San Francisco Giants drop first game in road trip to the Cardinals, 2-1

Aug 17, 2015; St. Louis, MO, USA; San Francisco Giants starting pitcher Chris Heston (53) throws to a St. Louis Cardinals batter during the first inning at Busch Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Curry-USA TODAY Sports

Well, that just happened. The Giants were riding a high‒I was anyway‒sitting on a four game win streak, not to mention the fact that the Giants won five of the last six. I was expecting or more accurately, I was hoping the Giants would continue the trend. But they didn’t.

You know the old saying: the bigger they are, the harder they fall? That was a sizable win streak, right? I mean think about it, if it had been a losing streak I’d be breaking out in hives. Needless to say, when the Giants lost Monday night’s game it hurt. In fact, it’s gonna leave a mark.

Monday night’s game turned into the old time-worn pitching duel. That’s actually a good thing. It means our rookie pitcher, Chris Heston, was holding his own as much as he could against a seasoned veteran like Michael Wacha, the Cardinals starting pitcher.

Heston pitched pretty solid for  four and ⅔ innings. He got into some trouble in the fourth‒walking three batters to load the bases on two outs, but he struck out the next guy and got himself out of the jam. He gave up one run (a solo home run), four hits, five walks and he struck out four.

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Andrew Susac was activated after spending some time on the DL and he caught Heston, Brandon Belt played first base, manager Bruce Bochy gave Buster Posey the night off. Almost.

The game stayed pretty quiet until the fourth, then Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina fired an absolute rocket over the left field wall to lead off the inning.

The Giants put together a run in the sixth: Brandon Crawford blasted a two out double off the center field wall, scoring Matt Duffy. There we go again with that two out thunder‒I think we should just abbreviate it to TOT, because the Giants seem to be using it a lot.

It happened again in the ninth. Almost. Enter Buster. He sat the game out, taking a much needed and much deserved night off. But when the Giants were in the bottom of the ninth, with two outs, down by a run, Bochy called on our power hitting catcher to see if he could provide the Giants with some TOT.

On a one strike count, Buster took a swing and hit the ball high, he hit it deep, it was…caught by the Cardinals center fielder at the wall and the game was over. The Giants attempt at a late inning rally missed by a matter of inches.

The final score was: Giants 1, Cardinals 2

Everyone I talk to said the Giants were facing the best team in baseball. The talking heads, pundits and baseball analysts say the Cardinals are the best team in baseball. I don’t put much stock in the numbers and I don’t believe the talking heads. You can throw statistical data at me all day. You want to tell me the Giants are facing the team with the most wins right now? Sure, that’s the Cardinals. I can accept that.

You want to talk about WAR? That’s a conflict between countries, cultures or religions. ERA? That’s a civil rights movement. But the best team in baseball? No question. It’s the Giants. Always has been, always will be. I don’t care what the experts say.

We Are Giant!