SAN FRANCISCO -- The Giants are on the cusp of clinching the National League West title, but they haven’t outrun the Dodgers quite yet.\n\nWith a 3-0 win over the Padres at Oracle Park on Friday night, the Giants took care of business on their end and lowered their magic number to one, giving them an opportunity to secure their first division title since 2012 with a win on Saturday.
“There’s no better way than to win it ourselves and celebrate,” right-hander
With two games left to play, the Giants can do no worse than finish tied for first place with the Dodgers and force a Game 163, which would be held on Monday at Oracle Park.\n\nFriday represented yet another incredible benchmark for the Giants, who earned their 106th win of the year to match the 1904 New York Giants for the most wins in a single season in franchise history. That 1904 squad -- led by a trio of Hall of Famers in Christy Mathewson, Joe McGinnity and Roger Bresnahan -- went 106-47-5.\n\nDeSclafani worked five shutout innings in his final tune-up before the postseason, and Ruf homered to help the Giants extend their winning streak to seven games.
The Giants got all the runs they would need in the first inning against Padres right-hander Pedro Avila, who was called up from Triple-A El Paso to make his first Major League start since April 2019.\n\nRuf promptly welcomed Avila back to the big leagues by blasting a 3-2 fastball over the left-field wall for his career-high 16th home run of the year, staking San Francisco a 1-0 lead. In his first two games since returning from a right oblique strain, Ruf is 3-for-8 with a double and a homer.\n\n“I didn’t have to miss too much time, but luckily I’ve been swinging at good pitches for the most part and making solid contact,” Ruf said. “That’s all you can ask for when you haven’t had at-bats in a while.”\n\nThe Giants caught a break later in the first inning when Brandon Crawford reached on a two-out error by third baseman Ha-Seong Kim and advanced to second on a walk by Wilmer Flores. They caught another when
The Giants were keeping tabs on the Dodgers game in their own clubhouse, too, but they can take solace in knowing that they still control their own destiny. They’ll send right-hander