It took until the last game of the season, but they did it. Now, it’s the same as if they’d won the division by 10 games, so bring on the Braves!
It feels like it’s been more than six years since the last time the Giants made the playoffs. We had to put up with some pretty bad seasons from 2005 through 2008, but it’s all worth it now.
I can’t help but notice that we had tremendous parity in MLB this year. Not one team had a .600 winning percentage (the Phillies are tops at .599) and only two had winning percentages below .400.
If only the national economy wasn’t so bad, I’d suggest it was a good time to add two more teams through expansion.
The big moves during the season were obviously acquiring Pat Burrell and trading away Bengie Molina so Buster Posey could play every day at catcher. Burrell and Posey combined for 36 home runs in 695 at-bats and turned the team into one that could score runs in bunches just often enough.
Thanks to the long ball, the Giants ended up ninth in the NL in runs scored. They finished eighth in OPS, so the team record 158 double-plays they hit into didn’t cost them that much.
Giants pitchers’ 583 runs allowed was good for second in the NL, only two runs behind the Padres.
Also critical was the emergence of Madison Bumgarner and the fact that the trade deadline moves improved the middle of the bullpen. The Giants were 16 games over .500 (45-29) after the All-Star Break. They were just as good enough as they had to be.
It was a real team effort on both sides of the ball, and I’ll say it again—Bring on the Braves!
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