Darren Yamashita-USA TODAY Sports
The suddenly rotation-thin Giants started a 37-year-old who had not pitched in a major league game in nearly five years against one of the best lineups in baseball.
And Scott Kazmir, and his remarkable story, was a clear strength of a team that had a clearer weakness.
Through two games, the Giants have eight hits in 13 1/3 innings off the Dodgers’ rotation. More concerningly, they have two combined runs against the pair of aces.
Kazmir was the better story, but Walker Buehler the best pitcher on Saturday afternoon, when the Dodgers shut down the Giants, 6-3, in front of a season-high 13,660 at Oracle Park to pull even in the NL West for a temporary three-way tie. The Giants will lose the series and turn to Anthony DeSclafani on Sunday, while the Dodgers will go for the sweep with Julio Urias.
The Giants, Dodgers and Padres all have the same record (28-18), but San Diego was in the middle of its game at the time of publication. The Giants came home after a sizzling road trip having won five straight, but none of those involved the buzz saw they just dashed into.
It was reigning Cy Young winner Trevor Bauer who loudly silenced their bats Friday, and Buehler did the same job without the anti-fanfare a day later.
For the first time all season, an opposing starter lasted seven innings against a Giants lineup that prides itself most on working down pitchers. Buehler, yet another ace the Dodgers can throw at you, was excellent through seven, one-run innings. The Giants got to the Dodgers’ bullpen, Buster Posey shooting an eighth-inning, two-run rocket over the cars on the left-field wall to make it interesting. But the Giants wouldn’t get past interesting because their own bullpen was poor.
Buster with the two-run homer ? pic.twitter.com/rSzwZ0oZRu
— SFGiants (@SFGiants) May 23, 2021
The Giants managed six hits off of Buehler, and few were well-struck. Their best threat (and the only one they cashed in on) came in the seventh, when Brandon Crawford — who else? — led off with a double, and Evan Longoria’s bloop single put runners on the corners. Alex Dickerson inside-outed a shot to left to knock in one. But with two on, Buehler froze Mauricio Dubon with a fastball and pumped one by Darin Ruf’s bat to escape further damage.
That was the Giants’ best chance. They tried to mount a rally in the third, when Mike Tauchman singled and Kazmir — who took his at-bat — sacrificed him to second. But Mike Yastrzemski struck out and Posey grounded out.
The team from Hollywood beat a story that Hollywood should co-opt.
Kazmir had not pitched in the majors in 1,703 days — since Sept. 23, 2016, when he wore Dodgers blue. He stepped away to care for his family, and time went by and he realized how much he wanted back in. He pitched in a pop-up league last year, and the Giants brought him late to Scottsdale, before he reported to Sacramento. The injury to Logan Webb created an opening for the three-time All-Star, who has baseball chances like cats have lives.
And in what had to be an emotional game, he was everything the Giants could have asked for. He lasted four innings and allowed one run against the powerful Dodgers lineup. He only gave up two hits and no-hit everyone but Max Muncy, whose first-inning splash hit was a rude welcome back.
Kazmir covered four innings on 55 pitches because he is not yet built up, and the ones who followed were not as strong.
Jarlin Garcia watched Austin Barnes drill his first homer of the year. Nick Tropeano — called up Friday as a potential swing man — got through two innings, the second of which was trouble. Three hits in four at-bats — including a Matt Beaty double to right that eluded Mike Yastrzemski’s glove — provided LA two more runs, and Jose Alvarez was touched up for two runs in the eighth. (Both of which were unearned because Steven Duggar was charged with an error for dropping a ball other center fielders would not have gotten to.)
The rotation continues to be excellent, the bullpen continues to be troubling, and the offense is doing what many offenses do against Dodgers pitching: nothing. The Giants hoped to send a message that they indeed belong at the top of the division, but the Dodgers’ pitching has sent a statement of its own.