The Playoffs! Mets 5, Giants 4

The playoffs started on Tuesday, and by the time we got to the game, the Cardinals had beaten the Braves twice (all series this week are best-out-of-five-games), the Mariners had beaten the White Sox twice, the Giants had beaten the Mets once, and the Athletics had split two games with the Hated Yorkies.

Tonight was the second game between the Giants and the Mets. After some negotiating, I met CJ at Danger and we took CalTrain up to the park. The park, of course, was packed! 40,000+ people - mostly Giants fans, of course - milling around, and cheering when their team took the field. It was something to see!

The Giants started Shawn Estes against the Mets' Al Leiter. I've been a bit perplexed by this for several days, because although Estes can be brilliant, he's also not very consistent. Russ Ortiz - who will start Saturday - is a similar kind of pitcher, but is generally more effective and has been consistent and consistently good for the last two months. Since the Giants really want to win this game before travelling to New York for the next two, I'm not sure why Estes got the nod.

Unfortunately, it was the erratic Estes who showed up, and he soon allowed the Mets two runs. The Giants scratched out one run the next inning, but Leiter was pitching very well. Worse, Estes twisted his ankle running the bases in the third inning and had to leave the game. (He managed to beat out a throw to second base, but thought he was out, and when he hit the bag, he was in so much pain he didn't realize he'd been called safe, stumbled off the bag, and was tagged out. He later said he was in "another world" by the time the call was made. Bummer, but understandable. (Many have said he should have slided into second, which is perhaps true, although it actually didn't look to me like it was going to be as close a play as it was, and Estes is a pitcher after all. So I don't blame him too much.)

Kirk Reuter came in and shut down the Mets for more than four innings in a very impressive performance. So after 8 innings the Giants were still down 2-1.

Felix Rodriguez - the Giants' most reliable startup guy - came in in the top of the ninth, but clearly didn't have his best stuff, as he gave up a two-run home run to Edgardo Alfonzo. It looked just about over as Armando Benitez came in to save the game for the Mets. But - surprise, surprise! - the Giants got two men on base, and then pinch-hitter J.T. Snow hit a 3-run home run which just barely cleared the right field wall, fair by about five feet, to tie the game. Amazing!

It all ended badly, though, as Rodriguez - still without his best stuff - came in for the tenth, gave up a double to Darryl Hamilton, and was mysteriously left in to pitch to Jay Payton, who singled home the winning run. Sure, manager Dusty Baker wanted to save Robb Nen as the pitcher's spot was due up in the bottom of the tenth, but Rodriguez seemed to clearly to be done, he should have brought in Fultz, Embree, whoever, to get Payton. Along with starting Estes rather than Ortiz, I think this was a big tactical error on Baker's part.

The Giants threatened in the bottom of the inning (with Armando Rios being thrown out on a controversial running play), but couldn't score, and the Mets won 5-4.

It was a bummer, but it was still a really good game, and I'm glad to have gone. CJ says it's the best game she's seen all year, although I personally think July's dramatic Red Sox win in Oakland was the best game I saw.

Some photos from the game:

	The view of the San Francisco skyline from the concession walk along the third base side. You can see the very tip of the Transamerica Pyramid above one of the more mundane buildings in front of it. The building in the foreground is obviously undergoing some sort of construction
	Part of the left field bleachers was reserved for the press. They remained mostly vacant throughout the game. You can see the marina and palm tree grove just beyond the stadium.
	The view from our seats. Not too bad for forty bucks, huh? The little guy near home plate is, I believe, Ellis Burks' son, who has been a popular giants bat-boy for home games. I think he's only 5 years old or thereabouts.
	The view from our seats also included one of the stadium parking lots, and part of the old SF industrial (or maybe warehouse?) district. I guess ten or fifteen years ago this was a truly lousy part of town. In addition to the ballpark, Microsoft now has an office in the area.

Something I've never seen before while at a game: A 2-4-3 double play. Mets pitcher Al Leiter botched a bunt with a man on first, and the Giants catcher picked it up, threw to second, and the relay to first completed the double play. Leiter was only something like 3-for-58 with the bat for the season, so I guess he was likely to record an out in any case. But rarely is the catcher involved in double plays unless it involves a force play at home plate.

Last night I went up to John's place to watch the season premiere of The West Wing, which I've been touting as a Damn Good Show for months now, and which has received the additional endorsement of the Emmy Awards.

The premiere was actually two episodes, or rather a two-part episode, shown back-to-back, resolving many of the issues raised in last season's finale when gunmen opened fire on the President and his entourage as they were leaving a forum at a college. Along with the answer to the question "Who got shot?", the episode featured flashbacks to President Bartlet's campaign for the Democratic nomination three years earlier, focusing on assembling the team who star on the show.

It's a very different episode from any which aired last year, since the tension is much higher and the situation in many ways more dire. Nonetheless, Aaron Sorkin still writes bitingly funny dialogue even at the grimmest of times ("Do you have any medical conditions I should be aware of?" "Well... I've been shot.").

This really is a fantastic show. If you're not watching it, you're missing out on something great.

I've also been taping many new shows this season, although I haven't yet watched any of them. Gross Pointe, Dark Angel, and - next week - Gideon's Crossing. Plus Saturday morning's Static Shock. I don't have particularly high hopes for any of them (except maybe the last), but I'll give them a look.

One other thing to note: Fantagraphics Books has finally printed the 40th and last volume of their reprint series of Prince Valiant comic strips, covering all of the strips which creator Hal Foster drew, from 1938 to 1972. Foster is one of the great American artists, with a sense of design and rendering skills perhaps greater than any other comic strip artist. This has been a fantastic series to read, and if you're interested in Arthurian times, high adventure, or just good artwork, you should check it out.

Volume 11 of Pogo has also just come out. I think I'm starting to get a little tired of Pogo, as in "I get the idea." It's fun, too, but it's not quite enough my cup of tea to keep picking it up indefinitely.