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The Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants kick off their National League Division series scheduled for Friday night in San Francisco. They are the top two teams pretty much throughout the regular season, with the Giants winning the NL West with 107 wins to 106 for the Dodgers. The Dodgers are the favorites of the series, with a lot of people generally thinking they have the most talented team. The Giants struck the first blood, however, with a 4-0 victory.
Here are the biggest takeaways from Game 1.
The jewel of Webb
Walker Buehler will be one of the first four to vote for NL Cy Young. He might even win it. As such, the Dodgers were the game’s favorites, albeit slightly, for Game 1. Buehler (6.1 IP, 6H, 3 ER, 1BB, 5K) was certainly no slouch, n ‘ allowing virtually no threat between the first and seventh innings – and was only beaten on two home runs for the team that led the league at home runs – but Logan Webb was the star of the night on the mound.
Webb had absolutely everything here. He missed the bats. He got balls on the ground to let his defense help him. The Giants right-hander sometimes induced weak contact. He was efficient. Just every box you might want to check, Webb hit it.
Relying heavily on his off-gear shift-cursor combo while mixing up weights and the rare four-seam fastball, Webb struck out 10 batters in 7 2/3 scoreless innings without stepping anyone. He allowed five hits while getting 12 on the ground against just two flies. He allowed more than a handful of hard-hit bullets, but most of them were on the ground and swallowed up by his defense (more on that).
In his 7 2/3 innings, Webb only needed 92 shots. He had 21 hits and misses in addition to seven foul balls.
Posey gets the green light
Half of the match’s score came at the end of the first set. The Giants had a baserunner, thanks to the walk of lead man Tommy La Stella. With a 3-0 count, Buehler attempted to slip a fastball from Buster Posey and the Giants legend fired a shot in the face.
After hitting just 12 combined home runs between 2018 and 2019 and then retiring from 2020, Posey has hit 18 home runs this season in a resurgence of power, posting the third-best stroke percentage of his career – behind only his rookie. of the year and MVP seasons. It was his fifth career home run in the playoffs.
Kris Bryant hit a homer in the seventh inning to give the Giants yet another assurance. It was his seventh career homerun in the playoffs and, obviously, his first with the Giants. Brandon Crawford added his own eighth inning solo shot for his second career homerun in the playoffs.
Defense of the Giants team
The Giants are sixth in baseball in defensive efficiency this season, which measures the percentage of balls put into play that are converted to strikeouts. It’s a good team defense measure because it helps take into account positioning, range and, you know, actually catching and throwing the ball without making a mistake.
There was an early pitch error, but after that the Giants’ defense was masterful. How about this particular gem of La Stella and the still underrated defensive shortstop Crawford.
And after?
Next up is Game 2, which takes place at Oracle Park on Saturday night at 9:07 p.m. ET. Julio Urías (20-3, 2.96) takes the ball for the Dodgers while Kevin Gausman (14-6, 2.81) is the Giants starter.
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