SF Giants allow 13 runs in loss to Dodgers, waste chance move up in standings
SAN FRANCISCO — In the moments leading up to first pitch, the scoreboard at Oracle Park flashed an updated look at the NL wild card standings. The New York Mets lost their eighth straight game, and the stakes in San Francisco were set. With a win, the Giants would own the third and final wild card spot.
If the Giants are going to usurp the Mets, they will have to wait at least one more day.
Following Friday’s dramatic walk-off win, the Giants lost 13-7 to the Dodgers as Logan Webb endured one of his worst starts of the season, matching his season-low for innings (four) and season-high for earned runs (six). Entering Sunday, San Francisco remains 0.5 games back of New York for the final wild card spot.
“Everybody knew what was going on today,” said manager Bob Melvin. “We had our hitter’s meeting today and the game was just finishing up. Everybody knows, but we’re trying to stay pretty simple and keep riding this momentum that we have.”
“With that team losing, it was in our hands and I did a bad job,” Webb said. “I just got to try to go out tomorrow and me, personally, just cheer on the guys as much as I can and try to win a series.”
Webb said he knew Saturday’s game was going to be weird when Shohei Ohtani began the evening with an infield single, a base hit that Webb believes “set the tone” for the night. The right-hander also pointed to Clayton Kershaw allowing four runs in the first as another oddity given Kershaw’s track record of success. The most peculiar part of Saturday’s loss, though, was Webb’s pitch mix.
The sinker has long been Webb’s foundational pitch. Entering play, Webb’s sinker accounted for 35.4 percent of his pitches since 2021, the highest usage rate of any pitch in his repertoire. Against the Dodgers, Webb effectively abandoned his trusty two-seamer.
On Saturday, Webb only threw eight sinkers against the Dodgers. That’s not just the fewest he’s thrown in a single game this season, but it’s the first time he’s failed to throw at least 10 sinkers in a single start since Sept. 2, 2020.
The few sinkers that Webb did throw weren’t exactly fooling the Dodgers. One of those sinkers ended up being a 454-foot home run off Ohtani’s bat. Two others resulted in singles for Ohtani and Freddie Freeman. Regardless, it was a stark departure from the pitch that has made him San Francisco’s ace.
“Even scouting them, so many at-bats that I probably overthought it a little bit today,” Webb said.
It’s possible that Webb wanted to switch up the game plan against the Dodgers given how his last outing against them unfolded. On July 11, Webb allowed six runs over 5 1/3 innings and surrendered a pair of two-run homers to Ohtani and former Giant Michael Conforto. Webb induced two strikeouts with his sinker that night but also allowed a single, double, homer (to Conforto) and plunked Mookie Betts.
“Fifth inning came around and seemed like I was trying to be cute with everything,” Webb said. “I’m throwing six cutters to a right-handed hitter. I don’t do that. I don’t know why I need to do that. Just overall, not good.”
Webb is referring to his battle with Betts in the top of the fifth, one that ended with Webb issuing a leadoff walk. That free pass was the beginning of a six-run inning for the Dodgers, a frame where they took the lead from San Francisco for good.
Prior to the fifth, the Giants positioned themselves to not just secure a series win but leap ahead of the Mets in the standings.
In the bottom of the first, the Giants responded to Freeman’s RBI single with a four-spot against Kershaw, who was making potentially his final start at this venue. Willy Adames, Matt Chapman and Luis Matos had RBI singles, and Jerar Encarnacion manufactured a run by beating out a double play. Going into the second, the Giants led 4-1 with their ace on the mound.
From there, the Dodgers score eight unanswered runs.
Ohtani’s 454-foot solo homer and Teoscar Hernández’s RBI double in the third trimmed the Giants’ lead to one run. In the fifth, the Dodgers landed a six-run haymaker that knocked Webb from the ballgame.
Webb faced three batters in the fifth and didn’t retire a single one, departing the game after loading the bases on a single and two walks. José Buttó entered to put out the fire but he couldn’t prevent the Dodgers from flexing their muscles.
Hernández drove home two with a double. Conforto contributed a sacrifice fly. Ben Rortvedt doubled home a pair. Betts singled home a run, the final blow that ended Buttó’s night. Left-hander Matt Gage following Betts’ single, the Giants’ third pitcher of the inning, and retired Freeman to finally end the inning.
The Giants countered by scoring three runs in the bottom of the fifth on an RBI double by Encarnacion and a two-run double from Friday’s hero Patrick Bailey. The Dodgers got those three runs right back in the top of the sixth against Gage, two coming on a double from Miguel Rojas.
San Francisco could not pass New York in the standings on Saturday, but another opportunity may present itself on Sunday as Robbie Ray takes the mound against Tyler Glasnow.
