Well it certainly was a tale of two completely different games at Oracle Park to kick of the NLDS this weekend. Things couldn't have been drawn up any better in Friday's win while everything seemed to come unraveled a bit in game two.
Before discussing what went wrong on Saturday, I just wanted to touch on Friday's game a bit. I think Giants fans have seen it all year long, so we weren't too surprised, but it's safe to say that Logan Webb solidified his spot as a legitimate ace with that performance. It was easily one of the best starts by a Giant in the postseason that I've seen and has been mentioned in the same sentence as guys like Tim Lincecum and Madison Bumgarner. That's pretty good company. Not only did he have great stuff, none of his pitches were straight, but most importantly he was putting the ball where he wanted to and was getting ahead of hitters.
The Giants essentially did what they'd done all year to get them here on Friday. They got the starting performance, they got the solid relief work, they hit their timely big fly's and they picked it clean on defense. I was a little worried after Crawford threw the ball into the Dodgers dugout in that first inning, but he and La Stella made up for that with that incredible double play turned on Turner later in the game.
Unfortunately for the Giants though, they couldn't carry the momentum over into game two.
I don't wanna sit here and bash the decision to go to Dominic Leone, there's no point in it. The Dodgers came it with a better approach in game two, laid off the close pitches they weren't able to avoid in game one, and they put pressure on the Giants. In hindsight, sure, you might let Gausman stay in and face Taylor in the 6th, but Leone has been maybe the Giants most consistent reliever all year long. Where he went wrong was that he didn't come in and throw strikes. He got behind Taylor and lost him, then he ended up having to groove one to Bellinger to avoid the same circumstance and Bellinger was sitting on it.
The Giants offense was also much quieter Saturday night. They didn't apply a ton of pressure vs. Urias but they had a couple chances. They had the two guys on with nobody out in that 2nd inning when they did get one, but they could have gotten more. Then of course the big one was when the game was still 2-1 and Posey led off the 5th inning with a double and the Giants were unable to even move him to third. They had a little rally going in the 6th to respond to the Dodgers but a bad decision on the base paths by Flores ran the Giants out of a potential big inning.
They need to get the bats going again in game three and it's not going to be easy going up against Max Scherzer. They can't count on their starting pitching shutting the Dodgers down like Webb did Friday night, or like Gausman did after settling in from that tough second inning. They can't press though. I don't care that the Dodgers have 3 closers at the end of their bullpen or the fact Max Scherzer gets stronger as he goes deeper into games. You have to stick with what's gotten you there if your the Giants and keep it simple at the plate.
As of writing this, Kapler has not announced who will start vs. Scherzer in game 3 on Monday in LA. Alex Wood has the postseason experience but DeSclafini had the overall better year. Neither of them have been very productive vs. LA this season though. My guess is Wood gets the ball. He's most familiar with that ballpark and that lineup. Either way though, the bullpen will be called upon again in game three and they have to be ready to answer the bell this time.
Comments