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Battle of the Double-Sixes this afternoon, with Enright and the man with the second-stupidest name on the Giants [sorry, I'm still going with "Buster Posey"] facing off. Will one of them end the year with a winning record? Or will they both dwell in .500 equality for the winter? The Lawful alignment part of me would quite like the bullpens to be involved in this one, maintaining the balanced order of the universe. But Barry deserves a win, and not getting swept by the Giants would also be pleasant.
At least, regardless of what happens, the Giants will need to wait for the arrival of the Padres before they can clinch the division. Their magic number is three, so even a loss for the Diamondbacks today, and one for San Diego later, would not be enough. Still, scoring runs off Giants pitching has not been easy - though it's not just us, it's been anyone they've faced. They have allowed two runs or less in sixteen straight nine-inning contests - the sole exception since September 10 being an extra-inning game in Colorado. That was the game after MLB ordered a watchful eye be kept on the equipment: out of spite, the Rockies replaced the baseballs with superballs.
We've faced Bumgarner twice this year, and haven't done much, scoring twice over 14.1 innings, with a WHIP fractionally below one. The Giants did solve Enright the last and third time they saw him this year, but he pitched seven shutout innings when facing San Francisco by the cove in late August, and the Giants' line in day games is also unimpressive. Their OPS is .706, 34 points lower than at night, suggesting the ball doesn't fly as far at PhoneCo Park during the day [league average OPS is almost identical for day or night]. I think it'll be another pitching contest, with whoever makes least mistakes coming out on top.
My final recap of the year today. I'd be hard pushed to follow Sprankton's effort from last night, so I don't think I'm going to bother. However, this afternoon's game is not on TV, so maybe I'll just make something up, and defy any of you to prove otherwise!