Will the San Francisco Giants and Lee Jung-hoo be able to pass through a needle hole that is only 2%.
The San Francisco Giants of the U.S. Major League Baseball are belatedly fighting. In the last 10 games, he has been on the rise of 7 wins and 3 losses. It is a surprising turnaround at a time when the regular season is nearing the end and he has already expressed his intention to give up the postseason. This has created a new phase in the National League wild card competition while approaching the 50% winning rate.
San Francisco won 13-2 at home against the Baltimore Orioles at Oracle Park in San Francisco, California, the U.S. early on the 1st (Korean time). Lee Jung-hoo did not play on this day to arrange his physical strength, but the team's batting lineup exploded for the first time in a long time. He scored 13 points by hitting 16 hits in a row. The bullpen gave up two runs in the ninth inning, but it did not affect the trend as it already had a 13-run lead.
Thanks to the victory, San Francisco recorded its 68th win (69 losses) of the season. There is a lack of one win until the winning rate of 50%. In addition, he has continued his upward trend, winning seven wins (three losses) in the last 10 games.
At the center of the victory was Rafael Devers, who played as the second designated hitter and recorded three hits, two RBIs and two runs in five at-bats, including one home run. Devers, who San Francisco acquired in a surprise trade from the Boston Red Sox on June 16, was a special card for the 「Autumn Festival」. Debers, who made his debut with Boston in 2017, was a slugging machine with a batting average of 0.279 with 1,062 hits, 200 homers and 638 RBIs in 980 career games.
Until before the transfer, he was showing good performance with a batting average of 0.272 and 15 home runs and 58 RBIs with an OPS of 0.905. But when I came to San Francisco, I could hardly use my strength. Until July, he had a batting average of 0.219 with four home runs and 15 RBIs with an OPS of 0.692.
But it began to pick up in August. Coincidentally, it is similar to the time when Lee Jung-hoo began to revive. Lee Jung-hoo also hit hard at the beginning of the season and fell into a batting slump from early May, but he gradually recovered from July and flew with a batting average of 0.300 (30 hits in 100 at-bats) with an OPS of 0.790. In the last game of the three consecutive home games against the Chicago Cubs at Oracle Park on August 29, he hit a walk-off hit in the bottom of the ninth inning against 3-3, leading to a 4-3 victory. It was Lee Jung-hoo's first walk-off hit since his Major League debut.
Devers also posted a monthly batting average of 0.292 (30 hits in 103 at-bats) with nine home runs and 20 RBIs in August, with a 0.989 OPS.
Thanks to the simultaneous revival of Lee Jung-hoo and Devers, San Francisco has been on a remarkable rise since late August. Starting with the game against Milwaukee on August 24, he has won seven games in the last 10 games, including three consecutive winning series.
As a result, hopes of advancing to the postseason, which seemed to have completely disappeared, have revived. He ranked fifth in the National League wild card competition. It is one game away from the fourth-place Cincinnati Reds (69 wins, 68 losses, 0.504 winning percentage). The New York Mets (73 wins and 64 losses) are currently ranked third in the wild card game. The gap with San Francisco is five games.
To put it bluntly, the possibility of a reversal is very slim. However, it is not zero at all. According to baseball statistics site FanGraphs Dotcom, San Francisco has only a 2% chance of advancing to the postseason at this point. On the other hand, the Mets have a whopping 93.1 percent chance. The Mets also have a good flow, winning six games in the last 10 games.
However, even a mere 2% chance can be a good motivation to play the rest of the season. If the power of hitters who belatedly invoked such as Lee Jung-hoo and Devers is put ahead, there is no law that prevents San Francisco from turning the slim 2% chance into a reality. Attention is focusing on whether San Francisco will be able to pass through the needle hole.
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
