Robert Hanashiro-USA TODAY Sports
LOS ANGELES — A season that at times looked like it would not happen, that debatably should not be happening, a season that will be played alongside a pandemic that promises to render this campaign unlike any other, has begun with the expected: The Dodgers beating the Giants.
The means to that end surely were changed, a sizable cutout crowd waving in the breeze rather than fans standing for waves. Fake crowd noise was pumped in, music was loud and the ambiance felt familiar, even if the look — ads adorning the outfield seats, masks on some players — was disjointed.
And the Giants’ strategies of beating the Dodgers by scheme rather than talent were on display. Johnny Cueto lasted four innings, perhaps even longer than Gabe Kapler envisioned. They turned to a parade of relievers, which they will do even when starters are stretched out, and Brandon Crawford was subbed out for Donovan Solano just as soon as Kapler could get a favorable matchup.
Still, the brains could not beat the brawn after Tyler Rogers, who has become the Giants’ most-trusted reliever, was blistered by the Dodgers’ big bats in the seventh inning, watching a 1-1 game become an 8-1 loss Thursday at Dodger Stadium to start the 60-game 2020 season on a sour note.
Rogers, the submariner who has been untouchable in major league and major league camps since September, was given the top of the LA lineup in the frame. He watched Mookie Betts single, Cody Bellinger serve a double to left and then induced a Justin Turner ground out to second. Solano came home but a touch too late. Kike Hernandez’s single then pushed the lead to 3-1. Rule 5 pick Dany Jimenez entered and couldn’t find the strike zone, the game unraveling. Connez Menez surrendered a two-run shot to Hernandez to make it a laugher.
A team that has to game-plan its way to relevance and a team that can overpower its way to dominance were reflected in the starting pitching. Cueto, who does not have the fastball he once did, looked like an artist, slowing the pace then quickening the pace, holding his knee in the air for three seconds or a split-second. AJ Pollock, who possesses a big leg kick, could not properly line up the timing in his strikeout.
Meanwhile, Dodgers righty Dustin May, who filled in for the injured Clayton Kershaw, was throwing 99 and darting fastballs all over, allowing a run in 4 1/3 innings, though the Giants had their chances against him.
Their lone run came from a Pablo Sandoval sacrifice that drove in Tyler Heineman in the third. Heineman, getting a first crack at replacing Buster Posey, had a roller-coaster day, getting on twice (he also successfully bunted against a shift) but ran the Giants out of a potential run. The gutsy, in not fleet-footed, baserunner strayed too far toward home as a Sandoval tapper accounted for one out, then Heineman was caught in a rundown to end the inning.
The Giants cannot afford to give away potential runs. An Alex Dickerson ninth-inning single was their only hit after the fifth inning.
That lack of hitting has always been the concern with this team, which will try to out-think opponents. Kapler has basically promised to get weird, which he did in the fifth.
When Cueto got the hook, he was replaced by a presumed starter, Drew Smyly entering and pitching an impressive frame around a Wilmer Flores error. Rico Garcia followed with a nice inning of his own before Rogers’ would go sideways.
The Giants have not announced any of their starters for the series, a tactic that is increasingly becoming clear, as they want to keep the opposing team guessing. If Smyly does not start this weekend, perhaps Tyler Anderson or Logan Webb will.
The strategies will continue to evolve in ways baseball has not experimented with much in the past, during a season that will not wait for the coronavirus to subside and will be unique in nearly every fashion.
The Giants have hoped the results would be different, too, after winning 77, 73 and 64 games the past three years.
New manager, new tactics, radically new season. But in one game, the same result.
