San Francisco dropped the series finale against LA 5-4, while off the field they celebrated the trade for Rafael Devers
The San Francisco Giants dropped the rubber match against the Los Angeles Dodgers on Sunday with a 5-4 loss — a game that felt a bit peripheral in the wake of splashy Rafael Devers trade.
The news took the clubhouse by surprise just as it did the rest of the baseball world. Willy Adames, interviewed on-field by ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball broadcasters, commented that the team found out just 15 minutes before they took the field. Projected starter turned trade-piece, Kyle Harrison, had already done his pregame bullpen session before he was ushered back into the clubhouse, out of his orange-and-black duds and rushed to LAX.
The Giants pitching plan came together on a fly. Sean Hjelle took the ball for his first career start and performed serviceably considering the situation and the fact that our ears were still vicariously ringing after the pounding Landen Roupp took yesterday. Hjelle would strike out 5 over 3.2 innings, giving up 2 runs on 3 hits and 2 walks.
Though initially down 2-0 after a sacrifice fly in the first from Andy Pages and a solo homer by Tommy Edman in the 2nd off starter Sean Hjelle, the Giants grabbed the lead in the 4th with a 2-out, 3-run rally against carrot-top starter Dustin May.
A hit-by-pitch by back-up to the back-up catcher Logan Porter preceded a single from Mike Yastrzemski before Christian Koss punched an RBI single up the middle. With the line-up turned over, Jung Hoo Lee tucked a 103 MPH grounder between first base and the outstretched glove of Freddie Freeman. The rolled into the right field corner allowing both runners to score before Lee settled at third for his fifth triple of the year.
The Giants had a chance to add-on to their lead in the top of the 5th with Dom Smith hustling around the bases from first on a two-out gapper to left by Tyler Fitzgerald. Left fielder Kiké Hernandez slid to keep the ball from rolling to the fence, but didn’t come up with it cleanly and overthrew the cut-off causing the baseball to kick around the infield. Smith charged around third but ultimately heeded Matt Williams’ stop sign (call-back to Heliot Ramos blowing through one on Friday). Both runners would end the inning stranded out there.
A one-run lead was going to be a dice-y endeavor to protect for six innings. Yesterday’s blow-out meant typical bridge arms like Spencer Bivens and Tristen Beck were off the table, nor was Jordan Hicks available since he had just been dispatched to Boston. Relief options were sparse. Bob Melvin called on recent addition Joey Lucchessi to hopefully span the gap to the higher leverage arms in the later innings and manage the heavy lefty swings at the top of the LA order. The veteran southpaw closed out the 4th but got himself into trouble in the 5th, giving up lead-off singles to Shohei Ohtani and Mookie Betts. He got Freddie Freeman to ground out to second, advancing both runners into scoring position before passing the baseball on to Ryan Walker to find a way out of the mess.
For a moment, Walker did. A flash of light appeared at the end of the inning’s dark tunnel when he struck out Teoscar Hernández, who had homered in the previous two games.
There was a way out of the fray. A hit or an error was required to tie up the game, and Ryan Walker had the same-side advantage over Andy Pages.
But Pages, living in the shadow of the top of the LA line-up, is out of the spotlight and driving opponents mad. He’s playing Gold Glove caliber defense in center, hitting for average, and most frustratingly, batting .381 with a .900-plus OPS with runners in scoring position.
He rocketed his first pitch deep and left of the left field foul line. I didn’t even finish exhaling my sigh of relief before Pages shot Walker’s next offering — a very, very bad, terrible, rotten hang-dog slider — over the wall and deep and very much right of the left field foul line.
A three-run, lead-swapping shot that proved to be the decider. Daniel Johnson lifted a solo shot in the 8th — his first homer as a Giant and first since 2021 — to get San Francisco within one, but three swinging K’s from the 2 thru 4 hitters in the 9th sealed the deal.
A series loss to the Dodgers is a series loss to the Dodgers. A certified bummer no matter the circumstances. BUT…there’s reasons to feel okay about, or find peace with, this outcome. One: taking 1 of 3 against the Dodgers in LA is nothing to sneeze at. Two: the Giants threw together this pitching plan with a depleted relief corps minutes before first pitch, and they didn’t get absolutely torched by one of the best offenses in the Majors. Sweet! Three: the Giants weren’t even supposed to be here, remember? Back in March, the division wasn’t supposed to be in play. By this first head-to-head match-up these two teams were supposed to be miles apart. Here we are in mid-June and the Giants are dogging LA’s shiny blue heels. Not only is San Francisco a threat — but now they’re evolving.