Tonight, the Giants beat the San Diego Padres 8-4 and, in the process, clinched their first divisional title since 2010, when the team went on to win its first World Series title in the San Francisco era. Obviously this means that the Giants are on their way to winning their second World Series title in San Francisco. Science. Book it. It’s happening.
If I had to use a word to describe the team over the past month, heck, over the entire season, it would be ‘resilient’. By mid-April, Brian Wilson was lost for the year. Losing Melky Cabrera was a huge thing to happen to a team with playoff aspirations, but the Giants have gone 25-10 since the Cabrera suspension. That’s resiliency. We’ve seen career years from Angel Pagan and Buster Posey, both who have been invaluable to the team. Posey should get serious consideration for NL MVP. We’ve seen Marco Scutaro hit .355/.380/.455 since he donned a Giants uniform, stabilizing one of the biggest holes on the Giants. We’ve seen Brandon Belt start to come into his own, even if it happened slower than I would have liked.
Little known fact: The Giants’ offense, when ranked by wRC+, is the fourth best offense in the NL. You probably didn’t know that fact, did you? It’s little known. That’s why.
So, the Giants — and by proxy, Brian Sabean and crew — get a lot of credit for fielding a competitive team. Sabes acquired Scutaro for peanuts and he’s been huge. There’s a chance that in three to four years Charlie Culberson could be something, but, sorry, Macro Scutaro just drove in another run. Lost my train of thought. The Pence trade hasn’t paid off nearly as well, but trying to imagine a non-Melky outfield without Pence is a scary, nay, utterly frightening proposition. I don’t always love the process, however, it’s hard to argue with two NL West titles in three years. Not bad at all.
Also, watching the Dodgers implode towards seasons’ end has been pretty awesome, too. (LOL Dodgers.)
The Giants still have ten games to play before the season ends. It should give the team some time to rest up a few players — why hello, Buster Posey — and work on figuring out the best possible team configuration to take into the post season.
In the meantime, enjoy this GIF of Madison Bumgarner throwing a rosin bag off Santiago Casilla’s dome during the celebration.
/throws rosin bag off head
/leaps into arms
