Giants Win NL West; Braves Win Wild Card; Padres Go Home

The San Francisco Giants defeated the San Diego Padres 3-0 to win their first NL West division title since 2003.

Jonathan Sanchez, Santiago Casilla, Ramon Ramirez, Javier Lopez, Sergio Romo and Brian Wilson combined on a four hit shutout.

The Giants scored two runs in the bottom of the third inning on a single by Freddy Sanchez and a double by Aubrey Huff. As soon as the Giants scored their runs I knew they would win. The Padres just don't comeback from behind. Rookie catcher Buster Posey sealed it with a solo homerun in the bottom of the eighth.

By virtue of the Giants win, the Atlanta Braves clinched the NL Wild Card having defeated the Philadelphia Phillies 8-7 earlier in the day. The Braves return to the post-season for the first time since 2005. This means Bobby Cox has some more games to manage.

This means a bitter winter for the San Diego Padres. On August 26th, the Padres had the best record in the NL and a six and a half game lead in the NL West. They then lost ten games in a row and 14-23 for the rest of the season. The Padres could pitch and catch the ball but they couldn't hit it. Once their pitching went into a skid all bets were off.

I'm sure that back in spring training, the Padres would have been happy with a second place finish in the NL West. Now not so much.

But I'm happy. Prior to the beginning of the season I picked the Phillies to win the NL East, the Reds to win the NL Central, the Giants to win the NL West and the Braves to win the NL Wild Card.

I went 4-for-4. This I must brag about.