Both the Giants and Dodgers had historic regular seasons. They're long time heated rivals and they've never faced each other in the postseason. It's kind of storybook that their first series go the distance, and that's what we'll get Thursday night at Oracle Park.
The Giants and Dodgers will battle one more time, once and for all, to see which team really was the best in 2021 and for the right to move on to the NLCS and face the Braves.
Indeed, it should be an epic game five on Thursday at Oracle Park. Logan Webb, the Giants top young arm vs. Julio Urias, the Dodgers 25 year-old postseason hero. It's going to come down to who can throw strikes more consistently, and who can get their offense going first.
I mean, we all had to see this coming. These two teams were neck-and-neck all season long, all the way down to the wire to figure out who would win the NL West. It's been that way in this series as well, to an extent. While the Giants have played beautifully in their two victories so far, getting their timely big fly's and their tremendous pitching and defense, the Dodgers have looked straight up dominant in their wins. When they've been on, they've gotten their hits in bunches and they've kept the pressure on the Giants from the first inning on. They also aren't giving up free passes at the rate the Giants' arms are.
San Francisco had a chance to put the Dodgers away on Tuesday in LA, a night after a dramatic 1-0 victory over their Southern California rivals, but the Dodgers responded well with their backs against the wall. In game one behind Webb, and game 3 behind Wood, Rodgers, McGee and Doval this team came out and pounded the strike zone early, got ahead of hitters and put them away. In game four behind Anthony DeSclafini, they did the opposite of that. They came out trying to be too fine and missed location putting themselves in position where they had to come into Dodger hitters far too often. You kinda saw the writing on the wall with the way the Dodgers have dominated DeSclafini this season, but you can't fault Kapler for going with the right-hander in game 4. He earned the chance to start in the postseason with a really solid regular season and finished off strong in his last handful of starts. Also, despite his overall struggle vs. LA during the regular season, he shut them out over 6 innings the last time he saw them on September 3rd.
There isn't a ton more to say about this game. The young Giants bullpen looked a little out of there element coming in to replace DeSclafini when the game was still very close. They struggled to throw strikes and repeatedly had to come into hitters in less than optimal counts. They got lucky that Chris Taylor didn't break the game open in the second after they walked the bases loaded thanks to a brilliant grab in left by LaMonte Wade. You could see it coming though, eventually the Dodgers were going to cash in and they did. It was just a struggle all night long on the mound for the Giants.
The thing that scares me a little bit though heading into game five is not the walks, it's not the Dodgers hitters starting to heat up, but it's the Giants offense. When they aren't able to get those big home runs, they're having trouble manufacturing runs this series and putting together long innings. Despite getting down 4-0 early in the game, they had their chance to chip away and come back in this game but they couldn't do it. In fact, over their last two games, the Giants only extra-base hits were Crawford's double in the 8th Tuesday and Longo's blast in game three. No matter what Webb does on Thursday, if their offense comes out sluggish again, it could be a long night for the Giants.
This travel day comes at an ideal time for the Giants after Kapler just went through pretty much their entire bullpen on Tuesday. Granted, the only guys he may trust after Webb on Thursday are likely going to be Rogers, McGee and Doval. It's a different animal pitching in the postseason and the Giants inexperienced arms are dealing with that right now. But baseball is a game of short memories and moving on to the next at-bat, the next inning, the next game, especially when your a relief pitcher.
Indeed, it should be an epic game five on Thursday at Oracle Park. Logan Webb, the Giants top young arm vs. Julio Urias, the Dodgers 25 year-old postseason hero. It's going to come down to who can throw strikes more consistently, and who can get their offense going first.
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