Technically, the Giants could still win the season series with a sweep in Oracle Park this weekend — hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha. No, seriously. It’s Wille Mac Award weekend. Saying goodbye to Mike Krukow weekend. Fan Appreciation weekend. There’s a spirit that could push these 12th stringers to take down hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha. No. The Dodgers will at least win this series if not sweep and expand their all-time lead of the season series, which currently stands at 1,293-1,292.
The Dodgers haven’t led the all-time head-to-head by more than one game since, like, 1895 (45-43). A refresher from this end of the rivalry post I wrote back in November:
1890-1939: Giants led, 558-437-15 (.552)
1940-Present: Dodgers lead, 860-736-2 (.538)
And then the season ends for the Giants and we all brace for a long lockout. Or maybe even a missed season. And when that happens… maybe this is the last series preview you’ll ever read? A lockout will lead to layoffs and terminations and when that happens will anyone return to McCovey Chronicles? Will it remain a going concern? It’s hard to say. But the chance of this all going away is nonzero.
On the one hand, it’ll be great for this moment of San Francisco Giants baseball to go away. It’d be nice to imagine that this post-championship stupor of the past decade will evaporate and whenever the next baseball season begins, the franchise will have finally gotten over its hangover. There is certainly a nonzero chance of that. Buster Posey has wound up giving Tony Vitello the college-like team that bests suits him and so maybe he’ll enter next season a lot more confident and prepared and able to meet the daily challenges of an MLB season better.
Will the Giants have improved their pitching stock, though? I suppose there’s a nonzero chance of that happening, too, but you’re forgiven if you think the chances of that are infinitesimally small. At least for 2027.
While the Dodgers’ dynasty seems a little rickety these days, that doesn’t mean their inevitable collapse will suddenly bring them to the Giants’ level, and that’s what has been so hard to stomach. The Giants have gotten about as bad as the Dodgers have gotten better, and both franchises have maintained these parallel trajectories.
Anyway, Shohei Ohtani is back but not pitching. He’s already hit his 30 home runs this season. This should just be a warmup for the postseason. Mookie Betts went 7-for-12 with 2 homers against the Giants earlier this week to continue a white hot September (.367/.468/.709 — 6 homers, 9 doubles, 21 RBI, 15 BB, 8 K). The Dodgers are 15-7 in September and have outscored their opponents 120-79. They’re 46-32 on the road this season with a +139 run differential.
The Giants have already clinched another losing month. Since the start of the 2016 season, the Giants have had just 20 winning months out of a possible 63 (.317). They’re also 17th in wins in MLB over this same stretch (823-854). [The Dodgers have won 1,041 games.]
Blake Snell is scheduled to make a start, which should really rev up those fans at Oracle Park not there to root for the Dodgers. The Dodgers are planning to step on the Giants’ faces as a warm up for the postseason. Same as it ever was. Typically, the Dodgers come to Oracle Park for the final series and trounce the home team. It even happened in the mighty 2021 season, in a humiliating Game 5 NLDS loss. Technically, the last time the Dodgers lost their final trip to San Francisco in a season as recently as 2024 — except that was a weird schedule where that trip happened in June. They’ve also had a season where that final trip was in August (2020); but, really, the last time the Giants won a September home series against the Dodgers was a 3-game sweep in 2016. If the Dodgers sweep the Giants, they’ll hit the 100-win mark for the first time since 2023 and just the twelfth time in franchise history (I would’ve thought it was both more recent and more frequent).
Series Overview
Who: San Francisco Giants (65-94) vs. Los Angeles Dodgers (97-62)
Where: Oracle Park | San Francisco, California
When: Friday at 7:15pm PT, Saturday at 1:05pm PT, Sunday at 12:05pm PT
National broadcasts: None
Projected starters
Friday: Yunior Marte (RHP 0-1, 4.66 ERA) vs, Tarik Skubal (LHP 11-7, 2.85 ERA)
Saturday: Matt Wilkinson (LHP 1-3, 3.65 ERA) vs. Blake Snell (LHP 4-1, 1.86 ERA)
Sunday: TBD vs. TBD
Prediction time
Wow, this section has really stunk all season long. It was a lot more fun when these posts ended with a poll. Anyway, I feel that the Dodgers will sweep, but I’ll predict that they won’t. Also, I will predict that the Giants experience one more injury, though not necessarily on the pitching side.
