Giants Finish with Most Wins in MLB, Earn Postseason Date with Dodgers
San Francisco ready to play divisional rivals in the NLDS
The San Francisco Giants have run the gauntlet in the National League (NL) West and finally earned their league’s number one seed and home-field advantage throughout the playoffs.
After stumbling against the Padres in their penultimate regular season game, game 162 of the regular season became critical. In order to lock up the division and avoid a tie breaking scenario game with the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Giants needed one of two things: either to win, or for the Dodgers to lose.
The Giants took care of business on Sunday, defeating the Padres 11-4 and clinching their first division championship since 2012. More importantly, the Giants’ NL West crown means they got to avoid a subsequent winner-take-all NL Wild Card game against the St. Louis Cardinals — the hottest team in baseball, who finished their regular season on a 19-3 run.
The Giants finished the 2021 season with a 107-55 record, the most wins in franchise history. Every win mattered, as San Francisco eked in front of the Dodgers, finishing a mere one game better in the standings. The divisional race was one of the best in modern history, as it broke up the Dodgers’ dominant run of eight-straight NL West titles: a streak dating back to 2012.
The Giants surpassed all expectations in the regular season, rekindling its passionate fan base in the process. With the luxury of securing home-field advantage throughout the Major League Baseball (MLB) playoffs, the Giants look forward to having Bay Area fans in attendance for a lengthy postseason run — one that the organization is hoping can follow suit of the 2010 and 2012 teams, who scratched and clawed their way to World Series trophies.
Even Buster Posey, a three-time World Series champion, had deep admiration for this year’s NL West fight with the Dodgers. “You’re going to be hard pressed to see another race like this for a while,” Posey exclaimed.
The NL West championship marked the first time a Giants team has advanced to the postseason since 2016, when they entered the field as a Wild Card team. “It’s been five years, I guess, since we’ve been able to do this,” Posey said during Sunday’s celebrations. “Obviously, there’s still more work to do. But I think it’s important to celebrate just the opportunity we have to play in the playoffs and the hard work that goes into it. It’s good to celebrate with everybody.”
Before Wednesday night, San Francisco found themselves in limbo, awaiting the result of the Dodgers-Cardinals NL Wild Card game. It is a fortunate position to be in, with the Giants not having to face either team’s “ace” in game 1 of the National League Division Series (NLDS) at Oracle Park on Friday, Oct. 8.
The Dodgers used Max Scherzer in their Wild Card victory against the Cardinals, in a 3-1 pitchers’ duel between Scherzer and Adam Wainwright that saw Chris Taylor hammer a walk-off two-run homerun in the bottom of the 9th inning to send Chavez Ravine into bedlam.
Now, the Giants earn a date with these talented Dodgers: marking the first time the two teams will ever meet in the postseason.
The Wild Card game was tightly contested throughout, possibly offering some insight into what the NLDS is going to look like between the Dodgers and Giants: a best-of-five series that is going to be determined by whichever team capitalizes on their chances.
The Cardinals failed to do just so on Wednesday night, going 0-11 with runners in scoring position and leaving a total of 23 men on base. Will the Giants suffer the same fate facing the likes of Walker Buehler, Julio Urias, and the dominant back-end of LA’s bullpen?
If you are a fan of baseball, the Giants vs Dodgers is a must-see playoff matchup. The series represents the most-combined regular-season wins between two teams facing off in the postseason. The 106-win Dodgers travel to San Francisco to face the 107-win Giants for two games, before the two rivals return to Los Angeles for game 3, and if necessary, game 4, on Monday and Tuesday. A winner-take-all game 5 would return to San Francisco on Thursday, Oct. 14.
In a five-game series, anything can happen. And these two teams will fight to the end to ensure their squad comes out victorious. Rivalries in October are magnified, evident by the Red Sox’s emotional Wild Card win in the American League over the Yankees. Now, the ball is in the Dodgers and Giants’ court. These two teams are both hoping the next chapter of their storied rivalry is a positive one; in the first series of all-time where two 105+ win teams are facing off, every victory is monumental. Tune in on Friday Oct. 8, to catch Game 1 of one of the most anticipated playoff series in history, at 6:37 p.m.
Graphic Credit: Frida Rivera