104

SF 1  AZ 0

The 2021 San Francisco Giants won their 104th game and that's the most ever by a San Francisco Giants team. It was also the team's 17th shutout and their 20th win in the month of September. Alex Wood got the start and he dominated for six frames, allowing only three hits with six strikeouts and no walks. Superb relief from Dominic Leone and Jarlin Garcia in the 7th and 8th set things up for young Camilo Doval in the 9th. He answered with a ten-pitch, two-whiff save. It was an awesome team pitching performance. What's even better is that the slugging Giants created a run in the 7th with a single by a pinch-hitter (Tommy La Stella), a steal by a pinch-runner (Steven Duggar), a sacrifice bunt (LaMonte Wade, Jr.), and a sacrifice fly (Kris Bryant). Little ball! It just goes to show that a good team has a lot of arrows in the quiver. A good team can win in lots of ways.

The Giants are a good team. Their magic number is now three regardless of what happens in LA. The Padres are leading as I type this, but I'm not counting on them. The Giants understand what they have to do to win the West and I am confident they will get it done.

Scott Kazmir gets the start tomorrow night (6:45 PT). Madison Bumgarner takes the hill for Arizona. That's going to be weird!

GO GIANTS!

--M.C.

Four for four

SF 6  AZ 4

The Giants win their fourth straight and knock their magic number down to four. The Diamondbacks made Logan Webb work and he was lifted after five innings and 98 pitches. The Giants cracked open the tense 1-1 affair in the bottom of the 6th with four runs. It was a goofy sequence of station-to-station stuff and I kept waiting for the big blast that never came. Tony Watson gave up a homer in the 7th to make it 5-2 but the Giants were gifted a run in the bottom half to get the lead back to four. Tyler Rogers got hit hard in the 8th and gave up two to make the 9th inning more excruciating than it needed to be, but the 6-4 lead was enough. Camilo Doval gave up a one-out double but was otherwise superb and closed out the 9th for his first save and the team's 103rd victory.

The Dodgers won so the lead is still two. The Giants need four more wins to clinch the West. Alex Wood goes tomorrow night. I note that Madison Bumgarner is slated for Thursday night--the Giants have not yet listed a starter. Both games are at 6:45 Pacific.

GO GIANTS!

--M.C.

Sweep!

SF 6  COL 2

The Giants complete the sweep against the Rockies with a dramatic win in Denver. They take the season series 15-4 with their 53rd road win. Kevin Gausman was back to form with a stirring 11-strikeout, no-walk performance. His only blemish was a C.J. Cron solo shot. Clinging to a 2-1 lead in the 7th, Jose Alvarez and Zack Littel gave up the tying run on a Coorsian sequence involving an error by Wilmer Flores and a balk, but that was all. Camilo Doval struck out the side in the 8th to set up the comeback in the 9th. Steven Duggar led off with a walk, Flores walked, and Tommy La Stella singled in the go-ahead run. Brandon Crawford came up with two outs and cleared the bases with a home run and everyone breathed easier. Kervin Castro got the last three outs. He was on deck for the 9th regardless, fortunately he had a much less stressful outing. BCraw's had a lot of big hits but that one was pretty damn big.

The Giants sweep consecutive series at Coors Field. No Giants team has ever done that. No other team this season has swept a series from the Rockies at home. The entire pitching staff was superb, allowing only one homer and a total of six runs in the three games.The bad news is that Brandon Belt was hit by a pitch on his hand and might have a thumb injury.

With the two-game lead the team's magic number is five. If the Giants go 5-1 in their final six games they'll clinch the West regardless of what the Dodgers do. The last two series (Arizona and San Diego) will be played in San Francisco.

It's an off-day tomorrow. Logan Webb starts Tuesday night (6:45 PT).

GO GIANTS!

--M.C.

Belt Belts Two

SF 7  COL 2

The Giants had a good night. They won in Colorado behind two homers by Brandon Belt and a superb effort by the bullpen. The Dodgers lost in Arizona and the lead in the NL West is back to two full games. Jose Alvarez, Zack Littel, Jarlin Garcia, Tyler Rogers, Tony Watson, and Dominic Leone combined for five shutout frames in relief of Anthony DeSclafani. The Giants fell behind in the 1st but three in the 5th and three more in the 8th got the job done. Belt's second homer was the big blow, turning a 2-1 deficit into a 4-2 lead and the Giants never looked back. Leone loaded the bases in the 9th but got the final three outs on a grounder, a whiff, and a grounder.

Zac Gallen of the Diamondbacks, bless his soul, pitched a superb game to shut down the Dodgers. The Arizona lineup jumped on Clayton Kershaw and chased him in the 5th, they won by the same 7-2 margin. The Giants have a two game lead with seven games to play. I really want to see the Giants win the NL West outright. I am rooting for that. I am trying not to think about anything else. Win the West!!

Kevin Gausman starts tomorrow at 12:10 Pacific. Monday is an off-day.

GO GIANTS!!

--M.C.

100

SF 7  COL 2

The Giants win their 100th game of the season. 100! The Giants have been in San Francisco since 1958. That's 64 seasons. If you exclude shortened seasons--1981, 1994, 1995, 2020--it comes to 60. The Giants won 103 games in 1962, 103 games in 1993, and 100 games in 2003. That's four times in sixty seasons. This only happens once in fifteen years. Or, it happens once every decade or two.

What's crazy, of course, is that this historic, incredible season might not be good enough. The 100-win Giants have the just-barely-behind Dodgers nipping at their heels. Hell, it's not nipping. It's a pack of full-throated, banshee-wailing werewolves in pursuit! The NL West race will come down to the last man standing.

The Giants hit four homers tonight but my shout-out goes to 22-year old Kervin Castro who delivered two scoreless innings--the 5th and 6th--with two strikeouts in relief of Alex Wood. Check out Castro's minor league line: 58 G, 133-2/3 IP, 100 H, 52 R, 48 BB, 148 SO. This guy has only faced 548 batters before being called up! He pitched in the Dominican Summer League in 2016 and 2018, then at Salem-Keizer in 2019, nothing of course in 2020, and then 44 IP at Sacramento before the promotion. Wow!

Anthony DeSclafani gets the start tomorrow, it's listed as a 5:10 (PT) start time. There are eight games left to play.

GO GIANTS!

--M.C.

Nine

SD 7  SF 6 (10)

The Giants wasted a big chance in the top of the 10th and it burned them in the bottom half as the Padres pushed across the winner. An uncharacteristically wild Logan Webb put the team in a 4-0 1st inning hole but they battled back with homers to take a 5-4 lead in the 6th. Back-to-back homers by the Padres re-took the lead but the Giants rallied in the 7th to tie. Alas, they couldn't get it going after that and the home squad prevailed. The Dodgers rallied in Colorado and gained a game, they are one back with nine left to play.

It's off to Denver for three starting tomorrow evening at 5:10 Pacific. Alex Wood gets the start.

GO GIANTS!

--M.C.

Ten

SF 8  SD 6

The Giants hang on to win and get a big lift with the Dodgers losing in Denver. They lead the NL West by two games with ten left to play. Scott Kazmir gave the Giants four scoreless frames to open things but ran into trouble in the 5th. No problem: enter Camilo Doval. With a run in (on a Buster Posey catcher's interference!) and the bases loaded he whiffed Manny Machado on three vicious sliders. The Padres slugger looked helpless against the rookie. Doval then got a routine double play grounder from Tommy Pham to end the threat. He's looking better with every outing. Speaking of Buster, he had a four-hit night and nearly got a fifth. The Giants watched their big 8-1 lead get threatened in the 7th and Kap even went to Dominic Leone to cool things off, and Tyler Rogers gave up two in the 9th, but they prevailed.

The Giants reach 99 wins and their magic number to clinch the division drops to nine. Logan Webb starts this afternoon at 1:10 Pacific.

GO GIANTS!

--M.C.