For, me, the best baseball game to watch is a 1-0 affair where the leadoff hitter whacks a home run.

When we see such an event--a lead off tater--our general reaction is, "uh oh, slug fest." And, yet, that assessment, so clear at the time, becomes more incorrect as the game progresses.

Because as pitches are twirled, and bats swung, and grounders hit and fly balls caught, the balance of the game hangs. It continues through strikes and fouls and balls and wild pitches, with a degree of tension added each time the ball is put in play as the game moves towards conclusion.

So, by the end, the subtlety of the importance of that first batter increases to the extent that in retrospect, the entire game hinged on the one pitch hit in the stands to start the affair.

And, as implied, every one of those fouls and flies and ground outs were all part of the tapestry of what could have happened during the game.

Well, last Wednesday, I arrived at ATT Park to score the Giants Padres affair, a pitching match-up between Justin Germano and Jonathan Sanchez. And, well, both of them were brilliant. Sanchez lasted six innings, but struck out 10, and at one point he coaxed five consecutive swinging strikes from the San Diego hitters: no simple task.

Germano merely hurled for eight innings, tossing 83 pitches, 55 strikes, holding the Giants to pretty much nothing.

There was a terrific fly ball double play, where Fred Lewis threw out Scott Hairston on a fly hit by Josh Bard. There were miscues on both sides, and some very nice plays, and in general it was a very tight 0-0 game when Heath Bell took over for Germano to start the ninth inning.

That is when Bengie Molina--the Giants clean-up hitter who the night before knocked a walk off homer in the ninth--singled to the right field corner. Actually, it should have been a double, but Molina, a catcher is slow.

In fact Bruce Bochy substituted Raj Davis for Molina as a pinch runner, and Davis stole second base just before Fred Lewis grounded back to the box. Lewis was followed by Jose Castillo, who hit a liner that looked like it could drop over the second sacker's head, but Tadahito Igucci climbed the ladder and speared it, nearly doubling Davis off.

So, with two out, up came Dan Ortmeier. Now Ortmeier has been switch hitting for several years, but earlier in the day, the Giants announced that the experiment was over, and Ortmeier would only be batting right handed in the future.

So, up Ortmeier comes, batting right, against a right hander, for the first time in who knows how long? And, he jumps on the first pitch and sends it just over Jim Edmonds head, and, well, with Edmonds out there, the ball can always be caught.

But it wasn't, and Davis scored and the Giants won, 1-0, ostensibly completing a baseball box score palindrome version of my favorite game, minus the homer.

It was an excellent game. Well, played, fun, with a good pace, and a surprise ending that could not be beat. And, well, it too displayed those same subtleties that just make baseball so engrossing to me.

That is, an endless source of, "how did that happens," "did you see thats," and, "I cannot believe its."

Maybe it is the game that is perfect, and well, what I saw was just a subset? I am certainly open to the possibility.