This has been a year of baseball joy.

The G-Men go into the upcoming home series (starting today against the Padres – 2 tickets are available for tonight’s night game) with the best record in baseball (93 wins and 50 losses), up 3 games on the team from LA (who are nipping at their heels) and fighting for their preferred spot in the playoffs. If the Giants win on Monday, they will assure themselves of a spot in the playoffs (the earliest ever) as at least the second wild card. The Gigantes do not intend to be the wild card – they want the division title and all that comes with it, including home field throughout the playoffs. 100 wins would also be nice.

Watching the 2021 Giants keeps us scratching our heads in wonder. Why is this team so good? Do they have team chemistry? Yes. Do they have suburb pinch hitters (like Darren Ruf)? Yes. Does Gabe Kapler always seem to make the right moves at the right time? Yes.

The Giants have easily been the most entertaining team in baseball up to this point in the season. They are playing championship caliber baseball behind one of the strongest lineups in recent Giants history (at least since the Barry Bonds era). The games where they are behind in the 9th inning are never over until the last out. They came back against the Dodgers (twice!) in LA (they own Kenley Jansen), and the 9th inning in Arizona last night was the stuff of movies. Top of the 9th, down 4-0 and mount a comeback with 4 runs in the 9th and 1 in the 10th to take the series. The lesson: never turn the TV off (or go home if at the stadium) before the end of the game.

The series against the Dodgers, both in LA and ending today with Cueto’s takedown of Cody Bellinger and David Price, has been riveting. The Giants took 5 of the 7 games against LA. The series ended up with the Giants having the best record in baseball and being three games on top of the NL West.

What can we expect from the 2021 Giants down the stretch?

On April 9th Fangraphs estimated that the San Francisco Giants had a 3.4 percent chance of making the postseason. Now, as baseball enters its post-All-Star-Game home stretch, the Giants have the best record in baseball. So much for that algorithm.

No one saw this season coming from the Giants. Even the Giants coaches and players who talked a big game in spring training deep-down didn’t expect this. The question now is how far the Giants can take it. Look at those same Fangraphs probabilities now.