Dodgers @ Giants Sept. 29, 2015: Do The Thing

Look, this is a game that matters, so we’re tag-teaming this.

Brim:

Hey Dodgers. Do the thing.

Clayton Kershaw is pitching, which means tonight is as good a time as any. Madison Bumgarner is going for the Giants, which means that clinching today would be even sweeter (though, that much harder). Bumgarner is a lefty, so Joc Pederson is sitting in favor of Enrique Hernandez. That platoon makes way more sense than the Chris Heisey one. Notably not platooned, however, is Corey Seager, who starts over Jimmy Rollins. Good.

I really haven’t been paying much attention over the last few days as work gets in the way, and it really strikes me that I have no idea who half of the players on the Giants are. What is a Mac Williamson? The baseball reference linker we use doesn’t know that he exists, that’s how generic he is. FanGraphs has him as Johnathan Williamson, which is even more nondescript, but only barely.

Mike:

Yeah, I wrote the “game that matters” intro, and yeah, I’m the guy who’s been saying for a while that no, none of this matters. And really, this one doesn’t either, not unless the Dodgers get swept and turn this into an actual thing. But you know what, it does matter tonight, when it’s Kershaw vs. Bumgarner, when the “knock it off with the freaking out, everyone, you’re being annoying” is slowly turning into “okay, fine, I get it.”

The Dodgers are going to the NLDS no matter what, and when that kicks off late next week no one’s going to care about what happened on Sept. 29. But man, I’ve had just about enough of this. It’s time to finish this off. This is why Kershaw exists. This is the time. Now is the now.