The ups and downs of baseball

Brandon Crawford makes a (good) throw
from shortstop Monday night.

On Monday night in San Francisco -- Tuesday morning here -- Brandon Crawford was a hero, In the eighth inning, the left-handed hitting Giants shortstop (and former Mankato MoonDog) singled home the tying run off Aroldis Chapman. In the bottom of the 13th, he led off against Mike Montgomery and doubled; he then scored the winning run. Both hits came, notably, off left-handed pitchers.

On Tuesday night, Crawford had another double and another run scored. But he also committed two throwing errors, each of which resulted in an unearned Cubs run -- and the Giants lost by one run, and were thus eliminated from the playoffs. Hero to goat in less than 24 hours.

Those poor throws will presumably stick in Crawford's, uh, craw all winter. The immediate focus of the reporting and social media chatter was the meltdown of the Giants bullpen; Bruce Bochy went through five relievers in the four-run ninth inning disaster, none of whom faced more than two batters. And yeah, the bullpen was a problem for Bochy and the Giants for most of the second half. Fact remains: If Crawford makes his throws, the Cubs lose two of their runs, and the Giants get another game.

Crawford is generally regarded as one of the game's best defensive shortstops (he won the Gold Glove in 2015), but his play Tuesday did not enhance that reputation.

Still, 2016 was a good season for Crawford. He hit fifth in the Giants lineup in that elimination game; that he could be a middle-of-the-order hitter for a playoff team was inconceivable just two years ago. But he hit 21 homers in 2015, and led the majors in triples this year. He had career highs in batting average, on-base percentage and runs scored.

But defense is his calling card, and his defense failed Tuesday.

Brandon goes Boom

Brandon Crawford unloads on this Edinson
Volquez pitch. He hit 10 homers in the regular
season, a career high.

Wednesday's wild card game wasn't up to the standard of Tuesday's, but that's a pretty high bar to set.

Brandon Crawford, former Mankato Moondog (2005) and current San Francisco Giant, put this one on ice with a grand slam in the fourth inning.

Of course, the Giants' Bay Area neighbors for Oakland were unable to sustain a four-run lead of their own in the AL wild card game. The difference: Jon Lester let the Kansas City Royals back into the game, and Madison Bumgarner did not.

So the National League team I was most interested in rooting for (Pittsburgh) is eliminated. Let's go down the list of division series match-ups:

AL: Anaheim versus Kansas City; Baltimore vs. Detroit.

The Angels had much the better record and do more things well than the Royals do, plus manager Mike Scoscia is far less likely to make a mess than is Ned Yost. But Anaheim's starting pitching has been thinned by injuries; Matt Shoemaker, who will start Game 2, hasn't pitched in more than two weeks. (I saw him against the Twins in early September and was not impressed.)

I'll almost always root for the Midwest team over one from Southern California, and this will be no exception. And while Anaheim is the better team, I'll go with K.C. to take this series. Hope so; the longer Yost is the Royals manager, the better for the Twins.

The other series is a genuine test of two postseason power theories. Theory one is that power arms win in October, and the Tigers have a genuine advantage in power arms. Theory two is that teams based on power hitters struggle in October; the weather is colder and the pitchers don't make as many mistakes. Baltimore's offense is based on the home run.

Both theories point to Detroit, so that's my pick. As far as rooting goes, I'm torn. I like the Orioles; they were my favorite non-Twins team in my formative years of fandom. I may well find as the series progress that I want the O's. I start without a preference.

NL: Washington-San Francisco; St. Louis-Los Angeles

I see no reason to pick against the Nationals. Deep rotation, solid lineup. Former Twin Denard Span had his best season since 2009 (led the National League in hits) and gives me a rooting interest. The Giants always seem to have enough pitching to be tough in October, but I gotta go with the Nats.

The Cardinals and Dodgers? I'd like them both to lose. Only one will, however. And I'll pick the Cardinals to win his one. As for rooting, I dislike both operations, so I'll refrain from making any emotional investment.

Late night: Twins 9, Giants 2

In just 25 pitches, Madison Bumgarner's ERA
inflated from 3.21 to 4.06.

Box score here.

Game story here.

Madison Bumgarner is now 3-9 on the season. He is, in truth, a really good young pitcher who had a really bad start on Tuesday night.

This game was decided, really, before I turned the game on. The first eight Twins got hits, alternating singles and doubles. All eight scored, the first time that's happened in the majors since 1990.

Cleveland and Detroit both lost Tuesday; the White Sox won. The Twins are now 6.5 games behind the Indians, 5.5 behind the Tigers, 2 back of the Sox.

A few random comments:

*Late in the game, Joe Mauer had a Joe Mauer double to the gap in left-center. That was maybe the first time I've seen him drive a ball the opposite way since his return.

*Tsuyoshi Nishioka went deep into the hole for a nice fielding play but didn't get off a strong enough throw to get the out. Bert Blyleven shrugged it off, saying his back foot slipped. Blyleven said Nishioka has enough arm for shortstop, but I don't regard him as a truly objective observer.

*At least Nishi reached that ball. Miguel Tejada played short for the Giants, and displayed minimal -- or non-existent -- range. Why Tejada and not former Mankato MoonDog Brandon Crawford, of whom I wrote a bit more than a week ago? Because in his last nine games he's 3-for-30, all singles, with one walk.

Crawford is a superior defender to Tejada, but he's got to contribute something with the bat. (But then, so does Tejada, whose on-base and slugging percentages are both below .300.)

Pic of the Week

Former Mankato Moondog Brandon Crawford has
taken over the shortstop job for the defending
World Series champions.

The San Francisco Giants celebrated their World Series triumph by bidding farewell to their two veteran free agent shortstops. Juan Uribe signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Edgar Renteria with the Cincinnati Reds.

The Jints — who prospered in 2010 by adding guys who appeared to be over-the-hill — picked up former American League MVP Miguel Tejada, who has been in decline for a while.

The old-guys approach didn't  work in this case. Tejada was awful.

Brandon Crawford was called up —not from the high levels of the Giants farm system, but from A ball — and installed at shortstop late last month, and the former Mankato Moondog has wowed Giants fans with his defensive skills.

So far, he hasn't been overmatched at the plate either.