I was feeling a bit under the weather last night so when the Giants lead reached 8-1 and the Dodgers were safely tucked away in Coors Town, I felt secure enough to go to bed knowing the Giants had a two game lead in the NL West with 10 games to play. Then I woke up and checked the final scores....wait, what? I'm actually kind of glad I went to bed and missed THAT!
FZ's mancrush on Scott Kazmir LHP finally paid off as the veteran lefty went 4 scoreless frames before running into some bad luck in the 5'th. Camilo Doval RHP bailed him out in spectacular fashion and set the stage for the big lead followed by the near-meltdown by the Giants usually steady bullpen. I'm not sure what went wrong with the Padres this year but there is a ton of talent in that lineup!
Speaking of Doval, the timetable for him to take over the Closer role might be moving up. He entered the game with the Giants clinging to a 3-1 lead, a run in, bases loaded, 0 outs. He proceeded to very calmly send the red-hot Manny Machado 3B back to the pine with 3 of the nastiest sliders you will ever see. He then hit triple digits a couple of times to the dangerous Tommy Pham OF before inducing a GIDP. He then calmly walked off the mound and back to the dugout as if he had just thrown a few warmup pitches.
The Giants became the first MLB team in 2021 to get to 99 Wins and just the 9'th team in franchise history to reach that mark. They have a chance to hit 100 wins today with Logan Webb RHP facing Yu Darvish RHP in an afternoon game. As we know, anything can still happen and probably will, but the Giants finished the night with a bit of breathing room. If the Giants go 5-5 the rest of the way, the Dodgers have to go 7-3 to tie and 8-2 to win. They could well do that so it probably behooves the Gants to win at least 6 more games which would get them to 105 which has been my over-under for the winning record in the NL West for awhile now.
*************************************************************************************
Highlights from two minor league postseason games:
Eugene Emeralds blanked the Spokane Indians 3-0:
Ismael Munguia CF- 4 for 5, 2B.
Conner Nurse RHP- 7 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 8 K.
San Jose Giants topped the Fresno Grizzlies 4-2:
Jimmy Glowenke 2B- 2 for 4, HR.
Patrick Bailey C- 3 for 4, 2B, 2 HR.
Carson Ragsdale RHP- 6 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 3 BB, 5 K's.
8-2 is a reach but it would give the Giants the most wins in their history, SF and NY.
ReplyDeleteIt also guarantees at least a tie, but realistically the Division win unless the Dodgers win out.
100+ wins for a team that wasn't expected by anyone to go .500!
ESPN Preseason on the Giants:
Projected record: 70-92 (1.2% playoff odds)
Best case: The Giants continue to engage in a bold rebuilding effort without bottoming out. That leaves their upside as mediocre, and in a league where mediocre likely leaves you out of wild-card contention, the short-term outlook is blah. But there are enough viable veterans on hand that given good health, San Francisco could push toward 80 wins. -- Doolittle
Worst case: As for bottoming out ... When your upside is the middle and you've got a lot of older players, it's possible player- availability issues snowball and despite being a team in the tank, you do a good imitation of one. Worst case for the Giants would be finishing behind Colorado, which would translate to somewhere around 100 losses. -- Doolittle