LOS ANGELES — The Giants have won more games at Dodger Stadium in two days than they did all of last season.
San Francisco went 1-8 in Chavez Ravine during its forgettable 81-81 campaign of 2022. The club went 4-15 against the Dodgers — the most single-season losses in rivalry history.
This is not last year.
Since May 15, the Giants have been the hottest team in baseball. Their 21-9 record over the past 30 games is the best in MLB. With back-to-back wins in Dodger Stadium, the Giants are riding a six-game winning streak into Sunday’s series finale.
On Saturday, J.D. Davis demolished his third career grand slam and LaMonte Wade Jr. added a three-run home run to support a nearly spotless start from Alex Wood in his first turn back from the injured list. The Giants scored 15 runs on 17 hits while holding Los Angeles to nothing.
At various points in the Giants’ thumping, boos rained out from an antsy Dodgers crowd. By the bottom of the seventh, when Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman had already been subbed out, flocks of fans wearing blue and white filed out of their seats for the exits.
Even though the Giants (38-32) have the same record as they did through 70 games as last year, the makeup of the roster is more sustainable. San Francisco’s bullpen ranks first in the last month. Their influx of young talent has allowed them to overcome injuries both in the rotation and in the field. They have rattled scores into the double digits. As evidenced by the past two nights, they can even beat the Dodgers.
Saturday’s 15-0 win is the Giants’ second-biggest margin of victory against the Dodgers in the rivalry that spans centuries. The only greater Giants shutout win was a 16-0 New York Giants win over Brooklyn in 1949.
“It’s hard to have anything compare to what the boys did at the plate tonight,” Wood said postgame. “Fifteen runs against a pretty good club. I’ll take that any day.”
Wood, working on a pitch limit in his first game since a back strain, was as sharp as he’s been all year. In five shutout innings, Wood struck out four, walked none and allowed three hits. He filled up the strike zone, using a slightly higher hand placement to begin his delivery to improve his timing.
Bobby Miller, the Dodgers’ rookie, looked similarly dominant in his first four frames. He gave up two hits and needed just 54 pitches to fill up four zeroes, extending his scoreless streak to 20.
Friday’s extra-innings thriller registered a game time of 3:31. With Wood and Miller on the mound, the Giants got through four full innings on Saturday in 56 minutes.
Miller’s ERA in four career starts entering Saturday was 0.78. His arsenal that features two triple-digits fastballs, a changeup that had yet to be hit and a low-90s slider was the same pitch mix that gave him a 5.65 ERA in Triple-A this year.
The curious disparity meant Miller was bound for some regression. It came in the fifth inning.
Luis Matos drew a leadoff walk by taking mostly uncompetitive offerings. He then stole second — for his first MLB stolen base — and advanced to third on a pickoff play gone wrong.
Brandon Crawford, who cracked the go-ahead single in the series-opener, singled Matos home for the game’s first run. Many more were to come.
Wade followed with a three-run home run on a first-pitch curveball. The first baseman’s ninth homer of the year soared 399 feet. His casual bat drop is becoming a signature image of this season, as he’s been San Francisco’s most consistently productive player (before Saturday, Wade ranked tied for first on the team in defensive runs saved and second in WAR).
At the first signs of trouble, Miller wilted. The inning doubled his total earned runs.
Next frame, Crawford’s second RBI bloop single that made it 5-0 was the first hit against Miller’s changeup anyone has recorded this season.
Wade drew a walk against left-handed reliever Alex Vesia to load the bases two batters later in an at-bat manager Gabe Kapler highlighted as an unsung moment. Then the Giants summoned Davis to pinch hit for Joc Pederson.
Davis, the third baseman having an All-Star caliber season, had been testing out his sprained ankle for a couple days before Saturday. He knew he wasn’t able to play in Friday’s opener, but acted as a decoy in the dugout by holding a bat as the game extended into extras. He still isn’t 100% with lateral movement and sprinting, but felt good enough turning on his right ankle to hit Saturday.
Well before the game, around 1 p.m., Davis took batting practice and sent ball after ball to the dead center netting, Kapler said.
The first pitch Davis saw since rolling his ankle four days ago went 441 feet to straightaway center field — just like his BP tanks. Davis knew it was gone right away. When you hit a ball 108.2 mph off the bat like that, you probably usually do.
Davis didn’t have to expend much energy or risk further damage to his bum ankle on his home run trot. One pitch, one grand slam. All in a day’s work.
“It’s part of my game plan,” Davis said of going after the first pitch. “I’ve faced Vesia numerous times, where if you get behind in the count against him, he’s a very good pitcher and he has great putaway stuff. So in that moment, it’s 5-0, just an opportunity for me to ambush him or see a pitch out over the plate and drive something.”
Davis’ grand slam was the Giants’ first from a pinch hitter since Austin Slater in 2019. It put the Giants up 9-0 and sent murmurs through the Dodger Stadium aisles.
The Giants tacked on three more in both the seventh and the ninth. Jason Heyward, in for the All-Star Freeman at first base as a proverbial white flag, botched three routine picks. Tristan Beck, the Giants rookie, cruised through a Dodgers order that appeared dazed.
Matos, the rookie who has already impressed with his poise and confidence, made a spectacular leaping catch at the center field wall in the eighth to preserve the Giants’ shutout. He also went 2-for-3 with two walks and a team-high four runs.
When Farhan Zaidi left the Dodgers to run the Giants, he had a canyon-sized gap of homegrown talent to make up. With Matos, Patrick Bailey, Casey Schmitt and the arms the Giants have called up from Sacramento this year more than holding their own against Los Angeles’ young talent, the gulf may have finally shrunk.
“I feel like this is a more athletic team than we had last year,” Kapler said. “It might be a little bit deeper as well, from a standpoint of we can withstand an injury like Wilmer Flores or John Brebbia today…we might’ve just been a little thinner around this time last year.”
