The San Francisco Giants, who the experts predicted would finish at the back of the National League pack, have stunned the baseball world.
The Giants 107 wins is a team record and one of the best win totals in the history of major league baseball.
The Giants put the frosting on the 107 win cake crushing the San Diego Padres 11-4.
Next come the playoffs on Friday with the winner of the St. Louis Cardinals – LA Dodgers Wild card game coming to Oracle Park to begin a best of five game series.
Excerpted from San Francisco Chronicle 10.3.3021
There is no overstating how extraordinary the Giants’ season has been. Entering the year, many questioned if San Francisco would even break even. “We knew what the projections were and what the industry thought of us as a club,” manager Gabe Kapler said in a postgame address to the crowd, noting that the team’s intangibles weren’t taken into consideration “and the first intangible is toughness.”
There would be no messing around and relying on the Dodgers to lose as far as Logan Webb was concerned. The 24-year-old from Rocklin did it all Sunday, lifting the Giants to the NL West title on the strength of his arm and his bat.
In an Ohtani-like day, Webb crushed his first major-league homer and he turned in magnificent work through his first seven innings of work to propel San Francusco to an 11-4 win and the team’s first division crown since 2012, sending players pouring out of the dugout to celebrate on their home field. Buster Posey drove in three runs, and his two hits on the final day of the season gave him 1,500 for his career.
The Giants’ win was their 107th of the season, extending their franchise single-season record, and they are ensured home-field advantage throughout the playoffs, while the Dodgers – no slouches, with 105 wins going into Sunday – must play host to the Cardinals in the NL wild-card game Wednesday. The winner of that game will play the Giants in the Division Series starting Friday at Oracle Park.
Lee's Perspective 