Cary Edmondson-USA TODAY Sports
“Black Lives Matter” blared from the scoreboard as both teams warmed up. Mike Yastrzemski mentioned he had barely slept, the gravity of the moment and the gravity of the teams’ actions on his mind.
Baseball was played at Oracle Park on Thursday, a day after the Giants and Dodgers stayed off the field, joining a movement the Milwaukee Bucks spearheaded, allowing matters of police brutality and injustices against minorities to supersede a game. Since the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Wisconsin, conversations around sports have again changed, platforms used and games withheld.
But not forever, and the conversation moved back to the field Thursday. In a game that feels less important, it was nonetheless discouraging for the Giants, who lost 7-0 in the first leg of a pair of seven-inning tilts, snapping a seven-game winning streak.
The Giants (15-17) have one more Thursday afternoon with the Dodgers before three games in Arizona, the last few before a trade deadline they have made especially difficult for Farhan Zaidi and Scott Harris. For a second straight year, a team that was heading for selling has pulled up from its nosedive in the weeks ahead of decision day.
Facing Clayton Kershaw in an abbreviated, two-hour, 17-minute game was not going to help the Giants’ cause, though. The legendary left-hander was brilliant in six scoreless innings, allowing just four hits while walking none.
He struck out four and spread out the rare hard-hit balls from the Giants, never letting a threat come to fruition. He was deadliest on Joey Bart, the young catcher going 0-for-3 with a three strikeouts (two off Kershaw) and looked every bit like the rookie he is in trying a golf swing on a bouncing curveball.
The Giants scattered four hits against Kershaw, no Giant reaching base multiple times in his six frames. After going 3-for-22 with runners in scoring position Tuesday, they went 0-for-4 in such situations Thursday.
If there was a bright side, they were much more clutch in the field, Yastrzemski beautifully robbing a Justin Turner home run in the seventh.
Logan Webb started for the Giants and pitched better than his line (3 2/3 innings, five runs, four hits, two walks) implies.
The Dodgers’ first run was manufactured after Mookie Betts walked and Corey Seager singled in the first. Their big inning was the fourth, in which mostly soft contact translated to four runs.
After a walk — Webb also hit two batters, his accuracy his flaw — a hit-and-run single put runners on the corners, Chris Taylor shooting it to the second-base space Wilmer FLores abandoned. Joc Pederson then singled one run in, hitting against the shift on a ball that had an expected batting average of .040. The big hit was earned, though, Austin Barnes’ two-run double to left widening the gap.
AJ Pollock’s two-run homer off Andrew Suarez finished the scoring.
The score will matter for a team with decisions coming, even if it feels less important than it did a week ago.
