Alexander: Dodgers-Giants series had to end this way, didn’t it?

The ending the Dodgers and Giants provided Thursday nighttime successful San Francisco, aft 3 hours and 26 minutes of accent and hostility and the champion that shot tin offer, mightiness beryllium impervious that determination is so karma. Or astatine slightest Someone Up There has 1 heck of a consciousness of drama.

Remember July 22? That was the nighttime archetypal basal umpire Ed Hickox ruled that the Giants’ Darin Ruf did not spell astir connected a cheque plaything that would person been onslaught three. That led to Manager Dave Roberts’ ejection and kept live a rally that turned a 3-2 pb into a 5-3 loss, gave Kenley Jansen his 2nd blown prevention successful a enactment and pushed the Dodgers 3 games down the Giants successful the NL West standings. You tin marque the lawsuit that if it weren’t for that game, and the eventual one-game borderline betwixt the clubs, Thursday night’s decider of the NL Division Series would person been successful The Ravine alternatively of astatine Oracle Park.

Here travel the #Giants fans whining astir Flores’ cheque plaything to extremity the game, conveniently ignoring Darin Ruf’s afloat number plaything that walked successful a tally vs #LADodgers earlier successful the season. pic.twitter.com/JdUxE03tbF

— Aaron (@aarondevandry) October 15, 2021

Fast forward, then, to the bottommost of the ninth Thursday, 2 outs, a antheral connected archetypal and the Dodgers trying to clasp connected to a 2-1 pb and decorativeness disconnected the series. Wilmer Flores tried to clasp up connected Max Scherzer’s 2-and-2 slider and … well, possibly helium held up and possibly helium didn’t. The cheque plaything is possibly the toughest telephone successful shot to get right, though to immoderate (many?) umps conscionable uncovering the onslaught portion is peculiarly challenging.

But archetypal basal umpire Gabe Morales ruled it a swing, and that was that.

Wilmer Flores and the cheque plaything heard 'round the world. pic.twitter.com/nZWVre7U1v

— Anthony DiComo (@AnthonyDiComo) October 15, 2021

Ruf, who had tied Thursday’s crippled with a monstrous 452-foot location tally to halfway tract successful the sixth inning, acknowledged the juxtaposition afterward.

Darin Ruf recognizes the irony: “ it didn't look similar helium went but a checked plaything aboriginal successful the twelvemonth helped america retired too, It’s benignant of comic however it comes down to those 2 events.”

— Bill Plunkett (@billplunkettocr) October 15, 2021

Darin Ruf connected the check-swing calls coming afloat ellipse for some #Dodgers and #SFGiants this season. Logan Webb connected however helium felt contiguous arsenic well. #Postseason pic.twitter.com/G3DCnChRI4

— Michael J. Duarte (@michaeljduarte) October 15, 2021

But it was fitting that this series, and an full play that has been truthful competitory betwixt these past rivals, would beryllium decided by the smallest of margins and the astir hard of calls.

Maybe it was lone close that aft the speech and consternation successful the day about the Dodgers’ determination to usage Corey Knebel arsenic an opener en way to Julio Urías, the concatenation from Knebel to Brusdar Graterol to Urías, Blake Treinen, Kenley Jansen and Scherzer ran arsenic smoothly arsenic it did. And possibly it was coincidence, oregon possibly not, that Scherzer nailed down an elimination crippled connected 2 days of rest, 56 years to the time aft Sandy Koufax pitched a 2-0 shutout of the Minnesota Twins connected 2 days of remainder to triumph the 1965 World Series.

It’s baseball. What tin we say?

This was 3 hours and 26 minutes of hostility and tense vigor and waiting to spot who would beryllium liable for the large deed oregon the large transportation oregon the large play – oregon large miscue – that would spoil an full season’s enactment for 1 of these past rivals.

“I mean, the Giants are an unthinkable team,” Dodgers president of shot operations Andrew Friedman told media members aft it was over. “Talented 1 done 26, Kap (Gabe Kapler) deploys them truly well. So we knew it was going to beryllium a truly pugnacious series. I don’t deliberation we appreciated the afloat grade of it until surviving it. But it was an unthinkable series. Obviously, we consciousness truly bully astir being connected the broadside of it that we were. But we admit however razor-thin the margins were.”

Beyond the rivalry, and the history, and the enmity betwixt Dodgers fans and Giants fans (and the trolling was underway not agelong aft the last pitch), determination seemed to beryllium communal respect among the competitors. Maybe it’s due to the fact that these teams are truthful similar, with erstwhile Dodger GM Farhan Zaidi and erstwhile Dodger workplace manager Kapler utilizing galore of the aforesaid principles to assemble this Giants roster and get it into warring signifier a twelvemonth oregon 2 earlier than those connected the extracurricular had anticipated. That squad is good, and it’s apt going to beryllium a menace for years to come.

And aft some teams had won 109 games successful 2021, counting the postseason, and aft the Giants had won 12 and the Dodgers 11 head-to-head, shouldn’t a taut pitchers’ duel person been the lone mode it could end?

For the record, dating to the archetypal gathering betwixt NL champion New York and American Association champion Brooklyn successful the 1889 “World’s Series” – you know, the 1 cipher remembered erstwhile they kept calling this the “first ever” postseason gathering of the franchises – the Giants person won 1,277 meetings betwixt the teams and the Dodgers (aka Bridegrooms, Grooms, Superbas and Robins) person won 1,249, according to Baseball-Reference.com. It indispensable beryllium noted that Brooklyn was 121 games nether .500 against New York from 1903 done 1938, a play erstwhile the Brooklyn nine seldom contended and was often lousy. Since the teams came to the West Coast successful 1958, the Dodgers person a 575-550 borderline pursuing Thursday’s victory.

Yes, determination person been memorable moments and winner-take-all games that catapulted 1 of these teams into the World Series. But nary little an authorization than Vin Scully, who witnessed astir of those battles implicit the years, tweeted Thursday day that this mightiness beryllium the biggest 1 successful the teams’ shared history.

To my knowledge, tonight's crippled betwixt the @Dodgers and @SFGiants is the astir important crippled successful the past of their rivalry. With astir identical records, and truthful overmuch astatine stake, I judge this to beryllium the case.

— Vin Scully (@TheVinScully) October 14, 2021

If Vin says it, I judge it.

“It was large each clip we played those guys, conscionable bringing the rivalry backmost to life, truly playing for relevance,” Roberts said.

San Diegans astir apt volition object, but this play and peculiarly this bid served arsenic a reminder of the value of the Dodgers-Giants rivalry, not lone its past and the mode some franchises clasp it but its renewed relevance connected the nationalist stage.

And portion this wasn’t the archetypal postseason gathering betwixt the rivals (again, spot the nexus above), whitethorn it not beryllium the last, either. This worldly is excessively bully to support to ourselves.

jalexander@scng.com

@Jim_Alexander connected Twitter