The Giants took the finale in San Diego to finish the season at exactly .500--81 wins and 81 losses. The Giants have never had an 81-81 record or even an exactly .500 record in their entire history going back to 1883 in New York. In 1975 they only played 161 games and finished 80-81.
The frustration of this season can be summed up with simple arithmetic. The Phillies are the #6 seed and they finished with 87 wins. (The Padres are the #5 seed with 89 wins.) The Giants fell short of the post-season by six wins. Six goddamn wins. Here's where it gets worse: the Giants were 5-14 against the Dodgers and 6-13 against the Padres. That's 11-27 (.289) against those two clubs. And 70-54 (.565) against the rest (including 5-1 vs. Philadelphia). Even if you take out the 14-5 beat down of the Rockies that's still 56-49 (.533). The 2023 Giants really need to play better baseball against LA and SD.
I'm happy the team made it to .500 even if it is a disappointing result overall. They played well in September and finished on a high note. Speaking of a high note, David Villar hit two homers today.
It should be an interesting off-season for Giants fans. Especially if it isn't interesting. The fanbase wants action and they'll be cranky if they don't get it. I suspect FZ & Co. will take their usual measured approach and that alone will get the pot boiling. Certainly we have plenty to talk about. Add in the rule changes for next year and there will be no shortage of material for the off-season!
I'll put together some posts with more of my thoughts about this season and next. Right now I'm just a little melancholy with the end of things. I'll keep an eye on the post-season, but not too close. It's good to get a little break from daily baseball.
--M.C.
3 comments:
I should note that the Padres were 5-14 against the Dodgers.
LA also beat up the D-Backs by the same margin. Only the Rockies, who won 8 and lost 11, gave the Dodgers a real fight.
According to the Athletic, no team in 97 years had gotten to .500 when they were eight games under with 16 to go. So there's that.
I saw that. They were 69-77 on Sept 18th after being swept by the Dodgers. They then won 10 of the next 11 to get to 79-78 on Sept 30th. (They went 2-3 in the five games in October.)
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