Robert Hanashiro-USA TODAY Sports
The Giants entered Dodger Stadium with a 3.5-game lead in the NL West, having won or split 10 series in a row. They arrived in Los Angeles excited about the twin aces they were about to unleash upon their blood rivals, with one of the few concerns a glut of outfielders and roster decisions on the horizon.
They leave Chavez Ravine up 1.5 games in the division, having lost three straight games for the second time this year — both times involving the Dodgers. Both Anthony DeSclafani and Kevin Gausman were reduced to mortals against an offense that tends to do that. And, oh yeah, two outfielders will now show up on injury reports.
The Dodgers took a pin to any notion of a free and easy ride to an NL West title, sweeping the brief, two-game set with a 3-1 win over the Giants on Tuesday, with Max Muncy — and not Gausman or DeSclafani or Trevor Bauer or Walker Buehler — looking like the best player in the series.
The Giants (50-29) have Los Angeles nipping at them and are three games up on the Padres before a day off and then four in Arizona beginning Thursday. The Diamondbacks project to be a soft pillow to land upon.
Gausman was not poor, but he needed to be near perfect with the way the Dodgers’ pitching has shut down the Giants’ offense. Both teams finished with three hits, but the Dodgers got the bigger ones.
San Francisco went 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position, making the club 0-for-19 with runners on second or third in the series. They had far fewer chances this time, Buehler holding them to one unearned run in 6 2/3 innings. They threatened in the ninth, but they wasted a two-on, no-out chance against Kenley Jansen.
The Giants had not lost a series since…May 21-23, when the Dodgers swept them at Oracle Park. They have been able to rely upon enough hitting and oftentimes dominant starting pitching, which they did not get the past two days.
Gausman’s night was different from the start. He walked two and hit one in a long, 29-pitch, two-run first inning, the runs courtesy a two-run, softly hit double from Chris Taylor that got past LaMonte Wade Jr. at first. It was clear immediately the Dodgers were determined not to chase a splitter that every other team has chased.
Gausman eventually moved away from the splitter, one of the best pitches in baseball, because of the 26 he threw, only five induced whiffs and zero were called strikes. He was forced to rely upon his four-seamer, which too often he couldn’t get high enough, and a slider and changeup he tried to mix in.
He lasted just five innings and allowed three runs — the third on a bomb from Muncy, his seventh in nine games against the Giants. Gausman’s five walks were his most as a Giant, his highest total since June 11, 2017, when he was with Baltimore. His night could have been significantly worse, but Taylor’s long drive to left in the fifth, with two on base, was caught by Alex Dickerson just before the wall.
Gausman has been nearly untouchable this year, and the dud snaps a streak of 12 consecutive starts without allowing more than two runs. While every pitcher has off nights, the Dodgers learning to read his splitter would be a concerning sign.
It was less concerning than Mike Tauchman going down, though.
The outfielder switched from left to right for this game at Dodger Stadium, now intimately familiar with the left-field wall. In the second inning, he sprinted back to the warning track after playing in with Buehler at bat, the opposing pitcher putting a charge into a Gausman offering. Upon hitting the dirt, Tauchman lunged to his left with his back to home plate and somehow made the catch, but then stayed down. Trainer Dave Groeschner and Gabe Kapler went out to check on him, and while he remained in for the moment, he was pulled in the fourth. There was no immediate update from the Giants about Tauchman’s condition.
Tauchman made another insane catch at Dodger Stadium pic.twitter.com/jSsdD41mfn
— SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) June 30, 2021
It was the second straight night there were concerns about a lefty-hitting Giants outfielder. Mike Yastrzemski, whose X-rays on his right leg were negative, was deemed day to day with a lower leg contusion after drilling a pitch off his leg Monday. He was out of the lineup Tuesday.
The Giants’ only run was thanks to a third lefty-hitting outfielder, with Steven Duggar’s two-out double knocking in a hobbling Wilmer Flores in the seventh. It knocked Buehler from the game, but Joe Kelly and Jansen combined to hold the Giants down.
The Giants are now 3-6 against the Dodgers, and this is the one test they have not passed thus far.
