Surprising Giants Win Season-Series over Rival Dodgers

The wonder boys of San Francisco have done it again, this time reclaiming sole possession of first place in the National League West after taking two of three from the archrival Los Angeles Dodgers and besting their hated foes to claim the season series: 10 games to 9. Let's face it, the Giants weren't even supposed to be here heading into the season, especially this late into the year, not to mention against the All-Star cast of talent that is the defending champion Dodgers. And yet, Gabe Kapler's ragtag Giants team has found a way to do it again, this time taking the rubber-match at San Francisco's Oracle Park, while handing Cy Young contender Walker Buehler his first career loss to the Giants in 10 career starts and his worst outing of the season in which he allowed a season-high six earned runs over a season-low three innings pitched. All while the Giants were forced to play their second consecutive bullpen game in as many days. 

As good as Buehler had been this season while boasting a record of 13-2 and an MLB-best earned run average of 2.05 entering Sunday's outing, he's been even better when facing the Giants. Prior to Sunday's game which was televised on ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball, Buehler had absolutely owned the Giants this season to the tune of a 0.79 ERA in 34 innings against them over five starts. With a perfect record of 7-0 against San Francisco in 12 career games, including 10 starts, Buehler has especially enjoyed pitching at Oracle Park where he's won all six of his starts there since being called up to the Majors in 2017. However, with first place on the line, the Giants were finally able to breakthrough against Buehler, attacking him early and often in the count. After a solo home run from Brandon Belt opened things up in the first inning, the recently recalled Steven Duggar who was called up from Triple-A Sacramento and plugged into the lineup just hours before first-pitch, delivered a 2-run triple before eventually scoring on a single from Darin Ruf. Brandon Crawford and Curt Casali continued the surge with an RBI double and RBI single, respectively, ending Buehler's night after only three innings pitched. The Dodgers were aided a run on a controversial ball-four call that drew a bases-loaded walk in the fifth and got a pair of runs late in the 9th inning off of a pinch-hit homer from Albert Pujols, but were unable to complete the rally before falling by a final score of 6-4. 

Despite their struggles hitting with runners in scoring position in the first two games of the series (a combined 4-for-30), those struggles were nonexistent in the finale for the G-Men (4-for-10) when facing one of baseball's best. After surrendering sole possession of first-place in the NL West for the first time since April 25, the Giants reclaimed their throne with the thrilling victory in the series-finale to their epic season-long battle which could very well witness another chapter, but in postseason-form. Dating back to their days in New York, the Giants and Dodgers have never met in the postseason up to this point, and could very well see that come to an end this year if whichever team is forced to play in the one-game Wild Card playoff, is able to win their game and advance to the National League Division Series. As if the rivalry needed anymore drama added into the mix. Since dropping their first four games of the season to L.A., the Giants have gone on to win 10 of the last 15 versus Dave Roberts' Dodgers club. With just a 1-game lead in the division following a win from both teams on Labor Day, the Giants currently own the best record in all of baseball at 88-50 and will try to keep their distance over Los Angeles in the standings with only 24 games remaining in the regular season. 

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