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A lot riding on game 162

The good news, no matter what happens tomorrow, the Giants will be participating in playoff baseball next week. However, whether that's needing to go through the Cardinals in a Wild Card game, or heading right into the division series will be decided on Sunday.

The Giants held their destination in their hands Saturday and it looked like things were going to go their way with Kevin Gausman turning in one of his vintage performances and mowing down the Padres. Unfortunately though, the Giants just couldn't get enough offense going vs. Joe Musgrove and company and wound up on the short end of a 3-2 nail-biter. Of course, a Dodger loss at any point over the next couple of days would seal the Giants' fate as the NL West champs but the Dodgers are comfortably leading Milwaukee on Saturday night. They also have their best young arm, Walker Buehler, going Sunday so they have to feel confident about their chances. The Giants will be throwing a young potential ace of their own though in Logan Webb, but it's not the pitching I'm worried about right now, it's the bats.

I think we're seeing first hand how the loss of Brandon Belt is effecting this offense. Belt was in the midst of playing the best baseball of his career since his August return, and was really putting this offense on his back. While Crawford and Posey carried this lineup early, it's been Belt who's been the standout the last couple months. In order for them to make up for the loss they're going to need guys like Kris Bryant, Evan Longoria, Mike Yastrzemski, and LaMonte Wade Jr to play the way they're capable of. Despite each of those guys struggling at the moment, they've all shown the ability at various points of the season to get hot and help catapult this offense. 

Luckily for the Giants, they do have depth. Despite not being able to fully replace Belt, Darin Ruf and Wilmer Flores are both starting caliber big league players and I feel confident in both heading into the postseason. 

I'm kind of tired of hearing the narrative that the Giants have overachieved, that "everyone picked them to finish last" and "they should be happy just to be there" and I know the players are itching to keep proving everyone wrong. But I personally would consider it a bit of a let down after going most of the season sitting in the top spot in the West, they lose it on the last day of the season and are forced to play the do-or-die Wild Card game vs. the surging Cardinals. I don't want to see that. Not to mention, the Giants won't have either of their top starters available for that potential 1-game playoff as Gausman just went Saturday and Webb throws Sunday. 

Yes, the Giants are going to the postseason. Yes, they've put forth one of the best regular seasons' in their franchise history, but in order for it to payoff, they have to win the West and assure themselves that spot in the division series as the #1 seed in the National League. They don't want the accolades for tearing it up in the summer, they want to do it in the spotlight and get deep into October and I'm expecting them to do just that.

Comments

Anonymous said…
So Logan Webb is going to throw a gem tomorrow and we're winning the west. But...... I think it's still a GREAT season even if we don't pull it off tomorrow. Playing the cardinals in a one-gamer without Gausman would be scary. That offense is lethal but at least we'd get em in San Francisco.
2:08 AM
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