Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports
LOS ANGELES — The Giants have emerged through the first two months of the season as the surprise of Major League Baseball, a club few picked — and few still pick — as a real contender in the NL.
They might enjoy their long-shot status. The long shots that came off of the Dodgers’ bats they enjoyed far less.
The Dodgers slammed three homers an estimated 1,232 feet, and the Giants again came up on the wrong side of a 4-3 loss at Dodger Stadium in front of a sellout crowd of 16,343 on Thursday. The Giants are 30-16 against MLB teams that are not their blood rivals from Southern California, but 0-for-4 against the class of the league.
The loss dropped the Giants (30-20) behind the Dodgers by a game. The top of the division is jumbled, and the Giants are 1.5 games back of the best-in-baseball Padres, who lost for just the second time in 13 games Thursday.
Gabe Kapler showed some urgency in the ninth inning, pinch-hitting Buster Posey against Kenley Jansen in a one-run game. But the catcher, making his first appearance off the bench this season, swung through a strike three.
The pitcher Curt Casali caught instead, Alex Wood, has been an All-Star pitcher against the rest of the league and a middling pitcher against the Dodgers.
A lot of pitchers have this problem — the defending World Series champs have an enviable lineup even without Corey Seager and Cody Bellinger — but it has to bother the lefty who won a ring with that club last year.
He has not been particularly strong against his old pals in two straight starts now, allowing three homers — a two-run shot to Justin Turner, a solo job to DJ Peters and the go-ahead long ball from Max Muncy — and held the Dodgers scoreless otherwise. He went six innings and allowed those four runs, half of the hits he surrendered finishing their travels over the fence.
He has let up two homers in 36 innings to other opponents, but four homers in 12 innings against Los Angeles.
He laid off his slider this time around and tried to induce more whiffs and ground balls with his two-seamer, which generally worked. But in a critical moment, with the game tied in the sixth and ahead 0-2 to Muncy, he left the sinker over the middle of the plate, and the Giants killer crushed it 420 feet to center.
Wood was not at his best, but he pitched well enough to give the Giants a chance, which their offense could not capitalize upon. The Dodgers rolled out seven pitchers, including 2 2/3 scoreless, dominant innings from starter David Price, in a bullpen game that they pieced together. The Giants had countered by alternating righty and lefty hitters, but it did not work in their first game without both Brandon Belt and Darin Ruf. (Jason Vosler played first and went 0-for-3.)
They had just one hit through five innings — the hit a long homer to left from Evan Longoria, who has begun to heat up again. They broke through again in the sixth, when Mike Yastrzemski got creative by drag-bunting his way on before Donovan Solano — and wouldn’t it be nice for the Giants if he heats up? — pulled his first homer of the year to tie the game. Muncy would untie it, though, an inning later, and the Giants did not have another hit after Solano’s.
The Giants’ bullpen was strong, as were Solano’s and Longoria’s bats, but they can’t fail in one area against a team as good as the Dodgers. And when they get outhomered 3-2, they generally will not beat the best MLB has to offer.
