Recap: Giants Take 2 of 3 versus Braves In Waterworld

Admit it. Come the 6th inning or so last night, you began to panic. It was the return of the ground attack the last game and a half. The Giants were lucky if they hit anything out of the infield, let alone actually have it drop. Then like the parting clouds above, the Giants offense came to life thanks to a bit of a weird play. With runners on first and second, Mark DeRosa lined a shot out to right field which Jason Heyward picked up on the second bounce. Pablo Sandoval was rounding third and it appeared it was going to be a close play, however, Heyward’s throw shot up the third base line and Braves catcher Brian McCann looked about as interested in catching the ball as Ricky Martin would be at a strip club. And due to McCann’s lack of desire to grab the ball, it bounced off the thigh of incoming runner Pablo Sandoval and shot over to the Braves dugout, letting Aubrey Huff score the go-ahead run. The Giants never looked back from there, adding three more runs (two off a monster Pablo Sandoval homer), as they took the game and the series from the Braves.

The game was mere moments from being called at one point in the late afternoon, but with the Braves scheduled to play San Diego tonight and rain in the forecast here in Southern California, they decided they’d wait until the last possible moment before calling the game, and for Giant fans, luck had it in the cards that there was a small window to get the game in. Other than for an inning or two, it was quite nice…small amounts of drizzle, but, nothing major. However, as soon as the last out was recorded, it was like the skies literally opened up and the rain began to come down in buckets. Strange. I’ve seen a lot of cold and windy games at AT&T Park, but that was up there with some record Candlestick conditions.

A few notes from the game as well:

The groundscrew did an amazing job at keeping the field as nice as they could. The rain was falling in sheets yesterday morning but they somehow kept the field from turning into a marsh.

Members of the 2000 Giants team were on hand for the majority of the game, as the Giants were to have a pre-game ceremony celebrating the 10 year anniversary of  AT&T Park, however, the near five hour rain delay ruined that. A few of the guys went home prior to game time, but, it was nice to see a few stick around through the conditions.

Braves right fielder Jason Heyward is going to be a monster…he literally could hit 30 homers this year. If you feel like making some money, go get his rookie card. Now.

Funny moment of the night goes to Giants reliever Jeremy Affeldt. Affeldt, who’s self promotion as an impact hitter took quite a dip last night as he was granted a rare at-bat in the bottom of the 8th inning. Affeldt, who hit .500 last year (1 for 2) made sure everybody knew of his success and claimed himself to be the best hitter on the pitching staff. Affedlt, after fouling off a screamer into the stands, went dodging out of the batter’s box on the next two strike pitch, attempting to get out of the way of the breaking ball coming towards him. Only problem? It was a strike. Affeldt sat there for a moment, grinned, and tried not to laugh at himself as the Giants bench erupted in mockery.