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There are two things I imagine every MLB team wants from their last streak before the all-star break.
The first is under their control, and very obvious: some wins and some momentum.
The second is out of their control: home games, so they can limit travel during the break, and get into their R&R early.
Check and verify.
Schedule officials gave the Giants a pair of home playoffs to end the first half. With the exception of Buster Posey, Brandon Crawford and Kevin Gausman – who will be heading to Coors Field for the Midsummer Classic – the Giants will have more than a week and a half between flights. It’s a nice luxury compared to, say, the Washington Nationals, who had to fly across the country after the Giants beat them, and probably don’t land until midnight local time.
At that point, most Giants will shake off the last drops of a bottle of wine that costs more than most people do in a week.
And they will do it with some momentum. Because, after looking like they were starting to slow down, the Giants kicked things off to end the first half of the season, sweeping the Nats aside and finishing the first half on a four-game winning streak.
The Giants have won a lot of games with their drums over the past decade. Tim Lincecum and Buster Posey were the 1A and 1G reasons for many wins. Matt Cain and Buster Posey too. Madison Bumgarner and Buster Posey too. So are Ryan Vogelsong and Buster Posey. So were … well, you get the point.
Sunday was Kevin Gausman and Curt Casali.
The point I was trying to make here is that it should have been obvious. If, two years ago, I had told you that Gausman and Casali would be the star drums that led the Giants to a win that sent them into the all-star break of 2021 with the best baseball record, you’d have me. totally believed. That would have made perfect sense, right?
Okay, no need to joke about my non-funny silliness. It is, as the title suggests, not funny and silly. Let’s get to what they actually did, and then back to the MLB Draft.
Casali had the huge success of the day, and the timing was perfect. The Giants put runners in the corners with no outs in the first inning, but Wilmer Flores appeared and Alex Dickerson hit a straight hard line in a double play.
No more RISP weaknesses. We expect it.
So no one was particularly optimistic when the Giants put runners in the corners with an out just an inning later, especially since the No.8 batter was coming to bat, with the pitcher on the deck.
But Casali starched one.
This is your pretentious reminder not to give up on save receivers who have a long history of being quality players just because they weren’t doing well after 70 home plate appearances. In mid-June, I sent out numerous tweets and comments from Giants fans asking the team to nominate Casali for a mission and promote Joey Bart. But in his last 15 games, Casali is hitting 17-39 with 4 homers, 5 doubles, 1 treble and 6 walks.
It is good.
And he called a brilliant game, as he so often has, as his All-Star pitcher pounded the area with a sleek swing and missed picks. Gausman pitched just 6 innings and needed over 100 pitches to get there, but he also got 17 puffs and struck out 9 domestic hitters with just 7 baseline runners allowed. He put a bow on one of the best halves of a season that a Giants pitcher has had in a long time.
Yet he needed help. Gausman came out for the seventh inning but walked two batters and allowed a single. Just like that, the goals were loaded with no outs, and the 3-0 lead didn’t look so good anymore.
Enter Dominic Leone or, as someone so eloquently put it in my mentions, “Dominant Leone”. Leone got what should have been a double run on the ground, but ended up being pulled out after LaMonte Wade Jr. made a mistake in the back half. One point, two batters still in play, one out.
Don’t worry, as Leone worked a shallow ball and strikeout to end the set with a 3-1 lead.
Tyler Rogers and Jake McGee maintained that lead and sent the Giants into the break in a drastic way.
They are 57-32. They are 2 games ahead of the Dodgers. They are 6 games ahead of the Padres. They are 9.5 games ahead of the Reds, who are the first away team in the Wild Card race.
Life is good for the Giants.
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