Effectively Wild Episode 1742: The Race (and Series) of the Season

Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley talk to The Athletic’s Grant Brisbee and SB Nation’s Eric Stephen about the last series of the regular season between the tied-for-first-place Dodgers and Giants, the historic greatness of their race, the state of (and outlook for) their respective rosters, the strengths and weaknesses of each team, their secret sauces, each team’s most pleasant surprise, the highlight of their season series so far, what went wrong for the Padres, how the Dodgers and Giants compare as playoff teams, their toughest potential postseason opponents, the biggest offseason questions facing the two teams, the NL West’s future, and more, plus a postscript on Ben’s top 10 hopes for the the final month of the regular season. Audio intro: Beulah, "Battle Cry of the West" Audio outro: The Mountain Goats, "We Do it Different on the West Coast" Link to FanGraphs series preview Link to Andrew Baggarly’s series preview Link to Grant on the gift of Dodgers-Giants Link to Eric on past Dodgers-Giants races Link to Eric on the 1971 race Link to Grant on the teams’ 100-win paces Link to Grant on the Giants being “lucky” Link to Grant on SF’s best-case scenario Link to Fabian Ardaya on Bellinger Link to Dan S. on September projections Link to BaseRuns standings Link to FanGraphs playoff odds Link to Ken Rosenthal on the Giants’ secret Link to Tauchman/Pujols play Link to Defensive Efficiency leaderboard Link to True Blue LA podcast Link to Baggs & Brisbee podcast Link to latest Ringer MLB Show episode Link to list of 1st/2nd-place WAR gaps Link to article on Scherzer not reaching base Link to article on Franco reaching base Link to article on Tatis and HR/SB leaders Link to Ben and Meg’s SSAC panel podcast  iTunes Feed (Please rate and review us!)  Sponsor Us on Patreon  Facebook Group  Effectively Wild Wiki  Twitter Account  Get Our Merch!  Email Us: [email protected] var SERVER_DATA = Object.assign(SERVER_DATA || {}); Source