Giants Eliminate Dodgers; Giants 4, Dodgers 3

In what was a playoff game for the Dodgers, who needed to win to stay one back of the Cardinals and keep their playoff dreams alive. Their 2012 playoff dreams were crushed off the hands of Buster Posey, Joaquin Arias, Marco Scuturo and Barry Zito.

The following says it all:

October 2, 2012; Los Angeles, CA, USA; San Francisco Giants starting pitcher Barry Zito (75) pitches in the first inning against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-US PRESSWIRE

First of all, I would like to thank the St. Louis Cardinals because if they would have won, this game would have been meaningless to both teams. Instead, the fans at Dodger Stadium were loud until the Sergio Romo got Mark Ellis to fly out to Angel Pagan.

Lets see how did this game scoring get started? On a Buster Posey home run. Did he just solidify the following postseason awards…NL MVP, NL Batting Champion, and NL Comeback Player of the Year? I think so!

Barry Zito would give up the lead in the bottom of the second after a one out triple to Hanley Ramirez and he scored on a Luis Cruz ground out. After Zito gave up a double to Andre Eithier, he intentionally walked A.J. Ellis to get to the pitcher.

In the top of the third, the Giants would answer back with a solo home run by Joaquin Arias. After Zito struck out. Pagan and Marco Scutaro started a rally with two one out singles. This was negated by a Pablo Sandoval double play. Clearly, there were signs that Chris Capuano (the Dodgers pitcher) was starting to feel the effects of a shoulder contusion from hitting himself with his bat earlier in the day. He left in the top of the fourth inning after giving up a single to Posey.

Fast forward to the top of the fifth with Jamey Wright pitching, Hector Sanchez got a single and Arias grounded into a fielders choice. A throwing error sent Arias to second. After Zito struck out, Don Mattingly decided to walk Angel Pagan to get to Marco Scutaro. I’ll say it again, Mattingly walked a slumping Pagan to get a player with a 19 game hitting streak. Scutaro came through with a two out double to score Arias and Pagan.

Things got a little rocky in the bottom of the seventh when Guillermo Mota came in to pitch for the Giants. Zito started the inning wtih a hit by pitch to Eithier. Mota gave up a two run homer to A.J. Ellis with no outs. He struck out Nick Punto for the first out, the second out came after Mark Ellis decided to try and stretch a double into a triple. Pagan threw the ball to Arias who threw a strike to Sandoval for a 8-6-5 put out. The next batter, Shane Victorino, did hit a triple with two outs. Bochy and the rest of the Giants collective had seen enough of Mota. In comes George Kontos to face Matt Kemp. I thought this game might be lost right here but, Matt Kemp went down on strikes on a nasty pitch in the dirt. It was also Kemp’s third strikeout of the night.

Javier Lopez and Santiago Casilla put the Dodgers down in order in the bottom of the eighth. Jeremy Affeldt gave up a single to Eithier and was yanked in the bottom of the ninth and Sergio Romo retired the next three batters.

This is the longest recap I’ve written to this year so, I’ll recap:

• The Giants eliminated the Dodgers from postseason play.
• Buster Posey should win every post season award.
• The Giants eliminated the Dodgers from postseason play.
• Mattingley walked Pagan to get to Scutaro.
• Barry Zito pitched well.
• The Giants eliminated the Dodgers from postseason play.