Dodgers recognize blueprint behind Giants’ return to relevance

SAN FRANCISCO — Sitting successful the visitor’s dugout earlier a crippled successful Cincinnati past period aft the San Francisco Giants had claimed yet different improbable triumph the nighttime before, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts was asked if helium believed the “baseball gods” sometimes scope down and sprinkle magic particulate implicit a team, choosing them for peculiar things.

“No,” Roberts said, pausing. “I’m conscionable going to accidental ‘No’ for that answer.”

Then however does a squad projected successful March to spell 75-87 truthful thoroughly outkick its coverage? It indispensable beryllium immoderate benignant of devil magic.

“It’s not insulting. It’s benignant of flattering – due to the fact that you’re having occurrence astatine a level that radical consciousness they person to grapple for an mentation on,” Giants president of shot operations Farhan Zaidi said of the dependable skepticism that followed his squad done its best-in-baseball 107-win play and into an NL Divison Series matchup with the Dodgers opening Friday nighttime astatine Oracle Park.

“We cognize it’s conscionable the talent, hard enactment and quality of this squad and coaching staff. When you cognize that’s benignant of the basal of your occurrence and different radical are trying to desperately find different ways to explicate it, that’s a bully thing. That conscionable shows your hard enactment has paid off.”

That it paid disconnected truthful rapidly – this is Zaidi’s 3rd twelvemonth successful San Francisco, Gabe Kapler’s 2nd arsenic manager – connected the heels of 4 consecutive losing seasons would look to beryllium up of schedule. That is, if determination was a schedule.

“It depends what ‘it’ is,” Zaidi said. “I mean, I’m inactive bitter we didn’t marque the playoffs past year.

“We wanted to find a mode to play meaningful games and get into the playoffs arsenic soon arsenic possible. In my head, I conscionable ne'er had a timetable for it. It wasn’t like, ‘Year Four is the playoff year.’ It was, ‘Let’s conscionable marque bully moves and support getting amended and erstwhile it happens it happens.’ Even asking whether it was a astonishment is saying determination was a defined timetable which determination wasn’t.”

Dodgers person Kenley Jansen, for one, thinks each the skepticism – and the attraction fixed to the Dodgers’ confederate neighbour – provided substance to super-charge the Giants’ instrumentality to relevance.

“Nobody talked astir them,” Jansen said of the fashionable communicative for the 2021 season. “Everybody talked astir the Dodgers and the Padres and they person that spot connected their shoulder. You tin spot that.”

The “nobody believed successful us” mantra is surely arsenic ubiquitous successful October arsenic pumpkin spice. But determination are different much applicable forces astatine enactment successful the Giants’ resurgence – starting with the aforesaid principles that Zaidi utilized arsenic GM of the Dodgers nether Andrew Friedman. Those guiding principles are astatine the basal of things similar the Giants’ MLB grounds 17 pinch-hit location runs this play – not magic.

“They deliberation a batch of the aforesaid mode we deliberation arsenic acold arsenic getting platoon and matchup advantages,” Roberts summarized.

Kapler – the Dodgers’ workplace manager for 4 seasons nether Friedman and Zaidi and the frontrunner for the manager’s occupation erstwhile Roberts was hired – downplayed the cross-pollination betwixt the 2 organizations arsenic a origin successful seeding the Giants’ growth.

“I deliberation it’s benignant of little astir immoderate cross-pollination and much astir 2 teams who are trying their hardest to beryllium competitory and find edges but knowing that those aren’t ever available,” Kapler said. “I deliberation it’s overmuch much about, coincidentally, immoderate of the amended teams astir the crippled close present are approaching it similarly.”

There are definite similarities successful the mode the Giants and Dodgers attack things, Zaidi acknowledged. But helium echoed Kapler, saying “those principles of utilizing the full roster and putting players successful the champion presumption to win are beauteous wide principles astir the game.”

“But astatine the extremity of the day, I bash spot a batch of similarities and erstwhile we play them I deliberation we contiguous a batch of matchup challenges that they’re trying to make for the opposition. And vice versa,” Zaidi said. “So there’s a batch of, ‘Oh, good – this is what it feels similar erstwhile you person to marque a determination successful the sixth inning. You bring successful a pitcher and they lucifer up and you suffer the platoon advantage.’

“I deliberation determination are a batch of similarities not conscionable successful the doctrine of roster operation but besides successful however Doc and Kap negociate the teams.”

That produced a tense 19-game play bid with games swinging connected Cody Bellinger firing a shot to Petaluma, Darin Ruf checking his plaything (or not), Will Smith being asked to play archetypal basal for the archetypal clip successful his beingness – oregon Will Smith hitting a three-run walk-off location run.

They were October-worthy matchups adjacent earlier the 2 teams arrived astatine the archetypal (non-tiebreaker) postseason bid successful their agelong intertwined history.

“I felt similar I didn’t adjacent request to ticker the (wild-card) crippled to fig retired who we were going to play. It conscionable felt similar this was the matchup that we were going to have,” Giants outfielder Mike Yastrzemski said of the NLDS matchup.

“We knew that we were going to person to spell done them and they’re going to person to spell done america to get to the World Series,” Giants 3rd baseman Evan Longoria said. “So – amended get it retired of the mode early.”