The Giants still have a chance to win the National League West but the window is closing fast.
After a hot July the team has had an uninspiring August and that is bad news because the schedule only gets less favorable from here on out with a bunch of road games a head which has been the Achilles heel of the 2010 Giants.
Time is running out on the playoff run, it is still possible to follow the old Dusty Backer rule of making up a game a week to get back into it the division lead but the margin of error has shrunk to zero. The Wild Card will also be a tight race down to the wire with the Giants fighting off two tough teams in the St. Louis Cardinals and Philadelphia Phillies, honestly catching the Padres seems easier then fighting off both of these perennial playoff teams.
The things that give me night sweats are the road trips to San Diego (4 games), Los Angeles (3 games) and Colorado (3 games). These places have been a nightmare for the Giants this season. On the season they are a combined 6-11 on the road and overall are 13-22 against these teams.
So if things don't change against these 3 division rivals the Giants will have to really clean up against the rest of the schedule to even have a chance and hope the Padres finally hit a rough patch and come back to the pack.
Things were looking good just a 10 days ago before I went on vacation, I blame Las Vegas for this and for me falling into a pool with my iPhone in my pocket. Anyway here is the breakdown of games for September/October:
Rockies: 4 games 1 at home (carryover from August) 3 on the road
Dodgers: 6 games 3 at each
D-backs: 6 games 3 at each
Padres: 7 games 4 on the road, 3 at home (the season ends with SD coming to AT&T)
Brewers: 3 games at home
Cubs: 3 on the road
I didn't see that July hot streak coming after the nadir of the year so maybe this is a blessed season and the baseball gods will smile and this bunch of misfits/scrappy vets/ageing gamers/ DH Castoffs.
If your on Twitter you should definitely follow the The Crazy Crabbers. If you're not you should really consider joining, lots of good stuff going on there.
No comments:
Post a Comment