Play-off Teams

San Francisco fans got to see a play-off team in action the last couple of nights.  Unfortunately, that team wasn’t the Giants.  The Dodgers are firing on all cylinders this weekend, and they look good.  They’re hitting, pitching, and playing defense.  There’s isn’t much more than that to the game of baseball.

The Giants have great pitching.  The Dodgers are a great team.  It pains me to write it, but this may be the Dodgers’ year to go to the World Series.  Actually, all four NL play-off teams, assuming that the Rockies are, in fact, the wildcard, look pretty good right now.  The Phillies don’t look as good as last year’s team, but they’ve been there before, and they’re still the World Champions until somebody beats them.

The Cardinals have pitching, Albert Pujols and Matt Holliday, and Tony LaRussa.  The Dodgers are just plain good, and the Rockies are red hot.  It should be good post-season series all the way to the last one.

The Giants had a better year than anyone expected, but they still need to improve their offense and their patience at the plate dramatically if they want to find the promised land in 2010 or 2011.

Randy Winn just made the last out of tonight’s game, and after two games, the Dodgers have outscored the Giants 19-4 in this series.  In a way, I’m glad these games were blow-outs.  The Giants hadn’t looked like play-off team in the last thirty days, with the exception of the sweep of the Rockies at home.  It’s a reminder that the Giants still have a ways to go before they can compete with the NL’s elite teams.

You know what they say — WAIT ‘TIL NEXT YEAR!