Giants Baseball: Torture?

Torture is not how I would describe a shutout, nor how I would describe a 9-0 shutout. Scoring 7 runs in the 8th inning is not torture, and neither is a 0.00 ERA through 3 starts for Matt Cain. Welcome to the 2010 World Series, where nothing is at is seems!

This season however has been torture in every sense of the word, and its gotten us here, up 2-0 against the Texas Rangers in the World Series. Torture was never this sweet.

For those of you who may not understand why it is that we refer to Giants Baseball as "Torture," I'm gonna tell you.

It started with Mel Kuiper when after a close game early this season, he uttered the now famous line: "Giants Baseball: TORTURE!" From then it seemed like the Giants did not know how to win without that inevitable "torture" built right in.

Some think that torture is a synonym for failure. No it is not. when you simply fail at your goal, you call that misery

Misery is....

having Willie McCovey hit a line drive to get caught to end a shot at a world series (see Charles Shultz - Peanuts)

having an earthquake interrupt game 3 of the 1989 World Series and proceed to get swept by the Oakland A's when the World Series resumed.

being 5 outs away from winning the 2002 world series and losing a 5-0 lead in the 8th inning when you have the league's best bullpen.

losing the 2002 World Series to a team who's ralling call was a dancing monkey on the jumbotron and millions of Dodgers fans then claiming they've been Angels fans the whole year.

losing to the Marlins in the 2003 NLDS after winning 100 games in the regular season

getting swept by the wild card Marlins in 1998 after winning the National League West

. . .

These are all examples of misery, not torture. Giants Torture is when you end up on top, but you do so in the most nail biting, excruciating way possible so that if the hair isn't pulled out of your head, its probably because its just fallen out on its own.

Torture is...

when you have a 1 run lead, and Brian Wilson walks the bases loaded before he proceeds to strike out the side.

scoring only the runs necessary to win the game with no insurance runs.

Leading the Padres by 3 games with 3 games to play, and losing the first 2 before clinching a playoff spot on the very last day of the season.

Watching Tim Lincecum unravel before our eyes in August, only to see him come back from the dead in September to propel us to the playoffs.

letting the Marlins tie us 9-9 before we scored a game winning sac-fly by Andres Torres to win the game (why are the Marlins so annoying!?)

. . .

But something must also be said of Destiny.

Destiny is when a ball hits the top of a wall harmlessly and back into the outfield to steal a homer from Ian Kinsler.

Its when a guy like Cody Ross who nobody wanted was picked up by the Giants, and hits back to back home runs against one of the best pitchers in the game, Roy Halladay.

Its when Freddy Sanchez starts off his World Series by hitting 3 straight doubles off of one of the best postseason pitchers in history, Cliff Lee.

Its when an unknown to the national media, Matt Cain, gives 3 shutout performances in the Playoffs, one against each team the Giants have faced.

And its when a team no one picked to even be here, is now leading the World Series 2 games to none.

. . .

Let Torture Reign

Laws of the Day

The Texas Rangers have still never won a game in San Francisco and are now 0-11 including 0-9 in AT&T Park

Matt Cain is one of only 5 pitchers to toss at least 20 innings and not have an earned run. 2 of the other pitchers on that list were former Giants (Christy Mathewson - 1905 and Carl Hubbell - 1933)