San Francisco Pass 100 Wins: Back the Giants to Secure World Series Crown
The San Francisco Giants have continued
their hugely impressive run in the MLB season and have become the
first team to rack up 100 wins this season. It’s only the eighth
time the Giants have surpassed the milestone and did so with a 7-2
win over the Colorado Rockies on Friday night.
The Giants are in a rich vein of form and
will now be pushing onwards for an unexpected World Series spot. The
Oracle Park side hasn’t secured a 100 win season since 2003, after
which they stumbled out of playoffs with a National League Division
Series defeat to the Florida Marlins.
When it comes to the 2021 World Series
betting, the Giants have swung in from opening odds of (+8000) all
the way down to (+500) and sit second to long-time favorites the Los
Angeles Dodgers (+310).
Clearly, there will have been some who got in on the betting some
months ago, most likely ardent Giants fans, but that doesn’t mean
it’s not worth backing San Francisco now.
The Giants have certainly gone beyond
many pundits' expectations, and most believe the reason for the
uptick in form lies in their experienced roster that had initially
been considered ‘past it.’
This is only the fourth time the Giants
have hit the 100 win total since their move from New York in the late 1950s, and they’ll
want to keep the run going so that they can secure a first
divisional crown since 2012.
What is perhaps most refreshing is the
genuine sense of surprise and pride voiced by the players in Gabe
Kapler’s roster.
“It’s a huge accomplishment, a huge
benchmark that I’ve never gotten to on a Giants team, It’s very
cool, and I mean, obviously going into the season, nobody really
expected that. But I think with how we’ve played all year, it’s
really not that surprising.” stated shortstop Brandon Crawford.
Kapler is keen for his Giants’ side
not to get complacent and is aiming for
continued success, stating;
“We knew our division was extraordinarily
talented and obviously in spring training, everybody was talking
about and rightfully so, the Dodgers and the Padres and the talent
they had acquired both through player development and also through
trades and free agency, But I think we also knew that we were a
talented group and our veteran players set the tone. They said the
goal was to win the division, it wasn’t to sneak into the playoffs,
and I think that goal remains to this day obviously.”
The Giants will want to keep ahead of the Los
Angeles Dodgers in the National League West picture, therefore
avoiding a tricky wild-card playoff. Kapler knows his team needs to
get around 106 wins in the regular season to help push on into the
playoff picture.
This season’s success is all the more impressive when you consider that last term the Giants finished with a losing record for the fourth season in a row but things are clearly moving in the right direction for the Orange and Black.