Giants Win 2010 NL West; Yankees Slump to Wild Card
After giving up the first two games of the series to the Padres, and hence extending the pennant race to the very last day of the season, the San Francisco Giants finally got a strong start behind Jonathan Sanchez and won 3–0. That win plus the Braves’ win today not only wins the division but eliminates the Padres—definitely good for San Francisco, whose record against San Diego was 6–12 this season.
This is San Francisco’s first trip to the playoffs since 2003, the middle of the Barry Bonds era. The Giants’ offense is a weak point, but their pitching has been stellar, as demonstrated by an 18-game streak of holding opponents to three runs or less. I think they have a reasonable shot in the playoffs, and they face the Atlanta Braves in a five-game series starting Thursday.
Meanwhile, on the opposite coast in the opposite league, the Yankees backed into the postseason with an 8–4 loss to Boston, resulting in the AL East title going to Tampa Bay. I’m not sure that it’s significant that the Yankees have never made it to the World Series as a wild card team; they still have the third-best record in baseball. They did, however, go 29–30 in the last 59 games of the season, which is hardly inspiring. I guess they’ll just have to rely on C. C. Sabathia and the best offense in baseball to get them through; they start against the Minnesota Twins on Wednesday.