Historic stat shows Giants face tough fight in stacked NL West
A path to the MLB playoffs won't be easy for the San Francisco Giants despite their red-hot start to the 2025 season.
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Historic stat shows Giants face tough fight in stacked NL West originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
After the Giants’ 4-1 win over the Seattle Mariners on Saturday at Oracle Park, San Francisco is off to its best start since the 2003 MLB season at 7-1.
But, unfortunately for the Giants, the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres also are red-hot. All three NL West teams are so hot, in fact, their season-opening records are historic.
The Dodgers (9-1), Padres (7-2) and Giants are the first trio of teams since the start of the divisional era in 1969 to start 7-1 or better through eight games, per MLB’s Sarah Langs. Additionally, Langs noted, it’s just the second time in MLB history that three teams in the same league started 7-1 through eight games, joining the American League’s New York Yankees, Kansas City Royals and then-Oakland Athletics in 2003.
The NL West!!
With the Dodgers, Padres & Giants, this is the 1st time 3+ teams in the same division started 7-1 or better thru 8 games (divs since 1969)
It’s the 2nd time in MLB history 3 teams in the same LEAGUE started 7-1 or better thru 8g, joining 2003 AL (NYY, KC, OAK) pic.twitter.com/xvO3PWCMki
— Sarah Langs (@SlangsOnSports) April 6, 2025
With the Dodgers’ lineup full of superstars and MLB’s No. 2 payroll ($321.3M), Los Angeles’ 9-1 record comes as no surprise. And the Padres, who cracked the league’s top-10 payrolls this season at $209M (No. 9) and made the MLB playoffs as a wild-card team last season with a 93-69 record, are impressing again early on.
But after a subpar 80-82 finish in 2024, new Giants president of baseball operations Buster Posey brought a revived culture — and a couple of key free-agent additions — to San Francisco, and the early returns are promising. The Giants won their sixth consecutive game Saturday, instilling hope in fans eager for a return to the team’s past championship glory.
It’s clear a path to the postseason won’t be easy. But if the Giants can keep stacking wins across their 162-game campaign, there could be magic inside Oracle Park once again.
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