#2 Giants (20-8) vs. #6 Diamondbacks (15-13)

Season Head to Head:
Diamondbacks won the season series 2-0: 8-7 & 7-6

Playoff Leaders
Giants:
Carter Rain .471 Avg, .591 OBP%, 1 2B, 6 RBI, 4 R
Matt Stebner .450 Avg, .522 OBP%, 2 3B, 8 RBI, 5 R
Steven Latos  1-1, 13.0 IP, 2.15 ERA, 19 K, 1 CG

Diamondbacks:
Nolan Handley .588 Avg, .941 Slug%, 6 2B, 4 RBI, 6 R
Tom Gayef  1-1, 11.1 IP, 2.47 ERA, 16 K, 1 CG
Joe Sergent 1-1 11.1 IP, 0.00 ERA, 13 K

Preview: Congrats to both the Giants and Diamondbacks on getting to play for the 2026 FMBA title. Always an exciting time of year, but also a little bittersweet because baseball is nearing it’s end. We’re lucky to be one of the last leagues in Canada still playing this time of year.

The Giants have reached their first final since 2016 (which coincidentally was also against the Diamondbacks). They had a really good year, besting the Dukes in the Semi-Finals in an all-time barn burner Game 3, winning walk-off styles 12-11 in 9 innings. I had written that runs would be a premium in that series and pitching would dominate, but instead the exact opposite happened as the bats came to life in all three games for the G-Men. 

The Diamondbacks meanwhile I mean what can I really write here. Just copy and paste from the last 4 season write-ups really. They will be playing for their 8th championship, which all started back in 2016 vs the Giants when they won their 1st. Life is a circle. They got their revenge from last season over the White Sox in the Semi-Finals 3 game series, which were all relatively low scoring well pitched games. So again the complete opposite of what we thought.

These teams last met in the playoffs in 2024 which the Diamondbacks swept 2-0 relatively easily. It’s supposed to be a high of 12 degrees Saturday which definitely gives the advantage to pitchers, as balls won’t exactly be flying off the bats. Both teams have strong pitching, so as per usual, whichever team plays better defense will probably win this. Hopefully the rain stays away and we can get this in. Good luck to both teams.