Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports
LOS ANGELES – It’s not just that the Giants have gotten buried so early this season.
It’s also that the Giants have gotten buried so early in games this season.
Wednesday’s disaster in LA felt familiar because it was, Drew Pomeranz allowing three runs in the first and the Giants never peeking their heads above ground again in a 9-2 loss at Dodger Stadium.
In 72 first innings this season, the Giants have allowed 71 runs. In 72 first innings, the Giants have scored 19 runs. It’s one ungodly statistic that gives shape to a 31-41 team that is beginning to wave the white flag six weeks before the trade deadline. Here’s another: In 27 innings of this series against the hated Dodgers, the Giants offense has mustered 11 hits, just four coming Wednesday. The Dodgers have 32, and now have won two of three games with a fourth coming Thursday.
This was less a rivalry game and more a tilt that pitted the best team in the National League (50-25) against a team going nowhere, even if several of its individual players are heading elsewhere.
The first inning was typically rough for the Giants, Chris Taylor launching a straight Pomeranz fastball 379 feet for a three-run home run. Los Angeles tacked on a run in the second and two in the third, the outcome never in doubt. Their 4-5 hitters (Cody Bellinger and Taylor) combined to go 5-for-7 with three homers.
The second inning was atypically rough for the Dodgers. Rich Hill, after throwing 15 pitches in a 1-2-3, two-strikeout first, was pulled as he warmed up for the frame with what the team termed as left forearm discomfort. Dylan Floro began the parade of five Dodgers relievers, but while the Dodgers had no starter, the Giants had no chance.
San Francisco didn’t get its first hit of the game until there were two outs in the fourth, when Tyler Austin lined a shot to right to make it 6-1. Austin was a rare bright spot of another dreary day, also making two diving catches, a third against the wall in left field, and recording an assist on a would-be Justin Turner double in the seventh. Austin appeared woozy after his fifth-inning robbery of a base hit, though.
Mike Yastrzemski hit his third career home run, but those two dingers accounted for the Giants’ only hits until Kevin Pillar doubled in the eighth.
Taylor’s second blast of the day finished Pomeranz in the fifth. The lefty, who had made two straight solid starts, lasted just 4 1/3 innings and allowed seven runs. He was at his best against the Dodgers in three previous outings this season, but a poor fourth try cranked his ERA up to 7.09.
