the Reds and the NL West winner will face the Braves.)

Barry Zito on the mound to clinch NL West, Giants lineup

The Giants only need one win and they are in the playoffs.  The first attempt to do this came last night with Matt Cain on the mound it what seemed like the perfect opportunity.  It was Orange Friday, Willie McCovey was in the ballpark to award Andres Torres with the Willie Mac award, and it was also Matt Cain's 26th birthday.

Cain just didn't have his best stuff against the San Diego Padres and ended up only lasting four innings and giving up 6 runs.  5 of the 6 runs came off three different home runs that Cain gave up.

The Giants did make a comeback in the fifth and sixth innings and managed to force Bud Black to use five different pitchers in his bullpen including Luke Gregerson, Mike Adams, and closer Heath Bell.  The fact that those guys each threw at least 20 pitches each and had to be used bodes well for the Giants today.  Especially, the fact that Bell had to go an 1 1/3 and pitch for the fourth straight day.

Today the Giants will send Barry Zito to the mound to pitch in the most important game of his San Francisco Giant career.  The Giants are one win away from clinching the NL West Division Championship and their ticket to the postseason. 

Recently, Barry Zito has been relegated to Aaron Rowand status by Giants fans.  They have been calling to have him skipped in the rotation and even have questioned whether he should be in the rotation at this point.  

After starting the season off great with a 6-2 record in his first ten starts it has been downhill since then.  After that he has gone 3-11 since that time.  

To expect Barry Zito to shutdown the Padres today is a huge leap of faith.  Don't be surprised if he manages to keep it close that he is gone from the game by the 5th inning and it becomes a bullpen game.  Bochy cannot afford to let Zito blow this.

And if Zito blows today's game, I doubt we see Barry Zito in the postseason rotation if the Giants do make it to the playoffs.

Today's lineup is after the jump.

Giants try to clinch postseason spot tonight, Willie Mac winner, lineups

The San Francisco Giants goal this season, just like every other team, was to make it to the playoffs.  At times, the likelihood of that happening seemed to unlikely.  Especially, with Bruce Bochy's rosters.

On a night where the Giants will award Andres Torres with the Willie Mac award they will also try to win the most important game of the season.  If the Giants win tonight, then they will have made the playoffs for the first time since 2003. 

Coincindentally, 2003 was the last time a outfielder won the Willie Mac award and the winner was Marquis Grissom.  Just in case you were wondering, this guy never won.

Bochy is going for it all tonight with Rorres in the lineup against a lefty.  But to be honest, it's not like you can't play Torres on the day when he is given the Willie Mac award.


CF Torres
2B Sanchez
1B Huff
C Posey
LF Burrell
RF Guillen
3B Uribe
SS Renteria
P Cain

CF Venable
2B Eckstein
SS Tejada
1B Gonzalez
RF Ludwick
LF Stairs
C Torrealba
3B Headley
P Richard

Preview: Los Angeles Dodgers (71-73) @ San Francisco Giants (81-63)

For some reason, the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants series has been happening all year at a critical point in the season for the Giants. They have been the type of games that are labeled as “must wins” for the Giants and that moniker has never been truer statement at this point of the season.

The Colorado Rockies are 9-1 in their last 10 games and prior to last night’s game they had won 10 in a row. They are now in process of making their annual push to the playoffs.

What a bunch of jerks for not just laying down like the lowly Dodgers.

The San Diego Padres meanwhile are imploding; they should have run away with this division but in the interest of making things interesting for the month of September they decided to lose 10 games in a row. The Padres are now 5-5 in their last 10 games and could be in the process of losing their chance to make the playoffs.

Meanwhile, the Giants are 7-3 in their last 10 games and just took 3 out of 4 from the Padres in San Diego and now sits a half a game behind the Padres. While the Rockies and the Padres are beating each other the Giants will need to walk all over the Dodgers and hopefully take sole control of first place.

But, that is easier said than done.

Giants/Padres Sunday lineup

Andres Torres gets the day off and that means Aaron Rowand is in the leadoff spot.  At this point, I would rather see Darren Ford start over Rowand.

Giants

Rowand CF
Sanchez 2B
Huff 1B
Posey C
Guillen RF
Burrell LF
Sandoval 3B
Uribe SS
Lincecum RHP

Padres

Durango CF
Eckstein 2B
Tejeda SS
Gonzalez 1B
Torrealba C
Headley 3B
Ludwick RF
Venable LF
Latos RHP

Thursday Giants lineup

First game of a four-game series with the Padres.  Giants will need to come out of the series having won at least two games with a hope for make three out of the four.

Here's how the pitching matchups are lined up:

Thursday: Matt Cain (10-10, 3.18 ERA) vs. Jon Garland (13-10, 3.31 ERA)

Friday: Jonathan Sanchez (10-8, 3.39 ERA) vs. Clayton Richard (12-6, 3.43 ERA)

Saturday: Madison Bumgarner (5-4, 3.44 ERA) vs. Tim Stauffer (3-3, 1.72 ERA)

Sunday: Tim Lincecum (13-9, 3.69 ERA) vs. Mat Latos (14-5, 2.21 ERA)

And now for the lineups...

Torres CF

Sanchez 2B

Huff 1B

Posey C

Guillen RF

Burrell LF

Sandoval 3B

Uribe SS

Cain RHP

Durango CF

Eckstein 2B

Ludwick RF

Gonzalez 1B

Tejeda SS

Headley 3B

Torrealba C

Venable LF

Garland RHP