Let's go back way back when and remember the pinnacle of the Giants/Dodgers rivalry during the early 2000s when Barry Bonds stepped in the batter's box to face off against Eric Gange. With the Dodgers leading 3-0 in the ninth, and a runner on first, Bonds didn't even represent the tying run. Yet, there was something magical about that moment. The Giants hated the Dodgers. The Dodgers hated the Giants. Gange wanted to strike out the MVP. Bonds wanted to homer off of the Cy Young. And he does. The Giants went on to lose that game, but in that moment, decades of bad blood was mashed into one of the most dramatic moments in the two club's history.
Tonight, in the eighth inning, some of the same magic in the Gange-Bonds matchup came back to AT&T Park.
But first, let's set the stage.
Matt Cain, after a spring filled with injuries and doubts, pitched one of the best games in recent memory, going six innings while only allowing two runs. Ross Stripling, in his very first major league start, threw 7.1 innings of no-hit ball, frustrating Giant hitters inning in, inning out.
Going into the eighth inning, Stripling had placed an aura over AT&T that made it feel like he was going to continue to pitch well and ultimately no-hit the Giants a day after they scored 12 runs on 17 hits. Even in his excellence, Stripling was not perfect, and four walks were partially responsible for the 100 pitches that he threw during his outing. After walking Angel Pagan with one out in the eight, Dave Roberts brought in set-up man Chris Hatcher, ending Stripling's date with destiny.
Suddenly, with Stripling gone, the Dodgers once again felt vulnerable. On a 3-1 count, Trevor Brown took Hatcher deep, tying the game up at two. Decades of hate seemed to return in one swing of the bat. The magic was back.
Then, in the bottom of the tenth, Crawford sends the San Francisco faithful home happy on an opposite-field walk-off home run. Because baseball.
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