Lowell Cohn: Giants suddenly showing signs of life

SAN FRANCISCO - Call it the Ty Blach Game. Remember it as the Ty Blach game. this could be the start of something big.

Because that's what it was. The Ty Blach game. Ty Blach vs. the Dodgers in the flesh, and vs. the Cardinals, the Giants competitor for the second wild-card spot, in spirit. Ty Blach keeping the Giants alive in this puzzling, extraordinary, topsy-turvy season. Ty Blach superb with the season on the line. Ty Blach winning 3-0.

Ty Blach a rookie. Ty Blach who came to the Giants - the big club - from Sacramento on September 1. Ty Black making the second major-league start of his career.

“Oh, no big deal, Ty. Just beat the first-place Dodgers, just win a pitcher's duel against the great, intimidating, knock-your-eye-out Clayton Kershaw, just pitch eight shutout innings before we hand the game to Sergio Romo and, in general, just keep the Giants one game ahead of the Cards for the final wild-card spot.”

Just that and nothing more.

Blach, a stylish lefty, kept the Dodgers confused, the Dodgers with all those power hitters. Gave up three hits. Controlled the tempo. Hit the corners with his fastball and breaking stuff. Often got strike one. Twenty-five years pitching like this.

Struck out Yasiel Puig top of the seventh. Struck him out looking. Puig standing there. Grim. Then walking slowly to the dugout. Defeated. By some kid named Blach.

And then the top of the eighth. Vanquished the Dodgers. Preserved the shutout and then he showed his emotion, finally. Pumped his fist and ran off the field. A hero in a story. In the Giants story which isn't yet over, although at one point, it seemed they were running out of pages.

And when Blach got to the dugout, his day over, and grabbed onto the rail, Jake Peavy came up to him, Peavy the veteran, Peavy the voice of baseball tradition. And Peavy told Blach he should be proud of what he did, should know his first win came against “this” team and against “that” pitcher.

Peavy meant Blach belongs.

Afterward, manager Bruce Bochy came to the interview room. Bochy who's endured so much pressure but never shows it.

“Well, I was thinking (in the dugout) that was one of the best pitching performances I've seen,” he said. “With this kid having a month in the major leagues, with what was at stake and who he was going against. We had a lot of confidence in him. I didn't know he'd give us eight shutout innings. This kid was locked in. You're thinking before the game it's going to be all hands on deck and help him out. He should be so proud of what he did.”

“During the game, do you talk him or leave him alone?” I asked.

Bochy gave a big honking grin. “I leave him alone. I stay out of the way when things are going well. He had that maniacal focus and it never stopped every inning. Pitch to pitch.”

Why did Bochy let Blach bat in the seventh?

“I just love guy's getting outs,” he said. Again the grin. Moonlike.

And now the focus expands from Blach to Bochy. Because this crazy season is one of Bochy's best. Seems counterintuitive considering how bad the Giants have been. Hang with me.

The first half of the Giants season - until the All Star break - was a phenomenon. They were the best team in baseball. They held first place in the National League West. They looked like a possible pennant winner, even a World Series winner. Their record was 57-33, tops in the majors.

But a second Giants team took the field for Part Two of the season. This team couldn't pitch, surely didn't have a closer, and it couldn't hit. Coming into Saturday's game, the Giants were tied for the second-worst record in the major leagues since the All Star break at 28-42. At times, they had looked dead.

But they are not dead. Either they win the second wild-card spot outright in their final game of the season, or they force a tie-breaker against the Cardinals in St. Louis on Monday. The corpse stirs. It's alive. It's alive.

And it's because of Bochy. He worked two new starters into his rotation - Blach and Matt Moore. He marginalized Peavy and Matt Cain. And he kept the team together. He jettisoned Santiago Casilla as closer and worked in new guys, Cory Gearrin, Will Smith, Steven Okert. And he made Romo the closer - when appropriate. Brilliant maneuvering by Bochy. And he kept the team together.

And the Giants are playing better. They beat up on Colorado, made the Rockies crack. And now they have made the Dodgers crack in two straight games. Dodgers third baseman Justin Turner threw the game away in seventh. The Giants are bringing the pressure. Are attempting to serve notice that they are legit. That they are a crisp pitching, crisp fielding, sort of crisp hitting bunch. That they are coming to life at the right moment. Maybe.

If they get through a possible tie-breaker against the Cardinals and the wild-card game against the Mets, they are in the real playoffs. Get to play the Cubs in Chicago next Friday. Seems like a big assignment. Maybe not with the Giants' new and improved pitching.

The Giants have done similar things before, shown they could survive. Most recently in 2014 when they were a wild-card team and beat the Pirates in Pittsburgh and won everything.

So, they have guaranteed themselves at least one game after the regular season, a game that could open the door to another game and then to more games and then to who-knows-what.

“No matter what, we're traveling,” Bochy said. Cue the grin.

For more on the world of sports in general and the Bay Area in particular, go to the Cohn Zohn at cohn.blogs.pressdemocrat.com. You can reach Staff Columnist Lowell Cohn at lowell.cohn@pressdemocrat.com.