LOS ANGELES — If the Giants’ six-run burst against Josh Hader wasn’t enough to prove that no lead is safe around them, then their five-run comeback in a rocking Dodger Stadium should.
In front of the largest paid attendance in baseball this year, on national television, the Giants erased their rivals’ 5-0 lead in the seventh inning with a stunning seventh-inning barrage.
Evan Longoria sparked the rally with a solo home run. A walk, single and hit-by-pitch cycled through two Dodgers relievers and eventually brought Darin Ruf to the plate with two outs and the bases loaded.
With one swing of the bat, Ruf tied the game.
Ruf, who smacked a solo home run off Hader last week, maintained his clutch gene through the All-Star break. His first career grand slam silenced a sold-out Dodger Stadium and erased what had been one of the sloppiest Giants games in weeks.
“There’s no quit in this team,” Longoria said postgame.
Ruf’s 10th home run came in a losing effort, though, as Mookie Betts negated it with a three-run shot off Jarlin García in the eighth. Against the Dodgers, the Giants (48-44) needed more than a miracle in a 9-6 defeat to open the post-All-Star break portion of the season.
The Giants’ three-game sweep of the Dodgers earlier this season — their first against SF’s rivals since 2016 — was a statement. It brought them within 3.5 games of first place in the National League West.
After that series though, a 4-14 stretch nearly derailed San Francisco’s season. A historically porous defense made every ball in play an adventure. Injuries cut into the Giants’ depth and forced players into uncomfortable positions. Winning five of six before the break snapped the funk.
Now the Giants have opened the post-All Star break summer with a gut-punch. Holding a coin flip chance at making the playoffs, the next 10 days before the Aug. 2 trade deadline could determine if the Giants’ season will make a push or take a dive.
“Almost any spot we could add somebody who’s a superstar-caliber player,” Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi said on KNBR before Thursday night’s game. “I think we have that flexibility roster-wise and financially, and it’ll be interesting to see how the next 10 days evolve.”
The first of those 10 days, at first, looked nightmarish.
The Dodgers scored in each of Carlos Rodón’s first three innings. Like it has all year, San Francisco’s porous defense forced the starter to throw extra pitches and handed Los Angeles runs. Joc Pederson’s subpar speed showed in left, Luis González lost a ball in the Dodger Stadium lights, Thairo Estrada was off-line on a relay home, Austin Wynns threw a ball into center while trying to catch a steal.
The Giants rank last in Fangraphs’ defense metric. They have for most of the season. The All-Star break didn’t magically fix things.
SF’s deficiencies were particularly stark against the Dodgers. Both Cody Bellinger and Trea Turner made difficult sliding catches in the fourth inning. Betts made one to close out the game. Athlete-for-athlete, the teams don’t compare.
All the while, LA starter Mitch White — a San Jose native — kept the Giants hitless through five innings.
Then Wynns floated a single to lead off the sixth, and Dodgers manager Dave Roberts went to his bullpen.
Just like against the Brewers, the Giants made two early errors. They played sloppy baseball. But then as Joey Bart did, Longoria sent a jolt through SF’s dugout with his solo shot. The Dodgers fans who caught his ninth home run of the season tossed it back into play twice — perhaps bad juju for the home team.
Command issues plagued Phil Bickford and were contagious to Alex Vesia. Then with two outs, Ruf dug in as a pinch-hitter.
Six days ago, Mike Yastrzemski socked the Giants’ first walk-off grand slam since 1973. Ruf’s 390-foot encore came two innings earlier, but felt just about as momentous.
“I think that was a really good reminder that we should never give up and we should always kind of keep our minds in our game,” Yastrzemski said after his game-winner. “Just keep playing, no matter what happens. Because mistakes that we’ve made, someone else could make them or we could get back in the game just by swinging the bats well.”
The Giants didn’t stop playing on Thursday, even when they fell behind 5-0. Even when they were getting no-hit. Even when their defense belonged on a school recess field. Even when Trayce Thompson’s triple tied the game again in the eighth at 6-6.
But then García entered to face Cody Bellinger with two outs in the exact situation García is made for. But instead of winning the left-on-left matchup like he seems to do automatically, García walked the outfielder on four pitches.
That brought up Betts, who performed the finishing move. His three-run shot retook the Giants’ mojo and put the Dodgers ahead, and his diving catch in the right field corner ended it.
Even with the loss, the Giants were closer to the five-of-six Giants than the 4-14 Giants. If they continue to show that kind of fight for this next week, the Rest Of The Season Giants could look a bit different — possibly in the “superstar-caliber” player department.