Giants incredible '21 journey ends roughly

 It certainly wasn't the way you wanted to see it end, on a check swing that I think everyone, even Dodger fans, could agree that Wilmer Flores indeed checked his swing. However, as Buster Posey said postgame, "there's no good way to end it."

The Giants hung with the Dodgers throughout this whole series and were a big hit or two away from taking it. They were able to come up with those big moments in the regular season to hold off and win the west, but they didn't get enough of them when it mattered the most.

First off, once again, I want to mention how sick Logan Webb is. This guy came into this season just trying to crack the starting rotation and stick around. He figured it out pretty early on and was one of the best pitchers in baseball for the final four months of it. That did not slow down in the postseason, as the youngster held the Dodgers to just 1 run on 9 hits and a walk over 14 2/3 innings (with 17 punch-outs). He willingly placed his nasty sinker, his crippling change up and sweeping slider where he wanted. That's hard to do in the regular season with consistency, but under the bright lights, vs. a world class lineup, it makes it that much more special. I think all Giants fans can agree that they haven't been this excited about a starting pitcher coming up since the days of Lincecum/Cain/Bumgarner. San Francisco has a legit ace to build around and I can't wait to see what he has in store for 2022.

Although it didn't end as well for the Giants bullpen ace, Camilo Doval, I think we can all agree on the fact that this kid is pretty special and should head up the Giants bullpen for years to come. He came up big in big moments down the stretch, and in the two prior appearances vs. the Dodgers in this series, but he made a couple of mistakes in that 9th inning Friday that I'm sure he'll learn a lot from. In the post-game interview you could see it on his face that he was down, but it was good to hear that his teammates picked him up and let him know that he threw well and was a big part of why they were there in the first place. I have full confidence in him building off this experience and I would look for a huge year from the 24 year-old in 2022.

Now, say what you want about the umpiring, the reason why the Giants were even down to their final strike in game 5 was because they just never got going offensively, at all. In game one they ran into a few balls and hit them out of the ballpark, but if you notice how the Dodgers put together rally's to come up with runs in their wins, the Giants were never able to do that. Even in the second game they won, it was thanks to brilliant pitching and one big swing from Evan Longoria. And while they didn't have a ton of opportunities with runners in scoring position, they had enough and just were unable to get the job done. They were 2-21 w/RISP in their three losses this series. 

Their inability to cash in in those key situations is something that I'm sure Farhan, Kapler and the brass will come together on in the coming months. Their approach at the plate is much better than it was in previous seasons, but they still need to have the talent to execute and put together some rally's and they just didn't have the depth the Dodgers did up and down that lineup card.

To sum this series up in a few words for the Giants it would be terrific pitching, big time defense, but not quite enough offense. Sure, you can sprinkle on to that what you want about the spotty umpiring throughout, but if it comes down to that, they didn't do enough to win anyway.

Now starts an interesting next chapter for the Giants. While this was a great, historic ride and I'm sure most fans became very familiar with this roster over the last couple years, things could look a lot differently in 2022. I won't jump into free agency and all that could be coming up in the next few months quite yet, but I'm sure we all know about Brandon Belt and Buster Posey's uncertain future's with the club as well as Kris Bryant's free agency. Then there's the fact that 4/5 of their starting rotation are scheduled to hit the open market, and that alone puts a lot on the to-do list. I'm sure they're going to look for ways to upgrade the offense, particularly in the outfield. They could also look to bring in another power arm for late relief, but it's going to start with the in-house decisions. I'm sure we'll all be watching very closely as the World Series comes to an end and this offseason gets set in motion.

It was a wild ride, it was fun, it was nerve racking and it brought a ton of optimism. It's tough to see it end but this team isn't there quite yet. Hopefully we'll be singing a different tune in 2022.