Here is what happened, and please take time to think about what I am going to say, because I am not looking up any numbers at all.
This team is a good baseball team. Not great, but good. We had 5 guys pitch out of their minds all season long. We had the best bullpen in the league.
We sweep the Cardinals in July. On top of the baseball world. Now, as fans, we expect even more, because we now know what it's like to sweep the Cardinals!
Joey Votto goes down and in comes Todd Frazier and company, winning 10+ in a row and stuff. Then they lose one game against SD (I believe) and come back to win 4 or 5 more in a row. We're still on top of the baseball world.
FFWD to September. I remember saying in the first week of September that this team was "almost done." They were flat 95% of the time. They seemed so crazily unmotivated. When the opposition would score, we'd come back and go 1-2-3 every stinking time... going down with a whimper, walking to the bench with tucked tails. This is the month when things went awry and very quickly.
By the time October rolls around, we're already out. But all of a sudden they win 5-2 and 9-0.. so now were hopeful. Folks, those two games were a tease. Those two games should have never happened. This team wasn't hungry. Drew Stubbs, still an automatic out, is still starting. Rolen is still starting instead of Frazier. Cozart is still hitting .250. Votto is still struggling to get runners home. Ludwick can't hit HR's every at bat. Phillips can't win by himself. Bruce is still hit or miss. Baker is still sending out Cairo instead of Paul or Heisey.
This team was highly unmotivated. There was no urgency whatsoever during this 3 game homestand until Buster Posey choked us out in the 5th inning. It took that much for our boys to wake up and play some baseball.
The truth is we didn't deserve to win this series, and the Giants deserved every bit of it. The Reds have been burnt toast since early September, and I've been saying it since early September.
I hate to be right in this case.