Kuzul

This was a bad game. This was just a bad game.

Nothing seemed to go right for the Giants in this one.

Panda choked. Two runs scored on Aubrey Huff’s fielding error. Jayson Werthless hit a home run. Cody Ross made the last out tagging from second to third in the bottom of the third inning. Both Giants pinch hitters promptly struck out. And Phillies pitching had their way with the Giants lineup.

The Giants scored once on Cody Ross’s RBI single, Timmy had one bad inning and that was all she wrote.

The game was close throughout, “torture” as always. We Giants fans have had so many tortuous games with mostly positive results we were starting to like this whole torture thing.

But this was the bad kind of torture. This was this kind of torture, courtesy of medievality.com:

“The torturer turned the handle causing the ropes to pull the victim’s arms. Eventually, the victim’s bones were dislocated with a loud crack. If the torturer kept turning the handles, some of the limbs were torn apart, usually the arms.”

Yeah, that about describes it.

Here are the grades for the Giants in Game 5 of the NLCS. Those a bit squeamish look away.

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Following Tim Lincecum’s second masterful outing of the postseason against the Phillies in Game 1 of the NLCS Saturday, I scanned all the way back to 1958 when the Giants moved to San Francisco from New York to find the greatest pitching gems in SF Giants postseason history.

I found some obvious names, I found some surprise names, I found three names from this year’s Giants squad (no, Barry Zito wasn’t one of them).

Given what Giants starting pitchers have already done this postseason, there’s a strong case to call them the best SF Giants starting rotation ever.

Here are the Top 10 Pitching Gems in SF Giants Postseason History.

The Giants had to win the game for the pitcher to be included.

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The Atlanta Braves had a good year this season by most means. Won the Wild Card, overcame a plethora of injuries, and could have easily beaten the San Francisco Giants in the NLDS if a few more things went their way.

Following Bobby Cox’s retirement, the Braves organization has already made a good move in hiring former Marlins manager and Braves third base coach Fredi Gonzalez. Despite his 276-279 record with the Marlins the last 3 1/2 years, Gonzalez has garnered a good amount of respect in the league, and was Cox’s No. 1 choice to take over the Braves.

Gonzalez will also be given the chance to coach games against his former organization the Marlins, who just so happen to be in the same division as the Braves. Should be a spicy season.

Here are the moves the Braves need to pull off to make it to the NLCS next year.

Editor’s Note: Notice Eric Hinske, Omar Infante, and Martin Prado are in the forefront in this picture, while Melky Cabrera is in the back. Yeah, that’s not by accident.

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I can’t tell you how much this pains me to say this being a diehard Giants fan. But a noble journalist puts his allegiances aside.

Here is an in-depth comparison of two teams, in amazing detail and quality (HD detail and quality). The main determinant in the series, I believe, will be the powerful offense of the Phils…and the three-runs-is-a-chore offense of the Giants.

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