Category: San Francisco Giants

San Francisco Giants podcast with Michael Duca: Down 4.5 in the west lots riding on remaining games in LA for SF

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by Michael Duca

SAN FRANCISCO–It’s hard to feel positive after the Giants lost a 14 inning game on a walk off single by the Los Angeles Dodgers Adrian Gonzalez and once again another road loss this time at Dodgers Stadium. The Giants were going against a team that they’ve beaten nine out of 12. This is the last team that you want to give anything so they believe they’ve got any life at all.

You go 14 innings and the Giants cough up the game and it was just to the point that you were getting down in your bullpen and you can’t any outs. That’s not how it’s suppose to happen, it’s suppose to be the Dodgers bullpen that can’t get any outs and their bullpen just strangled the Giants on Monday night.

The Giants will have to play very desperate ball for the rest of the season on the other hand there’s 32 games left and if you subtract the Dodgers from that picture every other game they could play .500. The Giants could catch fire and they only play the division plus the A’s and Cincinnati. That’s the kind of schedule where you could really take off and make a run with the post season.

The Giants have to split these last two games with the Dodgers and realistically they have to be looking for eight innings of dominate performance from Giant pitcher Madison Bumgarner on Tuesday night. It’s a game where they not only need to win because Dodger pitcher Clay Kernshaw is going at home the next day.

The Giants really need a dominate performance from Bumgarner because they’ve exhausted the bullpen and it’s not know how much of your post season life your going to trust that you didn’t trust in August that your going to have in Chavez Ravine. As for the Giants recent acquisition from the Red Sox Alejandro De Aza who hit .292 for Boston. His role will be pinch hitting and helping be a defensive replacement.

Michael Duca does Giants podcasts weekly at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Adrian Gonzalez leads the Dodgers past the Giants, 5-4 in 14 innings

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Gonzo wins it

By Morris Phillips

In the end, it simply felt like the Giants were 5 ½ hours closer to the off-season.

Adrian Gonzales wiped out the Giants’ only lead with a two-run homer, and a couple hours later, singled with the bases loaded in the 14th inning to give the Dodgers a 5-4 win.

Hanging over the Giants’ collective heads on Monday—besides a 3 ½ game deficit and the anxiety of being in a playoff race and not playing your best baseball—was the fact that their trip to Dodgers Stadium would conclude with Zach Greinke on Tuesday and Clayton Kershaw on Wednesday.

Not a pretty picture.  Now they enter Tuesday’s game 4 ½ games out with 31 to play.  Madison Bumgarner will be asked to carry the Giants deep into the ballgame after eight relievers were used by manager Bruce Bochy on Monday.

Adrian Gonzales and Andre Ethier hit home runs in the sixth inning off burdened starter Jake Peavy, and at least for the moment, there didn’t seem like there was much race left.

That’s when Marlon Byrd stepped up for the Giants, doubling home Matt Duffy in the eighth.

Sergio Romo got two outs in the eighth and all three in the ninth without allowing a run, and Jim Johnson pitched scoreless frames in the 10th and 11th for the Dodgers.

Giants have acquired Alejandro De Aza from the Red Sox in exchange for minor league pitcher Luis Ysla.  To make room on the 40-man roster, Ryan Lollis was designated for assignment.

The Dodgers made a move as well acquiring minor leaguer Justin Ruggiano from Seattle.

The Dodgers’ Chris Hatcher fouled out with the bases loaded to end the 13th.

In the 14th, reliever Mike Broadway walked leadoff hitter A.J. Ellis, then allowed singles to Jimmy Rollins and Chase Utley to load the bases.  Yusmeiro Petit was called on to face Gonzales who singled over drawn-in outfielder Nori Aoki.

“Hard fought game, both sides.  Unfortunately, we didn’t win it.”

Peavy retired 13 of 14 Dodgers’ batters at one point, but ran into trouble in the sixth.  The home run to Gonzales came on a fastball demonstrating the Dodgers’ first baseman’s explosive bat, but Ethier’s follow-up that gave the Dodgers a lead was paintful to the Giants.  Marlon Byrd saw the ball just escape his glove at the gate outside the visiting bullpen.

“That was going to be his last hitter, Ethier.  He got just enough to get it out,” Bochy said.”

 

Heston Falters As Giants Drop Series to Cardinals

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By: Ben Leonard and Joe Lami


// Four batters into the game, with no outs, George Kontos was in the bullpen, heating up. Not exactly how the Giants drew it up.

The Giants did well to stay alive in the game after a rough first inning from starter Chris Heston, but Marlon Byrd’s big day at the dish on his birthday wasn’t enough to help the Giants beat St. Louis in a 7-5 loss.

Making his first start since August 17th after a short stint in Triple-A Sacramento for maintenance, Heston struggled to keep the ball down — and in the yard. He gave up nine hits in just 3.2 innings, including four in the first four batters of the contest. Heston expressed that he was “excited” and “amped up” to get back out on the hill, and simply “left too many balls up.”

Before Heston knew it (After four batters) and most fans were in their seats, “it was getting ugly,” as the Cardinals had a 3-0 lead behind Matt Carpenter’s fifth leadoff home run of the season and Jason Heyward’s RBI triple that Gregor Blanco misplayed, costing the Giants two runs. Heyward hit a line shot right at Blanco, who didn’t quite pick it up well, flailing fruitlessly at the last moment and letting it sail over his head. Blanco explained that the ball was carrying “pretty well” in the first couple innings, with the flags billowing out towards McCovey Cove.

However, Blanco redeemed himself pretty quickly in the outfield (The first chance he got) ranging back to make a play against the wall in, shall I say in, Willie Mays fashion to rob Brandon Moss of extra bases. Blanco said it felt so good to make such a “hard play” with the challenging wind because he was trying to help Heston and “let him know that he (Blanco) had Heston’s back.”

Heston’s poor outing put the Giants in an early hole, but it wasn’t without positives — he was “back in the strike zone.” He had struggled with command in previous outings, and didn’t walk a batter on Sunday. He had given up just five first-inning runs in his first 24 starts, and three on Sunday.

As deep as the hole was, Byrd was the word at AT&T Park that almost got the team back in it. He energized the crowd with two early RBI doubles and a triple to try to help the Giants get back in it, finishing the day 3 for 4 with 4 RBI’s. Both of those two-baggers clanked off the same archway in right field, driving Brandon Belt in three times and creating rallies in the first, sixth, and eighth.

Byrd now has three more RBI’s in 40 fewer games than Casey McGehee did with the Giants — quite a feat. Now he just needs someone to drive him in — he was stranded all three times despite creating so much offense. When asked if there was a better way to spend his birthday, Byrd was frank: “Yes, with a W.”

Belt, the Giants’ defacto leadoff hitter on Sunday quietly went 4 for 4 with four singles. Belt wasn’t too quick to embrace the role as his new one: “Ultimately, it doesn’t matter because we ended up losing the game. But that’s what you want to do, do your job to get on base if you’re leading off the inning to help guys drive you in.”

Mike Broadway cost the Giants a run after not coming set and balking in the eighth, moving Kolten Wong from first to second, and was eventually driven in on an RBI single. Wong was cut down by Posey, but the balk negated the out and kept the Cardinals’ rally alive. Coupled with Blanco’s gaffe in the first, it was a three-run swing that cost the Giants the win. The little things do make a big difference after all.

Heading into an enormous series with the first-place Los Angeles Dodgers, starting Monday on the road, the Ginats are going to have to do the little things a lot better — they’re down four games in the NL West. Belt spoke about the sense of urgency in the clubhouse:  “We’re going to have to step up our game and take it up just a notch…We’re playing the best team in the division so we’re going to have to go in there, bring our A-game and play with more intensity.”

 

 

Giants vs. Cardinals: Rubber Match News and Notes

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By: Ben Leonard

//

The San Francisco Giants (69-60) take on the Major League-best St. Louis Cardinals (83-46) in the rubber match of a three-game series Sunday at AT&T Park.

The Giants will send Chris Heston (11-7, 3.34), back up from a short stint at Triple-A Sacramento, to the hill to try to take the series. The Cardinals will counter with left-hander Jaime Garcia (6-4, 1.77).

Heston is making his first start since August 17th against these same Cardinals, when he pitched just 4.2 innings and gave up one run. Just after that start, he was sent down to keep his arm fresh for September. He had been the Giants’ second-best starting pitcher behind Madison Bumgarner all season long, and figures to be right up there with new acquisition Mike Leake upon his return.

Like Heston, Garcia also spent some time away from his team this season, as he is making just his 14th start and seventh since his second DL stint of the season. He missed 20 games with a groin strain and the first 40 games of the season after offseason surgery.

Garcia pitched well his last time out, earning the win after giving up just one run and four hits against the Arizona Diamondbacks on Tuesday. He has pitched well on the road throughout his career, posting a 1.64 ERA on the road since September of 2012. He will make his second start against the Giants this season after a solid effort on August 19th, in which he surrendered three runs in 6.1 innings.

Other than that start, the lefty has owned the Giants throughout his career, giving up just ten runs in 41.2 innings against San Francisco. It’s a strange number given the Giants’ dominance against left-handed starters this season, going 18-12 against left-handed starters this season while hitting .271 in those games, the fourth-highest figure in baseball.

The Giants have been hot at home as of later, winning their 16 of their last 20 home contests, even after Saturday’s loss. They’ve been steady with the glove as well, committing just one error in their last thirteen games despite missing a plethora of starters.

The Giants need to look out for Bay Area native and Stanford alum Stephen Piscotty, who has really felt at home at AT&T park. He went 4-4 with a walk on Saturday while driving a run, bringing his average for the series all the way up to .750 (6-8).

Injury Notes: 

Before the game, manager Bruce Bochy noted that Tim Lincecum “isn’t making the progress we’d like him to” with his degenerative hip problem. The beloved right-hander suffered a setback in Arizona and acknowledge he may not return this season….Joe Panik took batting practice on Sunday and drove the ball well….Bochy said he will stay with the team through the Dodgers series(Aug. 31-Sept. 2) and then begin his rehab stint with Sacramento during the immediately following Colorado series….Brandon Crawford hit in the cage on Sunday and is slated to start against Los Angeles on Monday….

 

That’s Amaury’s News and Commentary: Vin Scully will return for 67th season in Dodgers booth

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by Amaury Pi Gonzalez

LOS ANGELES–Nobody is better calling a baseball game than Vin Scully. Last night at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles a crowd of 44,874 (Dodgers are #1 in attendance in Major League Baseball) rendered Scully a standing ovation. In a business much driven by egos, Vin Scully is the best and one of the most humble people you could ever meet. Nobody can broadcast a game(without missing a play on the field)while telling you what happened to Don Newcomb during a road trip with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1956 when he won 27 games, “…and the pitch…”

Vin Scully is not going to pest you with Twitters, or StatCast or any of the silly new things in today’s baseball, because he comes into the booth to tell you about the game to entertain you, to educate you about the game, to bring you history capsules with anecdotes that only he can, he doesn’t have to go crazy when a Dodger hits a 450 foot homer, he calls it, it is part of the game.

During the past five seasons when the Dodgers came to Angel Stadium in Anaheim during an inter-league series, Vin sits to the broadcast booth immediately to my left, just across the glass. Early before a game I greet him and speak with him for a few minutes, as graceful as anybody I know, he treats everybody with respect and professionalism. I am truly looking forward to the series at Angel Stadium this September 7th to the 9th when Vin Scully will visit the Halos.

I know here in the Bay Area people grow up with that innate Dodger hate, but if you are a real baseball aficionado there is no way you can hate this man. He is as objective as anybody has ever been on the air doing baseball, and by no means a “homer”, he enjoys when the Dodgers win, and that is understandable when you broadcast for a team way over a half a century, but he is honest and straight forward, if the team playing the Dodgers makes a great play, he will give credit where credit is due.

One thing that is perfect for Vin Scully is the new “replay” rule in baseball, while a play is reviewed for a few minutes, and three umpires are wearing headsets, and are waiting for the decision from New York, Vin would tell you an anecdote of 50 years ago, like it happened the last weekend.

Congratulations Vin, and Best Wishes on your new year.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the Spanish radio voice for the A’s and the Spanish TV voice for the Angels and does News and Commentary at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Bumgarner baffles the Cubs to cap his near-perfect August

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Bumtime

By Morris Phillips

What a month for Madison Bumgarner.

For that matter, what a season, what a 12-month run, and what a career-to-date.

The Giants’ ace stopped the red-hot Cubs dead in their tracks Thursday afternoon, striking out 12 in just six innings of work in a 9-1 win.  Bumgarner concluded August with a 5-0 record and a stingy 1.43 ERA.

Bumgarner’s teammates know a party when they see one.  On a picture perfect afternoon, in front of a sellout crowd, they backed their big lefthander with a couple of runs early, then Marlon Byrd’s three-run shot that put the Giants up comfortably, and Kelby Tomlinson’s grand slam that turned the game into a rout.  With Bumgarner mowing down the Cubs—fancy footwork included—this day at the ballpark played like some slickly produced video put forth by the local Chamber of Commerce.

“Things are just going our way right now, “Bumgarner said.  “I don’t look at the month, I look from start to start.”

“Bum was Bum today,” manager Bruce Bochy said.

Bumgarner joined Chicago’s Jake Arrieta, who won here on Monday, as the majors’ only 16-game winners. They are joined by Zach Greinke, Clayton Kershaw, Michael Wacha and Gerrit Cole in a Cy Young race that figures to be as intriguing as any in years.  But evaluations come later, this is the time to perform, and Bumgarner did that on Thursday from the start, striking out the side in each of the first two innings.

“He had a real good hook and the cutter, sporadically used his fastball,” Cubs manager Joe Maddon recalled.  “He got us to chase and he got us to chase down, but that’s because the pitch is such a quality pitch.”

Only Starlin Castro could claim he achieved something impactful against Bumgarner, doubling home a run in the second inning.  But that would be the last hit Bumgarner would allow.  From then on, it was usually strike one, fall behind in the count and fail to square anything up. The strikeouts ran Bumgarner’s pitch count up pretty quick, so with a four-run lead, Bochy elected to save his ace for another day.

The 98-pitch outing marked the third time this month Bumgarner registered double-digit strikeouts.  In August, the World Series MVP struck out 53 batters while walking just four—two of those on Thursday.  He threw a pair of complete games, hit a pair of home runs, and made a nifty play in the fourth inning Thursday with tremendous body control and his feet.

On that play, Brandon Belt fielded Catro’s grounder and threw behind Bum racing over the cover the bag.  But Belt’s throw was behind Bumgarner and he had to reach back, catch the ball, but get his foot on first base without being able to see it.  Impressively, he pulled off the whole sequence of steps flawlessly.

“I kinda laugh as he’s going through these games,” Matt Duffy said.

The Dodgers won 1-0 in Cincinnati to complete a sweep of the Reds just as the Giants were getting started.  That allowed the NL West leaders to maintain their 2 ½ game lead with a critical homestand starting Friday in Los Angeles where the Dodgers will see first the Cubs, then the Giants.

The Giants open a three-game set with the Cardinals on Friday.   Newly-acquired Mike Leake makes his home debut in the opener at 7:15pm.

NOTES: Tomlinson’s home run was the first of his career, and the first grand slam as a first home run by a Giant rookie since Brandon Crawford pulled the feat in 2012.  Tomlinson’s play has made it such that the Giants don’t have to Panik without Joe in the lineup.  Tomlinson has hit in 13 of his 14 starts since being called up to bolster the team’s infield, and the team has all but announced that Panik won’t be rushed back in the coming week, and probably won’t return until the first or second week of September.

Nori Aoki attempted to stretch a ball that glanced off Cubs’ left fielder Chris Denorfia’s glove into an inside-the-park home run in the seventh, only to see the Cubs cut down the leadoff man with a nifty, relay from the left field corner.

Matt Cain could land on the disabled list after his last, subpar outing.  The tentative plan is to have Chris Heston recalled to make a start on Sunday in Cain’s place.

Giants finally stand up to the red-hot Cubs in a crucial 4-2 win

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Peavy fell over

By Morris Phillips

Nothing’s bigger than recording the last out of a ballgame, but you can’t logically get to that point if you don’t some enthusiasm and aptitude for recording the first out.

On Tuesday, the Giants needed their best foot forward if they were going to beat the scorching-hot Cubs for the first time this year after five, damaging losses.  But when the Cubs’ leadoff man Kyle Schwarber sent a sky-high pop up between the mound and home plate, Buster Posey and starting pitcher Jake Peavy turned into physical comedians.

Both pitcher and catcher converged, intent on catching the ball, but when Peavy’s chest ever so slightly bumped Posey’s shoulder, the follies began.  Posey retreated as if his services weren’t needed, Peavy fell over and the ball landed untouched between the two.

The sellout crowd at AT&T Park—intent on seeing their home nine get after it, not a circus act—gasped with horror.

So much for initial impressions.

The Cubs went on to score twice in the inning, but the Giants got serious and struck right back with two of their own.   After that thing settled down and the Giants used a pair of runs in the sixth to propel them to a 4-2 win.

“It really comes down to the first inning, both ways though.  They gave us some runs, we gave them some runs and then eventually they got us in the end,” expansive Cubs manager Joe Maddon concluded.

“We weren’t going to win them all.  Sorry.”

The win allowed the Giants to stop the bleeding in the hunt for the final wild card spot—the Giants still trail Chicago by 6 ½ games—and more importantly, kept them with striking distance of the Dodgers, 2 ½ games up in the NL West.

And believe it or not, that aforementioned comedic duo, Peavy and Posey, settled down and made some serious contributions in the context of the game.

Peavy—still smarting from his 2-0 loss in Chicago on August 9—settled in for six plus innings, allowing just three hits after the rocky first.  Posey, mired in a slump that has the whole town ruffled, came up with the tie-breaking double in the sixth.

Posey looked fatigued and was virtually invisible on last week’s 2-5 road trip.  In the sixth, after Brandon Belt led off with a triple that eluded a diving Chris Denorfia in centerfield, Posey came up in a big spot.  And while he had just four hits in his previous 35 at-bats, Posey’s been hungry like the Werewolf of London this season with runners in scoring position.

And he delivered, sending Kyle Hendricks slightly elevated offering into triples alley, scoring Belt.  Two batters later, rookie Kelby Tomlinson, swinging at the first pitch, doubled into the right field corner, scoring Posey.

That quick, the Giants had a lead.  How big was that?

In the four-game sweep engineered by the Cubs over the Giants two weeks ago at Wrigley Field, the Cubs scored in the first inning in all four games.  So of the 36 innings of baseball that weekend, the Giants held a lead in all of one inning.

Then last night, the Cubs didn’t score in the initial frame, but roughed up Matt Cain in the third and fourth to lead 6-0.  Again, the Giants never held a lead.

The Cubs—hotter than ’03, and just as smokin’ as ’96—came in winners of 21 of 25, a run so hot it had only been duplicated twice (1903, 1996) in their franchise’s 100-plus year history.  Still in third place in the NL Central, but holding the majors’ fourth-best record, the lovable losers look like shoe-ins for the post-season, due to the momentum of the run and in no small part based on how they’ve mistreated the World Champs.  But on Wednesday, it was the Giants’ turn to strike back.

Maddon, for one, appreciated the teaching tools.

“We have some really inexperienced people that are learning on the fly right now.  And I love it.”

That was the former Rays manager’s response when asked about two critical at-bats in the seventh, after Peavy departed with two runners aboard.  First, rookie Addison Russell was cooled by reliever Hunter Strickland, and then the super-hot Schwarber was tamed by lefty specialist Javier Lopez, striking out on four pitches.

Peavy, watching intently in the dugout, felt it was a critical moment.

“The pro he is, he was ready,” Peavy said of Lopez.  “We were excited to have him in that moment, that matchup.”

On Thursday, the Giants say adieu to the Cubs as Dan Haren draws Madison Bumgarner in the series finale.

San Francisco Giants podcast with Michael Duca: Giants need Posey to follow the carrot stick of finding his stroke again

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by Michael Duca

SAN FRANCISCO–You try to get your victories where you can get them and against Chicago’s former lovable losers who lately have been Chicago’s lovable winners (as of Wed night six game winning streak) and the San Francisco Giants had plenty of small victories on Tuesday night. When you consider that they were down 8-0 against the Cubs starter Jake Arieta in the fifth inning had they managed to get Cubs manager Joe Maddon to use four members of his bullpen including his set up man Pedro Strop and his closer Hector Rondon who threw 19 pitches getting his 24th save on Tuesday night in the Cubs 8-5 win.

The Giants might be well set up to capture game two of the series based on that and they may have to rely on other people in the bullpen. When you got an eight-zip lead in the second half of the game as a manager your really looking forward to giving your big guys a night off. The Giants also got some help from some of the guys who didn’t start.

Buster Posey has looked bad in the last week there’s no way to sugarcoat and dress this Posey has now gone 4-33 and has two hits in his last 19 at bats for a .109 clip. Defensively he’s had a ball that went off his glove for a passed ball and he had a wild pitch that went off his glove that he should have blocked on Tuesday. On Wednesday to start the ball game the Cubs leftfielder and leadoff hitter Kyle Schwarber his a routine fly straight up by the pitchers mound and pitcher Jake Peavy looked like he had the catch but with Peavy to Posey’s back Posey backed up into him knocking him to the ground and the ball fell between them and it allowed Schwarber with a two base hit.

Posey’s bat has been slow he’s not seeing and hitting his pitches well and clearly needs a day or two to recharge the batteries and Giants manager Bruce Bochy got him out early last night in an 8-0 game and back up catcher Andrew Susac drove the ball to the wall in dead centerfield with bases loaded and drove in three runs and made that a premium bullpen game for Maddon so with one swing of the bat Susac gave Bochy another weapon on the bench that he could think about using.

It wasn’t a clutch situation for Susac’s return when it was 8-2 Cubs as it turned out with the bases loaded and two outs he drove in all three runs and he got them into a position where they had to bring in Strop in the eighth inning. They got into the back end of the pen even though it wasn’t a high stress game for the Cubs that turned into one.

Michael Duca does the Giants podcast each week for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

San Francisco Giants podcast with Michael Duca: Dodgers have disfunctional internal issues that maybe the Giants can cap on

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by Michael Duca

SAN FRANCISCO–In my opinion that last road trip that the Giants were on in St.Louis and Pittsburgh went to hell when Giants outfielder Hunter Pence went on the DL. You look at the Giants with Pence and you look at their record without him and look at what they did in St.Louis one run loss, another one run loss there were a lot of games there where the presence of an actual serious bat in the line up made all the difference in the world.

If you turn that one run loss around into a one run win all of a sudden you have a 3-4 road trip and the Pirates were one of the hottest home teams around. That’s how close this trip was being to being okay. Their record at this point in the season is identical to their record at this point last year.

They won 22 games from down the stretch last year to 88 wins and grabbed the second wild card, 88 wins will not be anywhere close to a wild card spot this season or 88 wins will be enough to win the west. Conversely you have to know what is going on in Dodgerland you have to look at the fact that they’ve been touting Zack Grienke.

The Dodgers were 12-3 in games that Grienke pitched after they had lost and they go out to Houston and he gets out pitched in Minute Maid. Then Clayton Kernshawn hands over the bullpen lead and immediately watches it ignite like a thermite bomb. They have major problems in the bullpen, they have major problems with chemistry.

The Dodgers who are in the middle of a five game losing streak have major leadership problems. Lets face it there have been two teams who have changed third base coaches in the last week, one of them seems to be in first place and doesn’t want to be and the other team seems to be in last place and doesn’t want to be.

Michael Duca does the Giants podcast each week at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

The Giants’ new goal: win the West, and avoid the Cards and Pirates in the NLDS

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By Morris Phillips

The Giants pursuit of a second, straight NL Wild Card berth is just about over.

The defending World Champs can thank the Chicago Cubs for that conclusion.  The lovable losers just did an about face, winning 21 of 26 games for only the second time in the 100-plus year history of their franchise.  The Cubs won again Monday, 2-1 over Cleveland, to extend their lead over the Giants for the second wild card spot to 6 ½ games.

That’s what you call hot.

The Giants can’t seem to find a friendly opponent of late, especially away from AT&T Park.  The Giants have dropped 12 of 17 on the road, and just concluded a 2-5 road trip through St. Louis and Pittsburgh.  If they pitch, they don’t hit.  If they hit, they don’t pitch… you get the picture.

That’s what you call cold.

But if the Giants are on the phone with their sports psychologists, the Dodgers are ready to check into the psych ward.  Thanks to a weird stretch of losses (5) and off-days (3), the Dodgers will be looking for their first win in nine days on Tuesday in Cincinnati.  On Sunday, things really got hard to swallow when Clayton Kershaw pitched his butt off for eight innings only to depart and watch the Astros get a run to tie in the ninth, and a game-winning home run in the tenth.  After an impressive 22-11 start to the season, the Dodgers have split their most recent 90 games right down the middle.

That’s what you call ice cold.

So if the Giants are smart, they’ll let the Cubs go.  On the eve of their three-day meeting, the Giants know a sweep of the Cubs won’t draw them any closer than 3 ½ games of Chicago.  The Cubs have the third best record in baseball—and the third best record in the NL Central.

That’s what you call confounding.

The Giants are attempting to qualify for the playoffs in consecutive years for the first time in more than a decade.  It’s a daunting challenge even for the champs, but things look doable if it’s just the Dodgers and Giants in a race for the NL West crown.  San Francisco trails their bitter rival by 1 1/2 games entering play on Tuesday.

But what’s especially appealing to the division winner is the possibility of avoiding both the Cardinals and Pirates in the NLDS and needing to only best the offensively-challenged Mets in a best-of-five series to advance.

Similar to last year’s post-season, the Giants almost surely won’t be the best team.  St. Louis, Pittsburgh and the Cubs are fighting for that title.  But they could again be the best team right now if they take the right path and avoid the NL Central qualifiers in the NLDS.

On Tuesday, in the opener of the Cubs-Giants series, 15-game winner Jake Arrieta faces Matt Cain at 7:15pm.