Ready to take on the Dodgers in historic series, SF Giants have plenty of veterans with postseason experience

"And I think from a nerves perspective, nerves are really good.”

SAN FRANCISCO — The entire San Francisco Giants team congregated at an undisclosed location for a Texas Hold ‘Em tournament on Wednesday night, their eyes simultaneously watching the Los Angeles Dodgers, St. Louis Cardinals National League wild card game on TV.

Giants manager Gabe Kapler was focused on the tournament, but he couldn’t help but notice a moment. A 41-year-old Albert Pujols pinch hitting in the bottom of the ninth, tie game, the Dodgers season on the line.

He had to wonder what Pujols — with the Dodgers in his ninth career postseason appearance — was feeling.

“I wonder if his heart is beating fast,” Kapler said he thought at the time. “I imagine he felt pretty good about his chances.”

Kapler can only hope that his team feels their hearts race when the NLDS begins Friday night at Oracle Park against the Dodgers. The Giants roster is made up of plenty of postseason novices, but a handful who’ve experienced those intense playoff nerves. The postseason veterans, he hopes, can help the new guys embrace those butterflies.

“We were talking about Buster (Posey)’s year and the adrenaline and in some of the big games where you see that come to be part of this life in his body in those moments,” Kapler said. “And I think from a nerves perspective, nerves are really good.”

Though a relatively inexperienced postseason team at first glance, the Giants roster is lined with veterans who’ve gotten the true postseason experience, including Evan Longoria, Kris Bryant, Johnny Cueto, Alex Wood and Jake McGee. Of course, Posey, Brandon Crawford and — though he won’t make the NLDS roster due to his broken thumb — Brandon Belt make up a trio who has participated in all, or some, of the Giants three most recent World Series titles. Posey will be making his fifth postseason appearance, with three World Series titles under his belt.

Bryant, acquired at the trade deadline, helped snap the Chicago Cubs’s 108-year World Series drought in 2016, coinciding with Bryant’s MVP season. That postseason, he hit .308 with a .923 OPS — his best postseason showing. He didn’t fare as well his three other postseason appearances with the Cubs. But a postseason regular, Bryant noted the must-win atmosphere of the Giants’ final few regular season games as a good practice round for the newbies.

Bryant singled out NLDS Game 1 starter Logan Webb, who gave up four runs in seven innings in the division clinching win against the San Diego Padres in Game 162.

“You look at the last game there in the regular season and what he did, and that was basically a playoff game in terms of atmosphere and what was at stake and the pressure of that game and he rose to the occasion, better than most I’ve ever seen,” Bryant said.

Mike Yastrzemski, making his first postseason appearance at age 31, said he feels the National League West race prepared him plenty for the postseason jitters.

“I imagine it’s going to feel a lot like the last couple games of the season because it felt like we were fighting for our lives,” Yastrzemski said. “We needed to win those games in order to be in the situation we wanted to. And that creates a different environment. I think that we handled it as best we could. We didn’t get to high on the highs or lows on the loss from the day before. That’s going to help us without playoff experience what it might feel like.”

Longoria will be making his fifth postseason appearance and first since the Tampa Bay Rays traded him to the Giants in 2018. He hasn’t been to the postseason since 2013.

“Its been eight years since I’ve been to the postseason. It feels like another lifetime ago,” Longoria said. “I’m really appreciative to have the opportunity again to play in the postseason. This is going to be an unbelievable way to kick it off. This is going to be a mad house.”

Longoria may not remember much from his postseason experience, but he had a memorable first showing in 2008, rounding out his Rookie of the Year season. In his very first postseason game against the Chicago White Sox, Longoria hit two home runs in his first two at-bats to become the first rookie and second player overall to homer in his first two postseason at-bats. In the Rays’s World Series run, Longoria hit six home runs to break Miguel Cabrera’s record for homers by a rookie in the postseason. A record new Rays star Randy Arozarena obliterated, hitting 10 over the course of the 2020 postseason.

Longoria came a few games shy of a World Series title in 2008 and didn’t escape the ALDS when the Rays went to three more postseasons in 2010, 2011 and 2013. All he can tell teammates who’ve never experienced this: Enjoy the excitement.

“I can’t even tell you my last playoff memory, that’s how far away it seems and how quickly it goes when you’re there. So just enjoy it,” Longoria said. “Whether you go every year or it’s your first time. Its a completely different thing from the regular season. It’s comparable to Opening Day, but every day.”

Starter Johnny Cueto will make his second postseason appearance with the Giants. In his last appearance, Cueto threw eight innings in Game 1 of the NLDS against Bryant’s Chicago Cubs. Cueto was nearly un-hittable save for Javy Baez’s solo home run that slipped into the Wrigley Field basket, the difference in the Giants’ loss that led to a series loss.

Cueto won a World Series with the Kansas City Royals in 2015 and made three postseason appearances with the Cincinnati Reds.

Pitchers Alex Wood and Jake McGee won a title with the Dodgers in 2020. McGee, who is expected to make the NLDS roster as a key bullpen contributor coming off injury, threw mostly garbage innings in that 2020 postseason.

Kapler has his own postseason experience to draw from as a member of the 2003 and World Series-winning 2004 Boston Red Sox. Though he only had 27 at-bats through five postseason series, Kapler remembers how he felt in the big moments — including witnessing his former Boston teammate and current NLDS counterpart Dave Roberts steal second base in Game 4 of the 2004 ALCS against the New York Yankees.

Roberts, the Dodgers manager, is a seasoned veteran in his sixth postseason as a manager. Kapler, making his postseason managerial debut, is taking cues from those who’ve been there before on how to embrace the postseason butterflies. He hopes he can embrace them, too, while keeping his wits about him.

“It doesn’t feel overwhelming at all,” Kapler said. “It just feels like the day starts a little earlier.”