After losing their weekend series in LA, the Giants appear to be setup to lose their last remaining advantage in the rivalry.
There were some unquestionably cool things to happen for the San Francisco Giants over the weekend at Dodger Stadium:
- Logan Webb pitched a great game Friday night in part because he featured his cutter for the first time ever. Last season was a bit off pattern for him as the Dodgers blew him out in two Dodger Stadium starts (9 ER in 8.2 IP), but before 2024, he’d allowed just 9 ER in 33 IP (6 starts). Bryan Price’s departure was addition by subtraction for the entire pitching staff.
- Casey Schmitt did what??
According to Sportradar, Casey Schmitt is the first Giant to hit a grand slam in back to back games. Incredible way to do it.
— Alex Pavlovic (@PavlovicNBCS) June 15, 2025
- Sean Hjelle made his first major league start thanks to the Giants trading for literally Rafael Devers
On the other hand, the Dodgers extended their dominance over the Giants. They’ve lost just 3 series to San Francisco since the start of the 2022 season, and even in 2021, the Dodgers might’ve lost the regular season series 9-10, but they won the playoff series, which mattered more. The Giants weren’t at full strength in this one (no Matt Chapman), but that hardly seemed to matter. On paper, the Dodgers should be much better than the Giants — and for the foreseeable future. This series served as a reminder of that.
Also, Clayton Kershaw reaffirmed his bigoted bona fides, Dave Roberts was the anti-Steve Kerr, and the Dodgers surprised by taking an unexpected stand in the ongoing American culture war against Spanish-speaking people. For a team that draws 3+ million fans a year — a lot of them Spanish-speakers — it’s a sign that, well, times are changing, and the way the elite comport themselves is far more confrontational about what type of person is or isn’t acceptable.
But this is a sports site, and you’re probably already mad that I brought in the real world, even if sports needs the real world to have meaningful context. I know, I know, I’ve heard it all before — “stick to sports!” Well, I thought a slight detour through all the crummy things the Dodgers did this weekend would serve to buttress the fact that I — and most of you — don’t like the Dodgers. The whole rivalry thing, you know? I figured that detour would be worth it before getting into the meat of this post:
While there were some unquestionably cool things that happened over the weekend in Los Angeles for the San Francisco Giants and while the Dodgers showed themselves to be as ugly as we assume our favorite team’s rivals to be, in losing 2 out of 3, the Giants moved closer to resetting the history of the entire rivalry.
The Giants have never trailed in the Giants-Dodgers rivalry. The series has been comprised of 2,597 games going back to the 1889 World Series (and including the 2021 NLDS). The Giants have led the entire time. To be the most accurate, the Giants have never ended a season trailing the Dodgers in the head-to-head matchup. Maybe at some point over 130 years the Dodgers briefly went ahead. Since the start of the 21st century, the tide has shifted dramatically, with the Dodgers now leading 240-209 after this weekend. 2025 looks to be the year where the Dodgers overtake them and remain in the lead by season’s end.
The Dodgers might have won the rivalry with that 2021 NLDS win but marching ahead in the historic head-to-head cements that victory as permanent. The Dodgers have the resources to maintain their dominance indefinitely. The Giants’ plan year after year is to get lucky. The Devers trade adds an interesting wrinkle to all this, of course, and he’s their greatest hope for maintaining the overall series lead. The record right now:
1,293-1,287-17
The Giants will play the Dodgers 10 more times this season and so they’ll need to win 4 of those to remain in the lead. You’d like to think that with the Giants’ pitching and Rafael Devers in the middle of the order that this can be accomplished — perhaps even more than 4 wins! — but there’s an air of inevitably that this weekend triggered. At least for me.
And maybe you don’t care about this 136-year old rivalry record. Well, I’m a dirtbag rivalry dude and I love to see the Dodgers lose and love to see them win and win and win and still come up short in this one specific way. Losing that… well… it’s a lot like the Michael Jordan vs. LeBron people. At some point, we had to give up the argument. LeBron is the best ever. This very well could be the Dodgers’ century. In which case, we might have no choice but to admit that the Giants… can’t… BEAT LA.
I’d rather not, but it’ll be up to the Giants to do the work against a far superior force.