SAN FRANCISCO — Exactly 70 after Bobby Thomson launched the Shot Heard ‘Round the World, the 28 Giants players in uniform on Sunday have the opportunity to author the franchise’s next historic moment.
On the final day of the regular season, the 106-win Giants can clinch the organization’s first National League West title since 2012 with a victory against the San Diego Padres.
A 2021 Giants team that was the first to clinch a playoff berth lowered its magic number to win the division to one with a victory on Friday night, but after a 3-2, 10-inning loss on Saturday and another win for the Dodgers, Gabe Kapler’s club enters the final day of the regular season with unfinished business.
October 3 is a significant date in franchise history as Thomson clinched the National League pennant for the New York Giants in 1951 while left-handed starter Jonathan Sanchez turned in a remarkable performance back in 2010 with five shutout innings and a long triple against the Padres.
On Sunday, 24-year-old right-hander Logan Webb will take the mound for the Giants with a chance to help the club avoid a potential Game 163 against the Dodgers at Oracle Park. Webb has posted a 2.93 ERA in 25 starts for the Giants this year, but has been the team’s best pitcher throughout the second half of the season as he’s thrown 89 1/3 innings while compiling a 2.52 ERA since the All-Star break.
Webb is a strong candidate to be a hero on Sunday, but he’s got plenty of company on a team that is tied with the 1904 New York Giants for the most regular season wins in franchise history.
Brandon Crawford will have the chance to boost his MVP candidacy by improving his .298 batting average and .898 OPS to .300 and .900, which would cap off one of the greatest seasons ever for a shortstop aged 34 or older. Catcher Buster Posey, who is having his best year since he won the MVP in 2012, will start for the fifth time in six days and can add to the Hall of Fame résumé he’s built in San Francisco. The darling of the trade deadline, Kris Bryant, is starting in left field and can help fans forget the rough September he had with a clutch hit to beat the Padres.
Kapler’s lineup was set two and a half hours before first pitch, but it would be fitting for a Giants team that broke the major league record for most pinch-hit homers in a single season (18) on Saturday for a potential hero to come off the bench.
Austin Slater, who hit the record-tying and record-breaking pinch-homers, will be available if the Padres turn to left-handers Tim Hill and Ross Detwiler out of the bullpen, and so will one of the Giants’ top right-handed sluggers, Darin Ruf.
Kapler acknowledged the Giants have pushed Ruf hard over the last few days after he was reinstated from the injured list following an absence due to an oblique strain, and the club will look to use him in the biggest spot off the bench on Sunday.
October is when legends are made, and ahead of the last game of the regular season, the Giants recognize how fortunate they are to control their own destiny.
#SFGiants 106-55, 1 to go
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— Kerry Crowley (@KO_Crowley) October 3, 2021