California may deserve some of its reputation as a land of casual, no-worry sleepwalkers. But not at Dodger Stadium when the loathed San Francisco Giants are in Los Angeles, nor at AT&T Park in San Francisco when the detested Los Angeles Dodgers take the field.
The intense rivalry survived the cross-country trip nearly 60 years ago, after the two teams left New York City together following a six-decade run as next-door neighbours and enemies.
Lucky for us. The bitterness between the two fan bases should fuel another spicy pennant race, now that the streaking Dodgers have caught and slipped past the faltering Giants in the National League West.
It is one of only two divisions (along with the American League East) featuring a tight race, and the only one pitting two traditional rivals against each other.
At the All-Star break, such a showdown was unlikely. The Dodgers were 6 1/2 games behind San Francisco, and their ace Clayton Kershaw, the best pitcher of this era, had gone on the disabled list with a herniated disc.
Los Angeles now have seven starting pitchers on the DL, but such is the unpredictability of the sport: the Dodgers have played, yes, better, over the past six weeks.
A smorgasbord of castoffs from other teams and minor league call-ups have bolstered the wounded staff to post a respectable team earned run average of 3.68, fourth best in the league.
Third baseman Justin Turner and shortstop Corey Seager, the leading Rookie of the Year candidate, have paced the modest offence with a combined 44 home runs and 128 runs batted in.
Meanwhile, the Giants have taken a nose-dive, suffering the worst record (10-21) of any team since the All-Star game. Explaining it is impossible. They still have one of the deepest starting staffs in the game, headlined by 2014 World Series hero Madison Bumgarner (2.25 ERA) and offseason pickup Johnny Cueto (2.97 ERA), from the 2015 champion Kansas City Royals. The team ERA is right there with LA – 3.73.
Scoring runs isn’t a big problem, either. Catcher Buster Posey, a former Most Valuable Player, is having a typically productive season. First baseman Brandon Belt has quietly emerged as a dependable run producer with a team-leading .877 on base-plus-slugging average (OPS). Shortstop Brandon Crawford has a whopping (for him) 74 RBI.
They have just found ways to lose, including a morale killer last week when closer Santiago Casilla surrendered a three-run homer with two outs in the ninth inning in a 8-7 loss to the Baltimore Orioles.
After leading the division since early May, the Giants finally gave it up this week to the Dodgers.
What San Francisco may need is some head-to-head competition against their long-time adversaries. The schedule-makers have co-operated. The teams still have nine games to play, starting with a three-game set in Los Angeles on Tuesday.
Tantalisingly, the two teams also are slated to end the regular season with three games in San Francisco.
“There’s definitely going to be some amped up games, a playoff atmosphere,” Giants outfielder Hunter Pence told CBSSports.com. “It’s kind of what you live for.”
Or die of heartbreak from, as the case may be.
Whether the 2016 edition of this storied clash lives up to the best moments of the rivalry – say, Bobby Thomson’s 1951 pennant-winning home run for the New York Giants over the Brooklyn Dodgers – doesn’t matter.
What matters is that the ancient fight has come alive, serving as the most compelling in the game right now.
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