Two weeks ago, the Dodgers welcomed the Giants back from the All-Star break with the first four-game sweep since 1985.
Now in early August, Los Angeles soured any residual trade deadline vibes the Giants possibly could have mustered from their unremarkable acquisitions. The Dodgers have now beat the Giants seven consecutive times, the first time that’s happened in a single season since 1980.
Again on the wrong side of rivalry history, San Francisco is now 3-11 since the All-Star break — a span starter Alex Cobb said would have “unimaginable” a couple months ago. Deadline acquisition J.D. Davis made his Giants debut, and athletic outfielder Bryce Johnson got his big-league feet wet, too. Neither made a noticeable immediate impact as SF blew two late bases-loaded chances and Julio Urías threw his third shutout against the Giants on the season.
The wide chasm between the Giants (51-54) and Dodgers (71-33) was on display again in LA’s 3-0 win, as it has been through all seven of these Dodger victories. The biggest difference was in San Francisco’s inability to convert prime scoring chances into runs compared with the Dodgers’ timely hitting.
“Losing is as difficult as it gets,” Cobb said postgame. “Going on stretches like we’re on, it’s hard to find the joy in the game when you’re going through that.”
Los Angeles was aggressive and athletic on the base paths; SF went station-to-station and made a costly mental mistake in Luis González’s double play to end the seventh.
González’s mental lapse led to a postgame chat with manager Gabe Kapler, just like it did when he got picked off first in Arizona last week.
“Essentially, we really want Luis to understand the game state and the value of his out on the bases relative to the score,” Kapler said.
González, even if he scored, wouldn’t have tied the game or put San Francisco ahead. He should have been more cautious and known that Mookie Betts, one of the game’s best athletes, was going to catch that flare.
The contrasts between the Dodgers and Giants weren’t visible just in a single inning or single play, though.
“They do a lot of everything right,” Cobb said. “Beyond being a superstar team, they do everything right. They run the bases well, they play incredible defense and they control the strike zone really well. Definitely shouldn’t be on the skid that we’re on, but they’re doing little things better than we are right now.”
LA’s Miguel Vargas, in his MLB debut, opened the game with an RBI ground-rule double and finished 2-for-4 with two RBI.
Johnson, in his MLB debut, didn’t touch a single ball in center field — though his presence pushed Austin Slater to a more natural corner position — and went 0-for-2 with a strikeout at the plate.
Vargas is a perennial top-100 prospect. Johnson was a sixth round pick up with the Giants because of the big club’s defensive ineptitude.
Another difference in the teams now separated in the division by a season-high 20.5 games, was Urías’ continued dominance.
Urías had allowed two earned runs in his previous three starts against the Giants, good for a 1.00 ERA in 18 innings.
The southpaw’s ownage isn’t limited to the 2022 season, though. He surrendered two earned runs in two NLDS games, including as the bulk arm in the Dodgers’ decisive Game 5 win. Before that, he allowed just three total runs in three post All-Star break starts in 2021.
That’s an eight-game sample, including the postseason, of Cooperstown-level performance from Urías. He posted a 1.39 ERA in those eight rivalry games entering Wednesday.
Then Urías retired the first 11 Giants he faced. SF’s lineup digging in against him featured three rookies and glove-first journeyman Dixon Machado.
When asked about Urías before the game, Giants manager Gabe Kapler described the lefty’s fastball as an optical illusion.
“He has an excellent fastball that carries well through the zone,” Kapler, extra familiar with Urías from his time with the Dodgers, said. “It’s the kind of fastball that you have to see down below your knees and it’s going to be a strike. If you see it at your belly button, it has the chance to be at the top of the zone or up and out of the zone — a pitch that’s not great to hit.”
That fastball generated 10 whiffs and set up six shutout innings. Urías struck out six and walked none through six frames.
Cobb, the Giants’ starter, also had electric stuff and registered a quality start. One turn after striking out 11, Cobb used his sinker-splitter arsenal to fan eight Dodgers in 6.1 innings, allowing three earned runs.
Cobb limited blow-up innings, which has been a focus of his, holding LA at one run in the second and fourth innings. He left Dominic Leone with a runner on first in the seventh, which came around to score on a sacrifice fly.
Then, trailing 3-0, the Giants loaded the bases with a broken bat single and two sharp knocks that landed first on the infield dirt — including Davis’ first hit as a Giant.
Machado, the journeyman shortstop in because Brandon Crawford and Thairo Estrada are injured, struck out. Then Mike Yastzemski, pinch-hitting for the rookie Johnson, flew out to shallow right field. González, the rookie punching above his weight all year, got doubled up at second.
The stretch, starting with “Beat LA” and “Let’s Go Giants” chants and ending with groans, capped Urías’ shutout and encapsulated this painful Giants stretch. Then in the ninth, the Giants loaded the bases against Craig Kimbrel with a single, walk and hit-by-pitch, but again left three on when Austin Slater watched strike-three into Austin Barnes’ glove.
Again, there it was: strong starting pitching wasted, roster limitations, injuries, mental mistakes, lack of opportunistic hitting and an aggrieved fan base.
