Five days after his dominant seven innings against the powerful Padres (8Ks, no runs) to clinch the National League West on the last day of the 2021 season, our San Francisco Giants turn the ball over once again to the vastly improved Logan Webb. There were times last year when this guy couldn’t throw a strike. September 20th of last year I wrote:

“It’s clear Logan Webb and Sam Coonrod should NOT be Giants next year. They have failed to perform in critical circumstances. I love how little tolerance Farhan Zaidi has for consistent failure.”

Hahahahaaa! Thankfully Farhan is more tolerant and sensible than me!

It reminds me of watching Madison Bumgarner come up in our system way back in ’10. In the first game I covered on this site, rookie Madison Bumgarner threw a wild pitch on an intentional walk. hahahaaaa. I was at that game. It was totally ridiculous … such a dumb moment … and certainly no indication of the (yes, I’ll say it,) HoF pitcher MadBum became.

Webb is one of the brightest success stories of our very successful season and no matter what happens tonight, I applaud young Logan on an incredible turnaround. He exhibits command now and even dominance against very tough hitters with his slider/fastball mix. He is consistently smart with use of pitches and placement.

It won’t be easy, as the Giants will be facing Walker Buehler, whom the Giants beat in the critical last game of the season series at Oracle. There were Dodgers fans all over the yard. They marched up the Third Street Bridge in a shitty-Haka-like show of strength, then we went out and beat their best pitcher.

Beuhler called it, “The worst I’ve thrown in a long time.” The Giants touched-up Buehler for a season-high six runs on seven hits over three innings. So I guarantee you Walker Buehler is motivated to beat us tonight in pursuit of redemption, and to prove what he and all the Bums believe: that they are just better than us and we’ve only been getting lucky all year. sigh. How can the Nemesis and their fans continue to disrespect us? Oh yeah, they’re Bums.

The extent to which the nation doesn’t believe in us is also clear now, thanks to Doug Kezirian at ESPN, who points out that multiple sportsbooks thought so little of us they stand to lose millions if we win the World Series:

“Although the Giants never faded as they rolled to a 107-55 mark during the regular season, bookmakers still only gradually lowered their odds throughout the season. Bettors could have grabbed them at 10-1 in late July.

“We didn’t think they had a real chance to do this,” SuperBook executive director John Murray told ESPN, adding that they expected the Arizona Diamondbacks (52-110) to finish higher. “We consider the Dodgers to be the best team in baseball. We’ve thought that the whole season and thought it was just inevitable they would pass the Giants.”

This is familiar territory to Giants fans, so we’re used to it. I don’t get mad or bothered anymore; not since the greatest example of a Giants baseball writer exploding in exhasperation against the blatant bias against us: Grant Brisbee’s famous prediction from October 24, 2012, that crystallized our frustration in advance of the 2012 World Series, when he was the ONLY baseball writer to pick the Giants and, with a flourish, called the SWEEP:

“Grant Brisbee

Y’ALL A BUNCH OF HATERS. BUT I AIN’T LETTING YOU FILL MY GOBLET WITH HATERADE. THE GIANTS HAVE HAD THEIR BACKS AGAINST THE WALL IN TWO DIFFERENT SERIES. THEY’RE IN THE WORLD SERIES BECAUSE OF HISTORIC COMEBACKS IN THE LAST TWO ROUNDS. THEY’RE DEFTLY MANAGED BY POSTSEASON WIZARD BRUCE BOCHY, AND THEY HAVE THE EXPERIENCE. THE TIGERS HAD AN EXTENDED LAYOFF, WHICH PROBABLY MEANS THEY SAT AROUND AND ATE HAMBURGERS AND DRANK A LOT SO THEY’RE PROBABLY TIRED AND LAZY.

SERIOUSLY, DON’T COME CRYING TO ME WHEN YOUR PREDICTIONS ARE SHOT TO HELL BECAUSE MARCO SCUTARO HITS .600 AND BARRY ZITO SPINS 18 INNINGS OF SHUTOUT BALL, POSSIBLY IN GAME 1 ALONE.

I’VE GOT THE GIANTS IN FOUR GAMES, WITH JUSTIN VERLANDER GETTING KNOCKED OUT IN THE THIRD INNING OF GAME 1.”

Epic.

No one will ever top that. But importantly, it’s no longer necessary to do so. We’re champions now and have been to the WS four times, while winning three in five years, in this young century. Earler this year I wrote that “we have the mojo now.” I stand by that.

GBC’s Prediction

I am taking the Giants in five, NLDS 2021: Giants 3, Dodgers 2

Let’s go Giants

get that bread!

Beat LA

#BeatLA