Saturday, October 16, 2021

THE San Francisco Giants lost the National League division series to the Los Angeles Dodgers, by the slimmest of margins, with a 2-1 defeat in the series' fifth game on Thursday night at Oracle Park. On a botched checked-swing call that will live in ignominy for years to come, Max Scherzer, in his first closer role, was given the final out in the bottom of the ninth with the winning run at the plate. The two best teams in baseball went head to head for a season, and then for a week, and the defending world champions prevailed by one game. With an assist.  

And so the Giants' unexpected, unprecedented, historic, and glorious 2021 season comes to an untimely end.  It's tough to lose, even to an opponent of such obvious stature, and it's especially tough to lose in a circumstance where the outcome is decided, not by the players, but by an umpire who made an honest but catastrophic mistake at the worst possible time, a mistake that was judgmental as well as mechanical. As a steward of the game of baseball, you remember where you are. And you just don't let a call like that decide a game like that. A game that could have been remembered as great will instead be remembered as tainted. 

Logan Webb, the Giants' undisputed ace, delivered another outstanding start, pitching seven innings of one-run ball under tremendous pressure. He was calm and unflappable throughout, and if his effort didn't quite measure up to that of the first game, well, whose did? Buster Posey has compared Webb's confidence and composure to that of Tim Lincecum in 2010, and those of us who remember know that's high praise indeed. The Giants' pitching staff may look completely different next year-- more on that later-- but we can be sure Logan Webb will stand at the center of it.

Then there's Tyler Rogers. After a team-high 80 appearances during the season, Rogers was called on four times in this five-game series, and Thursday night he did what he does-- he fought through a difficult inning without giving up a run, despite two hits including LA series hero Mookie Betts' fourth single of the game. If there's a keeper in the Giants' bullpen, it's the underhand ace.

And another keeper is Camilo Doval, the kid with the unlimited future, asked again to do in the ninth what  he had done in both Giants wins.  This time, well, he just couldn't. It started with a hit batsman-- Justin Turner, who would factor in later-- and was followed by a single from Gavin Lux, another youngster with a bright future. Then Cody Bellinger, who suffered through a thoroughly miserable and injury-plagued season, drilled a clean single into right field and Turner, who too often seems to put his special stamp on a Giants-Dodgers game, scored the run that would hold up and send LA to the NLCS.  Gabe Kapler summoned Kevin Gausman, his other ace, to get the last out, which he did as Doval sat in the dugout fighting his emotions.

And Dave Roberts, whose clever pitching-staff maneuvering should have been the story of this game from a Dodger perspective, sent Scherzer out in the ninth to protect that fragile lead. The three-time Cy Young Award winner was all over the place, not near his best, but still plenty good. Leading off, Brandon Crawford drilled an 0-2 pitch right on the nose--  and right at Chris Taylor in left. Kris Bryant, the Giants' most reliable hitter in this series, bounced one to third, but Turner, perhaps hurrying due to Bryant's speed, muffed it. With the tying run on base, "Late Night LaMonte" Wade stood in, with one more chance to live up to that name, but Scherzer got him on a 3-2 pitch that may have nicked the outside of the plate. So it was Flores, along with Darin Ruf-- more on him later-- the closest to a pure power hitter the Giants have. He was thinking walk-off homer with a big swing on the first pitch, then took a called strike two, and down to the team's last strike, he flinched but held up as it dropped low and outside. That's when Gabe Morales, standing at first, gave the game away with his egregious and, we believe, unconsciously grandstanding call. 

Yes, it should have been a great game. As we mentioned, Roberts played hide-and-seek with his starting pitcher, Julio Urias. He opened the game instead with right-handed power relievers Corey Knebel and Brustar Graterol, hoping Gabe Kapler would stack his lineup with left-handed batters. But Kapler didn't fall for the gambit: he added only one lefty, leadoff man Tommy LaStella, to the starting lineup. The Giants got three hits off the pair of openers but left the runners stranded, and Urias came on in the third. Kapler went all in against Urias, quickly inserting Austin Slater and Donovan Solano in place of Mike Yastrzemski and LaStella. But by keeping them out of the starting lineup, he held back Wade and Alex Dickerson for late-inning ABs, and each would get his chance. 

Webb, meanwhile, was setting 'em down with regularity, except for the redoubtable Betts. And Mookie scored the game's first run in the sixth when he singled, stole second, and scored on Corey Seager's hit, the only time Webb allowed two hits in one inning. Urias, meanwhile, was matching Webb nicely over his first three innings, and he struck out the side in the fifth. But after LA had taken the lead, Darin Ruf led off the bottom of the inning and clobbered a 3-2 fastball 452 feet to the back of the bullpen in center field, the longest home run hit in the postseason so far. Bryant followed with a single, but was left high and dry as Urias got Slater to ground out. And Urias was done, as Blake Treinen, Kenley Jansen (who got the win) and Scherzer finished it.  

Looking over the series as a whole, the raw stats appear to show a LA walkover. The Dodgers scored 18 runs to the Giants' ten, with 41 hits against 29, although the Giants outhomered 'em 5 to 3. Team ERA are likewise skewed: 2.05 for the Dodgers, 3.48 for the Giants. The biggest difference in the series is in the bullpens. Roberts' group was uniformly excellent; the Giants got only three runs off  the LA relievers, and two of those were in garbage time with the Dodgers well ahead. Giants relievers, by contrast, gave up 11 of LA's 18 runs. 'Nuff said!

Mookie Betts had 9 hits, Bryant 8, Buster Posey and LA's secret weapon, Will Smith, each had 6. LaStella and Slater hit well in limited duty.  Evan Longoria, who deserves maximum respect for his game-winning homer off Scherzer in the third game, nonetheless made 15 outs. The Dodgers' "Turner Brothers," NL batting champion Trea and long-time Giant-killer Justin, were a combined 4-for-42 with 9 strikeouts and one RBI. On the pitching side, nobody matched Webb's numbers, but LA's Graterol matched Rogers very well out of the 'pen-- four appearances, no runs allowed.

And so time and baseball march on. The Dodgers open the NLCS at Atlanta tonight. Houston came back to defeat Boston in Game One of the ALCS last night. But the thrill is gone, baby. The thrill is gone away. 

So are we. We'll be back probably around the end of the World Series to take a last look at the wonderful and historic 2021 San Francisco Giants team. 

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