![]() ![]() General manager Scott Harris and president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi did a remarkable job to expedite the rebuild. Kevin Gausman has reinvented himself at age 30, while 35-year-old Jake McGee is showing that you only need one pitch to be successful. The Giants lead the National League in home runs despite the fact that only three players on the roster have reached the 20-homer mark (Belt, Crawford and Mike Yastrzemski). Even with his injury, Belt still set a new career-best with 29 home runs. The same could be said for Buster Posey, who returned after taking 2020 off to help his wife, Kristen, with their adopted, premature twin daughters. But shortstop Brandon Crawford has looked like an MVP. Bauer is on administrative leave and under investigation by the league and the Pasadena Police Department after a woman accused him of sexually assaulting her twice, which Bauer has denied. Despite all that, though, they have managed to secure their third 100-win season in the last five years.įor the Giants, it looked like it would be an unremarkable end for the few players left from the 2014 team. Cody Bellinger, Corey Seager and Mookie Betts all got hurt, and even when they returned, they didn't play like All-Stars. They had potential All-Stars at nearly every position and several MVP candidates to start the season.īut then one of those star arms-starting pitching Dustin May-needed Tommy John surgery. ![]() They had assembled one of the most frightening pitching staffs in history, adding 2020 NL Cy Young Award winner Trevor Bauer for good measure in the offseason. The Dodgers were supposed to be a historic juggernaut. How each of them got to this position makes this race all the more interesting. The Dodgers have five games left at home-two against the Padres and three against another NL contender in the Brewers. The Giants are 2.0 games ahead in the standings, but they have to play five games (two against the Arizona Diamondbacks, three against the San Diego Padres) without Brandon Belt, who is on the injured list with a fractured thumb. The winner would advance to the NLDS, and the loser would host the NL Wild Card game. San Francisco earned the right to play at home by winning the head-to-head series by the slimmest of margins: 10-9. If the two end up tied on Sunday night, the Giants would host a play-in game. This race might not be decided in 162 games. Nonetheless, we're in that fun, frenetic part of the season where there are multiple scenarios in play. Louis Cardinals, a surprise contender that just reeled off 17 wins in a row before losing to the Milwaukee Brewers on Wednesday. However, one will have to play in a single-elimination playoff game against the St. They are the best teams in baseball by a pretty good margin, as both have surpassed the 100-win threshold, marking only the fifth time in divisional history (1969) one division has boasted two 100-win teams. All the while, the Dodgers remained successful and finally won that long-coveted World Series.īut now the Giants and the Dodgers are battling it out once again. The core aged, their manager retired and they bottomed out in 2017 with 98 losses. Ultimately, the Giants' success was unsustainable. Los Angeles fans were forced to watch the Giants snap their 56-year title drought while the Dodgers' own swelled to 26 years by the time San Francisco won its third World Series. It was maddening for the residents of the Southland to watch their beloved Dodgers dominate during the regular season only to see their neighbors to the north celebrate titles in 2010, 20. Yet it's the Giants who have won three World Series titles since 2010. Division leaders make the playoffs and sometimes secure home-field advantage, but it means nothing if it doesn't end with the Commissioner's Trophy. However, those division titles are relatively meaningless in the grand scheme of things. They have won eight consecutive NL West titles, three pennants and one World Series title. The Dodgers have been one of the most elite teams baseball has ever seen for the last decade. ![]()
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