Kurtenbach: The Giants and Dodgers fighting for the NL West lead? That’s next-level Buster Magic

The Giants might be victims of their own success.

The incessant talk about “vibes” in Spring Training, all those walk-off hits in April, a great bounce back from a serious May lull to start June — it might be giving you the wrong impression about this team.

They’re not supposed to be here.

Starting Friday night, the Giants will start a three-game set with the Dodgers, with first place in the National League West on the line. Yes, we’re not even halfway through the baseball season — have you even put in an All-Star ballot yet? — but did anyone expect the Giants to be in such a position last October? What about in January?

The doldrums of aimlessness, ends-meeting roster construction, and perennial .500 baseball have Giants fans justly thirsty for playoff baseball in 2025. Perhaps this is the series that convinces everyone it’s coming. Perhaps this three-game set deflates that balloon.

But either way, this team is ahead of schedule.

SF Giants win fifth consecutive one-run game, sweep flailing Braves: ‘We’re battle tested’

Hello Kitty brings massive crowds to Oracle Park for SF Giants vs. Braves game

Kurtenbach: Buster Posey successfully navigated SF Giants through his first real crisis in the most ironic way

Kurtenbach: The SF Giants’ next two weeks will tell us where they stand in the NL

Kurtenbach: The SF Giants desperately need offense. Buster Posey should look at these four trade-deadline targets

Don’t believe me? Well, then answer this question: What makes the 2025 Giants Buster Posey’s team?

The presence of Willy Adames? We’ll see if he can hit outside of Coors Field.

Justin Verlander? That’s not exactly working out.

Maybe it’s Dom Smith, a placeholder first baseman who has a nice, solid pickup since arriving in San Francisco earlier this month.

(I hope no one seriously chooses option three.)

Perhaps I’m underrating the soft power that has come from Posey’s regime, but the new director of baseball operations is being patient and open-minded when it comes to building this Giants roster as he sees fit — he’s going to let the last regime’s guys disqualify themselves before doing anything big, bold, and brash.

It’s a smart policy, even if it results in some Farhan Zaidi-like moves for the time being.

Posey’s focus seems to be on shaping the big-league club these days — that’s where the memory-making really happens, after all — but he is in charge of six levels of professionals. Building a major league team into his ideal takes time — imagine the challenge of changing an entire organization.

So, yes, the Giants, who can take control in the division over the Dodgers for the first time since 2021 with a sweep in Los Angeles, are punching above their weight.

(It helps that the Dodgers, whose pitching staff is in shambles and can’t seem to figure out the bottom of their batting order, have a nice hangover from their World Series championship, too.)

SF Giants see seven-game win streak snapped in ninth against Rockies

After starting season in Mexico, Vallejo’s Daniel Johnson is back home with SF Giants

SF Giants mount another late comeback, extend winning streak to seven

SF Giants’ Bailey joins Chapman on injured list with neck strain

SF Giants’ stunning ninth-inning comeback extends winning streak to six

But just because the Giants are doing better than anyone should have reasonably expected doesn’t mean that this is the time to rest on the team’s laurels. Is Smith the answer at first base for the rest of the season, or just a reasonable, affable stop-gap before the trade deadline? With Matt Chapman out for weeks at third base, can the Giants survive with Casey Schmitt manning the hot corner? How much patience does Posey have with Tyler Fitzgerald, who is still mired in a slump at the plate that’s more than half a season long? Fitzgerald has done a great job adapting to playing second base, but he’s batting .200 with a paltry .515 OPS in his last 25 games, with his last homer coming on April 17. It’s not good enough.

The Giants have made it this far with streaky hitting, excellent starting pitching, and a dominant bullpen. Pitching is, sadly, fickle — no one should expect a first-to-worst drop-off, particularly for the bullpen, but to expect this level of excellence to be maintained throughout the season is aggressive.

Posey aced his first big test as the man in charge — as DOBO, you really can describe the team as “Buster Posey’s Giants” — but there are countless more tests to come, and they’ll arrive sooner than one thinks.

The good news is that Posey didn’t inherit a bad — Rockies, White Sox, Marlins-bad — big-league team. He did, however, receive a barebones farm system that currently lacks the kind of young, foundational bats that this team should be calling upon instead of signing a player like Smith.

In that regard, the gap between the Giants and Dodgers is chasmic. Closing it is Posey’s true mandate, and to fulfill it will take years, and that’s if Posey proves to be exceptionally good at his new gig.

And yet, as it stands going into Friday’s game, the big league teams have but one game between them. Indicative of these teams’ true talent? Nope. Representative of the organizational strengths? Not even close.

It might even be downright fluky that the Giants and Dodgers are playing a series with these stakes.

But “fluky” is just another way of saying “Buster Magic.” The baseball gods have unquestionably blessed him and the Giants by proxy.

And while June is hardly the time for miracles, it isn’t too early for reflection.

The Giants’ organization has a long way to go under Posey. I do not envy his position.

But a series against the Dodgers with the division lead on the line in June, a rivalry set with some serious weight, and three games that will be must-see TV? That’s nothing to scoff at.

And whether it’s progress or a great starting point, it’s a good place to be, and nothing to take for granted.