In a 9-1 win against Logan Webb and the Giants, Mookie Betts, Max Muncy, Freddie Freeman and Will Smith showed just how potent the Dodgers lineup can be.
One night later, the Giants shut them out.
As Giants brass, publicly and privately, caution against small sample sizes in a start to the season that has featured extremes, San Francisco showed that in a nine-inning snippet, they can compete with the perennial National League west champions.
Already this season, the Giants have struck out at historic rates. They’ve also hit home runs at historic rates.
San Francisco bucked the former trend while socking two more home runs — back-to-back blasts in the eighth inning — in a shutout victory over the Dodgers, 5-0. Alex Wood did exactly what’s asked of him by getting through Los Angeles’ lineup twice, allowing just one hit. He yielded to a polished, prepared bullpen group that carried the rest.
“I really have a lot of faith in everyone in our bullpen,” manager Gabe Kapler said postgame. “Today, I thought it made most sense to let the bullpen do the work, and they did a great job.”
Rarely does a two-run lead in the first inning hold for the next eight. Especially against a team like the Dodgers. But Brandon Crawford and David Villar’s back-to-back jacks rewarded the work of Wood, Jakob Junis, Scott Alexander, John Brebbia, Tyler Rogers and Camilo Doval.
Giants first baseman LaMonte Wade Jr. led off the game with a nine-pitch walk and Michael Conforto followed him with a base on balls of his own. They both scored standing up on Joc Pederson’s double down the first base line.
Pederson’s RBI landed 41 feet from home. The Giants didn’t need to break the exit velocity meter to double their run total from the previous night.
Wood, a former Dodger, didn’t allow a hit in his 4.2 innings. The Giants understandably are extra cautious with him when he’s about to face hitters for a third time, and Kapler pulled him after 75 pitches with the heart of LA’s order due up to face him in that dangerous situation.
Last year, all hitters facing Wood for a third time in a game posted a .941 OPS — up from .706 on their second hacks.
Kapler’s quick hook paid off. Jakob Junis relieved Wood and got the one batter necessary to escape the inning, inducing a deep fly out to Will Smith that Michael Conforto tracked down on the right field warning track.
Then the next inning, when two singles and a catcher’s interference got Junis in trouble, Kapler played the percentages again to immediate results. To face left-handed hitter James Outman — one of the hottest hitters to start the year and a rising star — SF tapped southpaw Scott Alexander.
Alexander put down Outman on a swinging bunt and then struck out Miguel Rojas to leave the bases loaded. That preserved San Francisco’s 2-0 lead and extended Alexander’s scoreless game streak — a stretch that spans back to last year — to 14.
“He’s nasty,” Wood said of Alexander. “He’s got a unicorn sinker.”
Kapler has already been questioned for his bullpen usage this year. The results of his management Tuesday night, though, was undeniable.
John Brebbia got tasked with the top of Los Angeles’ order, and although Mookie Betts drew a walk, the Dodgers’ 2-3-4 hitters behind him went down quietly.
Tyler Rogers chipped in a 1-2-3 inning, including striking out Max Muncy — the two-homer terror from Monday night.
San Francisco’s 2-0 lead may have been enough, especially considering how easy Doval made the ninth inning. But the Giants padded on three more runs with their third back-to-back home runs of the season.
Mike Yastrzemski, on a night full of tremendous at-bats, doubled deep to right field. Then Villar smoked a home run to center field. One pitch later, the veteran Crawford launched one over the right field bricks.
It was Villar’s first career home run at Oracle Park — “I think it’s been a monkey on my back,” he said — and Crawford’s 54th.
Betts, Muncy, Freeman, and Smith, the Giants’ villains from the previous night, could only watch them fly overhead from the diamond.