The Showdown: No, Angel Hernandez Did Not Lose This Game For The Giants!

 There was a moment in this game where I had a bad trepidation, and no, it did not involve Angel Hernandez calling balls and strikes.  It was after Gabe Kapler called for an intentional walk to the Dodgers 8'th place hitter, AJ Pollack and Julio Urias LHP stepped to the plate.  The TV graphic showed a BA of .208 or something like that.  I said to myself, "uh oh!  Thats pretty good for a pitcher.  This might not go so well!"  Kevin Gausman RHP hung a splitter and Urias roped it into RF to drive in the Dodgers first run and we already kind of knew where this game was headed.

Angel Hernandez is widely believed to be the worse umpire in MLB, and he may well be.  He did not get off to a good start in this game when he called Giants leadoff batter Darin Ruf out on a pitch that had a lot of air between it and the strike zone graphic on the TV screen.  The Twitter outrage machine went into high gear and the charge was led by Jalynne Crawford.  Now, I'm generally quite judgmental with umpires and the strike zone.  I'm on record supporting the use of an electronic strike zone.  I mean, it's either the gold standard and they should use it or it's not and they should not show it on TV broadcasts or use it to grade umpires.  From that point on, I was paying pretty close attention and I honestly thought Angel Hernandez called a pretty good game.  Yes, there were some apparent missed calls, but keep in mind the umpire grading system allows a 2 inch gray area on either side of the electronic margin which is actually quite large when you are looking at the graphic on TV.  After the Ruf miss, almost all of Hernandez' subsequent questionable calls were well within the accepted margin of error and honestly could have been called either way.  The questionable calls seemed to be evenly divided between hurting/helping both teams.  I've seen way worse home plate umpiring just within the last two weeks!

My advice to Jalynne Crawford is to pipe down on Twitter.  The last thing the Giants need right now is for the umps to feel like the Giants and/or their families are unfairly or even fairly, showing the up.  Angel Hernandez did not cost the Giants this game and I am pretty sure Brandon Crawford would be the first person to say so.

The Showdown: Logan Webb Dominates The Dodgers

 I was actually quite bullish on this game leading up to it.  My one big concern was with getting Webb through the first inning without falling too far behind, or behind at all!  When Mookie Betts led off the inning with a single it was like uh-oh!  But the way Webb pitched out of it with 3 GB outs I was pretty confident he could match goose eggs with Walker "Tight Pants" Buehler deep into the game.  As it turned out, Dodger fans were the ones who needed to worry about falling behind early as "Tight Pants" seemed to forget he was pitching around Buster and Buster came this close to being the first right-handed hitter in history with a splash hit.  As it was, the 2-run bomb knocked the Dodgers on their heels and they never recovered.

The game was more than just Logan Webb although his performance was truly remarkable.  It was one of the great pitching games for a franchise with a long, long history of great pitching performances.  This game was complete domination of the Dodgers in every phase of the game, pitching, defense and hitting, specifically hitting for power.  It's just one game and the Giants have to win 2 more but historically the winner of game 1 in a 5 game series wins the series over 70% of the time and it certainly was a statement game in so many ways.

Speaking of statements:  Wow!  Did Logan Webb just announce himself to the world as the next great Giants pitcher?  He has to stay healthy but health may be the only thing standing between him and a whole lot more games like this and a whole lot of pride and joy for Giants fans to watch!

And what about Camilo Doval?  He made quite a little statement himself.  Yeah, he had a 4-run lead and a non-Save situation but he faced Trea Turner, Justin Turner and Will Smith and totally dominated them with a triple digit heater and a devastating slider.   2 pop ups and a K, game over!

I'm just a bit concerned that Gausman is on 100% physically but if he is, Giants have a great chance to go two up tonight.  The world will get a chance to see how the Giants play matchup baseball as they send out their righthanded platoon to face Julio Urias with the Gas Man on the mound.  I can't wait!

Bring On Da Bums!

 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!

Exhale. Wow!

Well, what a season!  The Giants ended up with an astonishing 107 Wins, an all time franchise record, and yet they needed every single one of them to stave off the Dodgers.  This season harkened back to the brutal pennant races of the 1960's except I think this one topped them all.  Just electrifying baseball from Opening Day until Fan Appreciation Day.  Every single game was must-see!  IDK, are there any other superlatives I can use to describe it?  

Of all the teams in the postseason I think the Giants benefit from an extra couple of days off the most.  I love how their starting pitching came around at the end.  With a bit of rest for the bullpen and a few beat up position players, I really like their chances in the NLDS and beyond.  Just wish The Belter was in that lineup.

Now, who you got in the Wild Card game?  Do we root for the Cardinals to once again knock the Dodgers out before the Giants have to play them or do we root for one of the most epic postseason matchups in the entire history of MLB?  Personally I suspect the Giants think they match up better against the Dodgers and have the Big Mo on their side from the season series.  It think they are in the Dodgers heads a bit although the Mo could shift in an instant.

With that, I am going to take a few days off from posting.  Can't wait for Friday! 

More Torture

 I was all set to write a post about how much I disagreed with Kap pulling Gausman after 7 innings, then read it was a mutual decision and his hand was cramping up.  Nevermind.  It came down to lack of hitting by the Giants and great pitching by the Padres.  On any given day, Musgrove can pitch a no-hitter and his stuff was that good yesterday.  Giants just have to get it done today and give Gausman a chance to do this thing in the postseason because he was really really good too.

Giants Tie Franchise Win Record; Need One More

 Not much else left to say about this season.  Giants tied a franchise record for wins with 106 and it looks like they are going to have to break that record to win the NL West.  They seem to be set up pretty well to do just that.  The offense took a hit with Belt's injury but the pitching, which hit a rough patch after the All-Star Break is coming back around just in time for a postseason run and hey, the pitching it tired all around the league.  Postseason is a crapshoot but is usually won by pitching and I like where the Giants pitching is right now.  

Congrats to Lamonte Wade Jr on winning the Willie Mac Award.  He's given Giants fans quite a few unforgettable moments this season and is a big part of why they are on the cusp of winning the NL West over one of the most talented rival teams I can remember.

105 Wins Is (Probably) Not Enough

I've said for awhile I thought the over-under for number of wins to take the NL West is 105.  Well, we're at 105 Wins and the Giants somehow still have a magic number, of two to be exact.  I suppose the Giants could get swept this weekend and still win the division,  but I wouldn't want to count on that.  More likely we're looking at 106 minimum and probably 107 for the winner. (BTW if it's 107, it WILL be the Giants).  So here we are.  Final 3-game series of the season.  If the Giants win the series, they win the division.  Simple as that. If they win one game out of 3 they get at least a tie, but we don't want no tie!

Random thoughts from last night's game:

Scott Kazmir was not a MLB pitcher last night.  Hopefully the Scott Kazmir era ended when he left the game with 1 out in the first inning.

As great as it was to see Madison Bumgarner last night, he's not the pitcher he once was and FZ was right to let him go.

Matt Cain!

With Brandon Belt on the shelf, Longo and Kris Bryant need to step it up.  They both looked lost last night and have for the last several games.  

Brandon Crawford showed once again on both sides of the ball why he is the MVP on the best team in MLB and therefore should be the league MVP.  What a stupendous season!