San Francisco Giants starter Dominic Leone goes up against the Chicago Cubs to open a three game series at Wrigley Field on Fri Sep 10, 2021 (file photo KNBR)

By Jessica Kwong

The San Francisco Giants had Thursday off, their first break since August 23. The Giants played 16 straight days and went 10-6.

San Francisco was the first team to reach 90 wins this season on Wednesday when they swept the Colorado Rockies in the three-game series at Coors Field.

After the game, Brandon Crawford said of the milestone: “Nobody outside our clubhouse expected this year for us, so it’s definitely a nice benchmark. But we still have 20-some games to go, so the next benchmark would be 100 and we’re going to keep pushing for that and trying to win every game.”

Giants manager Gabe Kapler said the club “did a nice job through a very difficult stretch of games” and that they will at “some point look back and really recognize what a grind that was.”

With a 90-50 record, the Giants are 2.5 games ahead of the defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL West.

Even so, the Giants came in second after the Dodgers in ESPN’s power rankings. That is despite holding the best record in the league for most of the season.

The Giants start a three-game series against the Chicago Cubs on Friday at Wrigley Field. First pitch is at 11:20 a.m.

Right-handed pitched Dominic Leone is slated to make his 45th appearance on the mound and second start of the season for San Francisco. He is 3-3 with a 1.55 ERA, a 1.107 WHIP, 20 walks and 38 strikeouts over 40.2 innings. He last appeared on Monday as relief against the Rockies. He allowed no runs, hits, walks or strikeouts in one inning of the game that the Giants won 10-5.

Friday’s game will be an interesting one for Kris Bryant, who previously played for the Cubs. Bryant wanted to play for the Giants long before the Cubs traded him.

“It’s kind of like coming full circle,” Bryant told the San Francisco Chronicle.

—