CHICAGO _ When you lose the first two games in a best-of-5 series, you turn over stones looking for hope.
After the Giants lost, 5-2, to the Chicago Cubs in Game 2 of their NL Division Series Saturday night, manager Bruce Bochy knows exactly where to look.
He was a backup catcher on the 1984 San Diego Padres squad that left Wrigley Field down 2-0 and came back to win three consecutive to claim the NL pennant. He reminded the Giants of that series in 2012, when they fell behind 0-2 in their NLDS to the Reds and had to win three consecutive in Cincinnati.
He inspired them with a parable from the Bible about Gideon blowing his trumpet and inspiring an overmanned army to victory.
It's time for Bochy to blow his trumpet again, and perhaps with a bit more gusto. These Cubs are not those Reds.
Bochy's decision to start Jeff Samardzija in Game 2 backfired spectacularly, the Giants offense could not rally despite knocking out Kyle Hendricks in the fourth inning with a line drive to the forearm, and now the team that has won nine consecutive postseason elimination games must rattle off three in a row to advance.
It begins on Monday with Madison Bumgarner at AT&T Park.
Samardzija struggled to put away hitters in a Sept. 1 start here, his first as a visitor after spending six seasons with the Cubs. He threw 47 pitches in the first inning, which began with a 13-pitch walk to Dexter Fowler.
But Bochy did not believe nerves or a mental block contributed to Samardzija's four-inning, three-run start. The Cubs simply put up a series of relentless at-bats, laying off competitive pitches out of the zone and fouling off strikes.
So Bochy expressed no reservations about clearing a path to that same Wrigley Field mound for Samardzija in Game 2, saying it was "his turn" and that "he earned this."
He also said both Samardzija and Matt Moore would pitch in the series, anyway. Except now the Giants must win Game 3 to give Moore a chance in Game 4.
Bochy could have gone another path, giving Game 2 to Moore, who was equally impressive down the stretch, and leaving open the option to use Samardzija out of the bullpen in these first two games, if needed.
Bochy chose loyalty over lubrication. While Cubs manager Joe Maddon moves his players around the field like interchangeable parts, Bochy was going to take it one horse at a time.
It was one of Bochy's few October decisions that turned into spectacular failures. Samardzija kept elevating pitches and the Cubs feasted upon them.
Fowler started Samardzija's night with an at-bat that lasted nine pitches and ended with a double to the right-field wall. He scored on Ben Zobrist's two-out single.
Jason Heyward hit a well-struck double down the right-field line to start the second inning, Javier Baez drew a semi-strategic walk and Willson Contreras singled to load the bases. Hendricks, a career .099 hitter, followed by taking a first-pitch cut at a fastball at the belt and blooping it to center field, where Denard Span appeared to be playing a step or three deeper than expected with a pitcher at the plate.
Span had no chance at a catch, Baez knew it, and he also probably knew that Span's throws to the plate often resemble ellipses. The Cubs' infielder got a tremendous read while scoring from second base.
The Giants' outfield did not distinguish itself in the inning. Contreras scored to make it 4-0 when Kris Bryant hit a line drive down the right-field line that popped out of Hunter Pence's glove as he began to slide in the grass.
Samardzija departed for a pinch hitter in the third, having thrown 47 pitches to get six outs. Is it an upshot that he'll be available for relief the rest of the series, including Game 3?
Hendricks' two-run single doubled his RBI total from the regular season. And when reliever Travis Wood took George Kontos deep for a solo home run in the fourth inning, it gave the Cubs a pair of RBI hits from their pitchers Saturday night.
The Giants have a grand total of two RBI hits in six games at Wrigley Field this season.
They expected to struggle against Game 1 starter Jon Lester, who would be the best postseason pitcher of his generation if Bumgarner had decided to take up another profession. They will have their hands full in Game 3 with Jake Arrieta. Even Game 4 starter John Lackey, if this series gets that far, is the same soul who denied their dream in Game 7 of the 2002 World Series at Anaheim.
Hendricks was no easy mark, either, having led the majors with a 2.13 ERA and posting an even more ridiculous 1.32 ERA in 15 games at Wrigley Field.
The Giants got to him for a pair of runs in the third inning when Joe Panik hit a leadoff double and pinch hitter Gregor Blanco, despite seeing live pitching in just one at-bat since Aug. 22, stroked a double to left-center. Blanco advanced on a ground out and scored on Brandon Belt's sacrifice fly.
Hendricks only gave up more than two runs in a home start once all season, so getting him out of the game remained a priority. The Giants did it in the fourth when Angel Pagan hit a line drive back up the middle that Hendricks deflected with his right arm before the ball hit him near the belt buckle.
The right-hander tried a few warmup pitches, and after a lengthy conversation with trainers and Maddon, he exited the game.
It might have been the Giants' best chance to break out in this series. Instead, Wood, Carl Edwards Jr., Mike Montgomery and Hector Rondon held them to two hits over 42/3 shutout innings. And then Aroldis Chapman took over in the ninth.
The Giants even tried to stoke something with Bumgarner's bat, as he became the first Giants pitcher to be used as a pinch hitter in the postseason since Jack Bentley in 1924. Bumgarner reached second base after a scalded ground ball to third base resulted in a double error. But Span grounded out and Belt barely missed a pitch while flying out to deep right field.
It was another night this season when the Giants' offense simply hasn't been potent enough _ not enough to take pressure off a troubled bullpen, not enough to support their starters, not enough to mount a comeback in the ninth.
The Giants' maligned bullpen did a creditable job of keeping the game from becoming a romp, although Chicagoland native Kontos did not enter the record books the way he would have hoped in a postseason appearance at Wrigley Field.
Wood, who has nine career regular-season home runs, connected off Kontos in the fourth _ the first home run that any pitcher has hit against the Giants in postseason franchise history.
Wood became just the second relief pitcher in baseball history to hit a home run in the postseason. The other was the Giants' Rosy Ryan _ also in that 1924 World Series.
