LOS ANGELES — The Giants and Dodgers have squared off in Dodger Stadium for 60 years. Los Angeles has defended its home field as convincingly as this they did year only once.
Two losses in May clouded a 14-7 April. A four-game in late July sliced the Giants’ postseason odds. There was the Yermín Mercedes dropped pop-up, a go-ahead Cody Bellinger grand slam, and Brandon Belt getting hit for.
This final trip to Chavez Ravine saw fireworks from lottery ticket Lewis Brinson on Monday and a similarly dazzling performance by rookie David Villar in the series finale — but little else of note for a club already looking to 2023.
The Dodgers turned Dodger Stadium into a house of horrors for the Giants this year, defeating SF in eight of nine matchups. The Giants’ .111 winning percentage in Chavez Ravine is now tied with 1979 for the lowest mark in a season in franchise history.
Villar’s first career multiple-homer game supplied all three of San Francisco’s runs in a 7-3 loss. Max Muncy cracked the game open in the eighth with his third blast in the past two games, sending the Giants (65-70) to Milwaukee for a doubleheader with their heads down.
“We’ve talked over the past couple days about how instrumental David can be to the future of this franchise,” manager Gabe Kapler said postgame. “We see him as a guy who is kind of setting the stage for what might happen next year. He’s got a long way to go, but that’s a pretty good indication, off some pretty good pitching, that he can handle some of the best around the game. Shouldn’t come as any surprise.”
It was 99 degrees when Kershaw delivered the first pitch, a fastball over the plate. But the sweltering heat didn’t lead to increased offense at first. Kershaw dominated for four innings and Alex Cobb danced around baserunners to keep Los Angeles scoreless.
Then in the fifth, Villar — the promising 25-year-old infielder — cut through the humidity.
Villar sent a 2-2 Kershaw slider 408 feet to right-center for his second home run of the week and third of the season.
“I think you have to be fearless,” Villar said postgame. “Really, as long as my career is, I kind of just have to separate the name from the player”
This month is as significant for Villar as any player in the Giants clubhouse. Kapler has consistently mentioned the infielder as a piece of the club’s future and as someone who has earned the chance to prove it.
He struggled early this season, getting stuck on one home run for 21 games between July and August. During that drought, he was dealing with the normal wear and tear of a full baseball season. That caused him to lose his posture at the plate, he told KNBR this week.
“Which was causing me to see pitches that looked better than they were,” Villar told KNBR earlier this week. “I think it was making me miss pitches I would normally do damage on.”
Villar diagnosed the issue and committed to returning to more of an upright position. He broke out this week in Dodger Stadium, hitting an opposite field homer off Andrew Heaney in the series opener, smacking two singles against Tyler Anderson and then beating Kershaw.
Villar’s homer Wednesday put the Giants up 2-0 in the fifth. But in the bottom half, Justin Turner gave Los Angeles the lead with a three-run shot off Cobb.
His next at-bat, Villar equalized the game. He lofted the first Justin Bruihl pitch he saw to almost the same exact spot in right-center as his first homer to knot the score at 3-3.
All four of Villar’s home runs this season have come off left-handed pitchers, but Kapler said he has a chance to be an everyday player. The infielder’s upper-cut swing has always allowed him to get the ball in the air with consistency; Kapler has noted that his batting practices feature almost exclusively fly balls.
Like the homer off Bruihl, both of Villar’s hits on Tuesday also came on the first pitch of the count. He knows how tough MLB pitchers can be, and falling behind in the count makes things even tougher. Villar likes to say he tries to get his “A” swing off as often as possible, and taking cuts early can help that.
The Giants have committed to providing a long runway for Villar because of his minor-league production. He set a Richmond Flying Squirrels record with 20 home runs in 2021. This year, he hit 27 homers in 84 Triple-A games.
No other Giant hitter fared well Wednesday afternoon, though, and the Dodgers rallied for four runs against Littell in the eighth to pull away with a win. Muncy’s three-run shot proved fatal. Brinson’s two-homer game on Monday represented the only Giants win in Dodger Stadium all season.
Still, Villar’s power is starting to play at the big-league level, and that could be the most welcome development of September for a Giants franchise desperate for an infusion of youth.