Are We Ready for a Low-Budget Contending Giants Team?

 The Giants were an afterthought until September began.

Yes, the Giants were quietly climbing the standings in August, taking a ton of wins during the mid-month era, but nobody really talked about them until September 1st. September 1st, in case you've already forgot, was the day that Mike Yastrzemski and the Giants came riding down on Jon Gray and the Rockies with a 23-5 victory in Colorado. It was a drubbing that not even a social media intern for Colorado could embellish.

So. Alex Dickerson hits 3 home runs, which is arguably the biggest takeaway. Brandon Crawford also hits a home run, as he's been heating up in the past month. Donovan Solano, former Miami infielder who's having the breakout season to end all breakout seasons this year, had 6 RBIs, along with Dickerson and Crawford. Mauricio Dubon, Yaz, Evan Longoria and Joey Bart also had RBI numbers, meaning that Brandon Belt and Wilmer Flores were the only starters for SF without an RBI...and both are otherwise doing well this year.

All while this is happening, Kevin Gausman has a 5-K start with only 2 earned runs, Wandy Peralta and Andrew Suarez essentially do mop work for 4 innings, and Gape Kapler must have done more double-takes than he's had the propensity to do in 3 years.

This Giants team is not the best, and it's nowhere near the onslaught that San Diego and LA have brought out...but when the majority of the team is on, they're all capable of great things.

Like...this rotation is genuinely pretty solid. Nobody's got an ERA higher than 4.75, Kevin Gausman has 53 strikeouts, Johnny Cueto and Logan Webb are sharp, Tyler Anderson was doing well til a few starts ago, and even Trevor Cahill is having an under-the-radar comeback year with his first few starts. All this being done without Jeff Samardzija or Drew Smyly. Pretty impressive. The ninth has been problematic lately, but Tyler Rogers seems to be the answer.

I don't see them topping the leading 2 teams, but they may have a chance to sneak into the playoffs if the Rockies continue their slide. There's a lot of talent on this team, and a lot of it is coming together right now.

Coming Tomorrow- Former Dodger, current sufferer.