Wow again! I am super-excited to witness the first ever meeting of the Giants and Dodgers in a postseason series in the divisional era. As we all know they had two previous 3-game series for the NL Pennant after finishing the regular season tied in 1951 and 1962. The Giants won both of those in historically dramatic fashion as we will never forget. So this is historic and incredibly exciting.
Don't have much to say about the Dodgers-Cardinals game last night. The Dodgers pitching looked tough and intimidating, especially the bullpen. The only thing I have to say about that is I feel like the Giants would have given Jansen tougher AB's in the 9'th inning, but he's clearly not the same guy who blew two Saves against the Giants earlier in the season. He's completely revamped his stuff and it looks nasty!
In the end, the Giants can only control what they do. In that regard, I think getting a couple of extra days off and not having to play the Wild Card game was something the Giants needed more than other teams. Wish The Captain was at full health to face Buehler and Scherzer but otherwise the team has had time heal and rest up and should be close to full strength. I like how the starting pitching came around at the end of the season after leaking oil for much of the second half. I feel like they are ready to match goose eggs with the Dodgers aces. For their part, the Dodgers are without Max Muncy and Clayton Kershaw so the injury factor is pretty close to even.
As we all know, anything can happen in a 5 game series and winning game 1 is critical, but I'm pretty comfortable with the Giants chances here. On paper, the Dodgers have an overwhelming advantage in talent but the Giants more than made up for that in the regular season by playing matchup baseball with role players perhaps better than it's ever been done before.
Play Ball! Beat LA!
Is there a home field advantage?
ReplyDeleteHead-to-head, Giants were 4-5 at home, 6-4 on the road. No home field advantage there. SF's 10-9 record matches the 1-game differential in the season. If the Dodgers split their home games, the team records are reversed. It was that close.
Overall, the Dodgers were 4 games better at home than the Giants.
Through 3 months, LA was 3-0 in SF early, Giants split 6 in LA, but SF was up a game-and-a-half June 30th.
July-September plus 3 games in October was different: Giants were 3-1 in LA and 4-2 at home. SF prevailed beating LA head-to-head — otherwise, again, the records are reversed.
Dodgers were better at home than the Giants by 4 games, SF was better on the road by 5.
Each team is likely to lose one at home. The key is not to lose 2.
Dodgers won first 4 of season series then Giants went 10-5.
DeleteI remember the first series of the season. The Dodgers handled the Giants, seemingly with ease. Same thing for the fourth game. I was extremely concerned. Then, after the Dodgers rallied against Rogers, to tie in the ninth with a three run Barnes homerun, we had the first Tauchman catch, to save the game, against Pujols. It was as if something clicked, and the Giants beat Jensen, pillar to post, in the tenth. They went on to win that and the next three in LA, and never looked back. We should never underestimate how big that catch was. Go Giants.
ReplyDeleteCompletely agree. Tauchman's catch was a major momentum shift and turning point in the season.
DeleteCan we add Tauchman to the roster and have him walk around the outfield just tp mess with their heads :)
DeleteI enjoy the match up as much as anyone. Still I cannot help thinking that two teams that won 107 and 106 games are playing in the first round.
ReplyDeleteI expect the series to go to extra innings in Game 5, and all four games before that to be close. These are two great teams.
That said, Duck Fodgers!!
Remembering you the Giants in the playoffs (and how you helped Virginia) and so glad to see you are still blogging. Unfortunately I'm still schizo because I love buster posey but I'm a Dodger fan!!! LET'S GO, DODGERS!
ReplyDeleteI think all the NL playoff teams are worthy of advancing to the World Series, so it didn't matter that the Dodgers won the wild card game. Bring them on, let's go Giants! My favorite Giants vs Dodgers memory goes back to 1982 when Joe Morgan's homer in extra innings knocked the Dodgers out of The West division race and 1997 when Brian Johnson hit a homer in extra innings to keep the Giants in the pennant race. Let's hope the 2021 Giants create good memories that will live on! It will be fitting that this series goes 5 games.
ReplyDelete