Giants October has Arrived!

What a game last night! Typical of Giants baseball in October: keep us on the edge of our seats for most of the game and finish strong! Oh the torture!

There are some interesting aspects of last night's game to take note.

• Apparently being forced to play "playoff like" baseball during the last 1 - 2 weeks of the regular season can help a lot. Case in point would be how the SF Giants clinched a playoff spot on the last day of the regular season. Pretty much every game the Giants played since Tuesday felt like a playoff game as they didn't have a commanding lead for the final playoff spot whereas the Mets were quite comfortable in the 4th spot.

• Managing your pitchers in the postseason is huge and no one is really better at that part of the game than Bruce Bochy. Bochy wisely rode Madison Bumgarner to the end of the game even with a high pitch count. Terry Collins on the other hand pulled Noah Syndergaard after 7 innings. He did throw over 100 pitches through 7 but should have at least given his ace a chance to pitch the 8th to see how he would do. This leads me to my next point ...

• ... Jeurys Familia proved in last year's World Series that he is not a reliable closer in pressure situations after blowing three saves to the Kansas City Royals. He also blew two of his last five save opportunities to finish off the regular season. With the depth of starting pitchers the Mets have, why not use one of them last night in a relief situation, especially in a one game playoff?!

• The major difference between Bumgarner and Syndergaard is clearly about versatility of pitching repertoire. There is good reason why Bumgarner can still be very effective after reaching a 100 pitch count. Syndergaard throws heat but that's not sustainable once you have thrown over 100 pitches (and might explain why Collins pulled his ace after 7 innings). Bumgarner, on the other hand, was still very effective with his variety of pitches and is a master at making the opposing batters guess what's coming. His delivery also helps and Buster Posey calls a great game behind the plate.

• Going back to playing more strategic baseball in the postseason, where every play becomes more accentuated than it is in the regular season, you have to respect the strategy the Giants hitters used against Syndergaard. "Thor" simply throws fire so it's tough to get a clean hit off of him and a clear reason why he took a no-hitter into the 6th inning. The Giants knew this so by being aggressive at the plate and constantly fouling off fastballs, they were able to work up Syndergaard's pitch count. Getting to the Mets bullpen first before the Mets getting to the Giants bullpen was truly the x-factor in a win or go home type of game.

• The Giants consistently threatened to score last night and of course finally broke through with Conor Gillaspie's three run bomb to right field. The Mets only true threat to score was in the bottom of the 5th inning when T.J Rivera led off with a double. Really good fielding by the Giants when they pretty much caught T.J. Rivera in a pickle between 2nd and 3rd base later that inning.

• Let's hope Mike Winters does not call another Giants game. His strike zone was inconsistent and the ruling of Span's stolen base in the 4th inning after the replay showed he was safe was absurd. I am glad Bochy and Bumgarner did not get ejected since you can see they were both about to lose their cool. Oddly it seems Winters has something against the Giants (Bochy was ejected by him earlier this season) even though his strike zone was also off with the Mets near the end of the game.

Now that the Giants are done with the Big Apple, it's time to head to the Windy City before coming back to the West Coast. The Chicago Cubs are a very, very talented baseball team with hardly any weaknesses. It won't be easy taking at least one game in Chicago but the Giants have shown a lot of grit this season and every EVEN year since 2010!

Pre-game analysis for Game 1 will come tomorrow morning. For now, GO GIANTS!