Fierce rivals grab spotlight
SAN FRANCISCO — Everybody expected a playoff series for the ages between the century-old rival Dodgers and Giants, and now they’ve got it.
Anything less than a winner-take-all Game 5 would have been a baseball travesty, leaving the sport short-changed on the October stage.
It’s the 107-win, NL West champion Giants vs. the defending World Series champion Dodgers for a place in the NL Championship Series against the Braves starting Saturday night.
It all comes down to Game 5 on Thursday night, back at the Giants’ Oracle Park after the Dodgers staved off elimination with a 7-2 win at home Tuesday.
So you can see why Giants third baseman Evan Longoria would prefer a best-of-seven over this short NL Division Series before one of these two has to go home for the winter.
“I feel like this may also be like a series or a moment where baseball may have to think about restructuring the way that the playoffs happen — 106 and 107 wins doesn’t feel like a DS matchup,” Longoria said last week before his home run lifted the Giants 1-0 in Game 3. “... I just feel like there’s two teams that win this many games, it seems early to match up us two.”
It will be season meeting No. 24 between these talented, even clubs, to be played at 24 Willie Mays Plaza — an ode to the Hall of Famer’s jersey number.
The Giants have won 12 and the Dodgers 11.
Now these teams that began playing each other in 1884 and each won 109 times this year meet in an all-or-nothing game.
“I think it’s only fitting,” Dodgers pitcher Walker Buehler said.
Game 1 winner Logan Webb, dazzling in his postseason debut, takes the ball again for the Giants while the Dodgers will go to 20-game winner Julio Urias after he pitched the Game 2 triumph.
“This time of year you’re going to face great pitching every night,” Giants catcher Buster Posey said. “And as much as you can, you’re hoping ... you can get a big hit and ... hopefully that’s something we will be able to do Thursday.”
These teams share a star-studded history of meeting in deciding games to see who advances.
In the decisive Game 3 of a 1951 NL pennant tiebreaker, Bobby Thomson hit what many consider the most famous home run ever when he connected for the “Shot Heard Round the World,” a three-run drive in the bottom of the ninth that lifted the New York Giants over Jackie Robinson and the Brooklyn Dodgers 5-4 at the Polo Grounds.
The franchises had shifted to the West Coast when they played a bestof-three matchup for the 1962 NL pennant. After topping Dodgers ace Sandy Koufax in the opener, the Giants lost the next day. Mays then keyed a four-run rally in the ninth inning to win 6-4 in Game 3 at Dodger Stadium.
All these years later, the longtime rivals are back at it.
“This is what baseball wants. All the series are done and so we’re the only show in town. So if you have a pulse or you’re a sports fan, you better be watching Dodgers-Giants,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said.