Giants 4, Rangers 0 (San Francisco leads series 3-1)
The thrill of victory is always accompanied by the agony of defeat. If you want to be a baseball fan in October, you have to be willing to take on a large risk of disappointment in exchange for the small chance of winning it all. The expectation grows with each step closer, but so does the bitterness of possible failure.
So I'll ask a question. Which is worse: getting blasted in the division series and sent home in the first week, or coming oh-so-close to grasping the ultimate and then blowing it? One of these two teams will experience the latter. If the Giants lose, they'll have choked away another World Series in spectacular fashion. If the Rangers lose, they'll have beaten the Rays and Yankees, probably the best two teams in baseball, only to founder against the mediocre Giants.
My vote would go with coming close and falling short. If you get destroyed immediately, it feels like you never belonged in the postseason. But if the season ends in anticlimax, you'll have years to curse that one bad break that just didn't go your way. Donnie Moore and Dave Henderson anyone? And that didn't even happen in the World Series. Technically, the home run Brian Fuentes coughed up to Alex Rodriguez in Game 2 of the 2009 ALCS was just as decisive, but it certainly doesn't feel that way, does it?