SF Giants' blunders cost them in 7-2 loss to Dodgers
The SF Giants brought up youngsters Marco Luciano and Tyler Fitzgerald for a last-gasp series with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Unfortunately, it couldn't stop the trend of bad fielding and weak hitting that have derailed the Giants' underpowered stretch drive, and the Dodgers triumphed 7-2.
Kyle Harrison's solid start was wasted after he went 5 1/3 innings, giving up two runs and three hits. The big damage came on a home run from J.D. Martinez, who hit his 30th home run of the season in the 5th, which is eight more than the Giants' leader, Wilmer Flores.
John Brebbia was the hard-luck loser after giving up a triple to Will Smith and a sacrifice fly to Martinez. The ball to medium right field probably wouldn't have scored Smith, except that Mike Yastrzemski appeared to forget how many outs there were.
Yaz casually jogged under the fly ball, and seemed surprised to see the Dodgers' catcher head home as he stood flat-footed. His throw was well off line, and the Dodgers took a lead they wouldn't relinquish. Sadly, Yastrzemski is statistically the Giants' best defender this season.
The didn't end the bad glove work. L.A. got two more runs in the seventh inning after Chris Taylor reached on a J.D. Davis error and James Outman defied the curse of his name by doubling him to third. They both scored when Luke Jackson threw two wild pitches, which arguably could have been blocked better by Blake Sabol. Or, honestly, Blake Lively.
The Giants didn’t get a base runner until the fourth inning against starter Emmet Sheehan and didn’t get a hit until Joc Pederson’s 15th home run of the season in the sixth.
That didn’t keep them from scoring in the fifth, however, when a Mike Yastrzemski hit-by-pitch preceded three straight walks to Giants rookies.
The last walk gave Tyler Fitzgerald his first major league RBI and cut the Dodgers lead to 2-1. It also chased Sheehan, even though he hadn’t yet allowed a hit. The rookie went six hitless innings against San Francisco in June as well, making some dubious history for the Giants.
Dave Roberts brought in lefty Alex Vesia, and an aggressive Gabe Kapler pinch-hit the slumping J.D. Davis for LaMonte Wade with the bases loaded. Davis struck out, which will clearly infuriate Kapler’s critics who hate platooning, tattoos, and overly-jacked baseball managers. If Kapler was eating making this move, some local radio hosts might have suffered aneurysms.
The new Giants brought up today acquitted themselves well. Marco Luciano drew a big walk in the fifth inning rally, and singled in the seventh. Outside of his RBI walk, Fitzgerald got his first major league hit, doubling Luciano to third in the seventh, before Davis played into the Dodgers’ hands by drawing a walk to load the bases.
For the Giants, there’s no platoon disadvantage that comes close to the disadvantage of batting with the bases full. Wilmer Flores did what you'd expect from the 2023 Giants, popping out to end the inning.
Forever Giant Shelby Miller got the win with a scorelesss-but-rocky inning of work in the seventh. L.A. added two runs in the eighth off of possible sleeper agent Scott Alexander, but on a night where the Giants managed only three hits, the Dodgers didn't need their former pitcher's sabotage.
The loss drops the Giants below .500 to 76-77, sixth place in the wild-card race and just one game ahead of the Padres. It's not over until it's over, but let's just say that Gabe Kapler clearing Alex Cobb for the playoffs feels like Ted Cruz in 2016 - it's not going to matter.
