How Giants’ season will be remembered

SAN FRANCISCO >> Fifty years from now, Giants fans who were alive to witness the 2021 season will have two lasting memories.

107 wins and a heartbreak against the Dodgers.

The loss the Giants experienced Thursday, a 2-1 defeat that featured a goahead ninth-inning RBI from Cody Bellinger, will go down as one of the most painful in the history of the franchise.

It’s not just that one of the Dodgers’ worst hitters this year beat their closer for the game-winning hit. It’s not just that Giants first baseman Wilmer Flores had the bat taken out of his hands with a brutal call on a check swing attempt to end the game. It’s not just that the offense couldn’t deliver for starter Logan Webb or that the Giants failed to put the NLDS away in Los Angeles after taking a 2-1 series lead.

There’s a long list of reasons why a season-ending defeat to a rival will sting for years to come. At the top is that after a magical, unsuspecting ride to the top of the National League West, the Giants and their fans truly believed the 2021 club was a team of destiny.

How else was a season that began with the Giants projected to win anywhere from 72-to-77 games and ended with a stunning triumph on the final day of the 162-game schedule supposed to finish?

This is the franchise that turned a 92-win season in 2010 into the first World Series trophy the Giants had hoisted since the club moved west from New York in 1958. It’s the franchise that shocked the Detroit Tigers with a four-game sweep to cap a second title in three seasons. It’s the franchise that watched the bullpen door swing open in Kansas City so homegrown ace Madison Bumgarner could author the greatest postseason performance of his era en route to a third championship in five years.

The franchise of Willie Mays, Willie McCovey and Orlando Cepeda has never hurt for star power, but for more than 60 years in San Francisco, it ached for a trophy. What the likes of Juan Marichal, Will Clark and Barry Bonds couldn’t bring to the city, Buster Posey finally did.

RAY CHAVEZ — BAY AREA NEWS GROUP The Los Angeles Dodgers’ Justin Turner (10) scores past San Francisco Giants catcher Buster Posey on an RBI single by Cody Bellinger in the ninth inning of Game 5 of the National League Divisional Series at Oracle Park in San Francisco on Thursday.