With players like Brandon Belt and Kevin Gausman heading into free agency, Farhan Zaidi joined Giants Talk to discuss how he hopes he can retain many of the Giants stars from this season on the team next year.
Giants fans haven't had much reason to smile for the last week, but Saturday night, the Atlanta Braves turned those frowns upside down by eliminating the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 6 of the National League Championship Series.
The Dodgers' 2021 season, which consisted of 106 regular-season wins, a walk-off win in the NL Wild Card Game and a controversial NLDS Game 5 win over the Giants, came to an end at Truist Park with a 4-2 loss to the Braves.
Giants Twitter enjoyed watching the Dodgers' demise:
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Even one of the minor league affiliates of the San Diego Padres got in on the act.
While the Dodgers had the most talented roster from top to bottom this season, there's an argument to be made that they expended all their energy to beat the Giants in the NLDS. Ace Max Scherzer pitched the ninth inning of Game 5 on Oct. 14, meaning he wasn't able start Game 1 of the NLCS against the Braves a few days later.
Once Scherzer actually took the ball in the NLCS, he wasn't effective and eventually he wasn't able to pitch due to arm fatigue. Walker Buehler and Julio Urias were Cy Young award candidates during the regular season, but in the NLCS, they weren't dominant.
San Francisco Giants
In the end, injuries caught up to the Dodgers, with Max Muncy, Justin Turner and Joe Kelly all suffering injuries either late in the regular season or in the NLCS.
Both the Giants and Dodgers now head into an uncertain offseason. San Francisco has to figure out what to do with its starting rotation and determine if Buster Posey and Brandon Belt will return. Los Angeles has to weigh whether or not they want to re-sign 2020 World Series MVP Corey Seager and if franchise icon Clayton Kershaw will come back.
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The archrivals provided their fans with incredible moments during the 2021 season, but neither brought home any hardware.
For Giants fans, if their team can't win the World Series, the next best thing is watching the Dodgers lose in the postseason.
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