Steve Webb
SAN FRANCISCO, CA — I thought Gavin Newsom said California is in a drought? First, we get a rain delay in San Diego at the beginning of the road trip, and now a rain delay in San Francisco at the end of it? What gives? Well, regardless of the climatic conditions, there is one thing that has been true all season: the Dodgers have absolutely owned the Giants. And, while it was a little shaky with the relief pitching in the late innings, Sunday night at Oracle Park was no different. When all was said and done, Mookie Betts had delivered a go-ahead run in the top of the 10th, and the Dodgers held on to win a tight one against the Giants 4-3 in 10 innings.
Heaney on point early
Andrew Heaney had the start in this one and before the nearly 40-minute rain delay he looked very sharp. He retired the first nine Giants he faced, a perfect first time through the order. However, after the rain had come and (sort of) gone, Heaney had trouble recapturing his form. He gave up a single, a ground rule double and a walk to load the bases with just one out in the inning.
However, here’s where the Andrew Heaney modus operandi came in handy. Heaney reached back and went to his most reliable skill this year: getting the swing and miss. And he went to work. First, Heaney struck out Evan Longoria on high hard stuff, Then, on three pitches, he did the same to Joey Bart. With the two whiffs, Heaney had averted disaster, but because of the rain, his evening was over. Still, it was a good night for the Heandog: 4.0 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 8 K.
Turner double puts Dodgers out in front
Heaney left the game with a 1-0 lead, as right before the rain delay happened, the Dodgers were able to muster a run off Giants’ starter Alex Cobb. It happened in the top of the 3rd. Freddie Freeman led off with a walk, and then perfectly read that Justin Turner‘s double was headed for the left field corner. Freeman chugged around third and scored without a throw. That put the Dodgers up 1-0 just before the skies opened up and the Oracle Park faithful broke for the concourses to wait it out.
Giants tie it up on an unearned run
After the Heaney heroics in the fourth, lefty Caleb Ferguson came on to pitch the fifth. And he had a bit of hard luck that resulted in a Giant run. With Hanser Alberto showing off his Spanish play-by-play skills on ESPN, Lewis Brinson led off with a double and took third on a flyout to center. Then, after Ferguson induced a harmless grounder from Heliot Ramos on the next pitch, it looked like he might squirm out of the jam. However, Thairo Estrada hit a ground ball deep into the hole at short, and though Trea Turner came up with it, he airmailed his throw to first, pulling Freeman off the bag and allowing Brinson to scamper home. We had ourselves a tie ballgame.
Trea and Freddie come through for a run
In the 6th inning, the Dodgers broke the tie when Trea and Freddie pounced on Cobb one last time. Trea Turner led off with a double to centerfield that probably would have been a single for 80% of the guys in the league, but the speedy Turner got two bags out of it easily. That brought up Freddie Freeman, and though he wasn’t quite as insane as he had been earlier in the road trip, he was plenty good up in San Francisco. And here he did what the moment required. He hit a sharp ground ball through the right side of the infield for a single. The ball kind of died out on the wet outfield grass and Turner was easily around the bases with the Dodgers’ go-ahead run.
Vesia gets hurt by wildness
After Ferguson, Phil Bickford and Evan Phillips threw scoreless innings to get the game into the 8th with the Dodgers still clinging to a one-run lead. Unfortunately, Alex Vesia wasn’t quite so fortunate in this one. He’s been great lately, but on Sunday, he just didn’t have his usual command. He was getting ahead of hitters, but couldn’t put them away. He walked two straight Giants to get himself in a real pickle. And with two outs, when JD Davis drilled a ground-rule double to right field, the Giants had scored a run and had two men on and in scoring position.
With the Gigantes on the verge of breaking the game open, Vesia gave an intentional pass to Evan Longoria to face the lefty Lamont Wade Jr. (no Brandon Crawford off the bench in this one), Vesia put on his big boy pants and like Heaney before him, got the required strikeout to get out of the inning. Still the game went into the 9th with the score all tied at 2-2.
A scoreless 9th sends the game into extras
In the 9th, the Dodgers got a leadoff walk from Max Muncy but couldn’t get much else going against super reliever Camilo Duvall. Then, in the bottom of the frame, Craig Kimbrel came in and was as good and as sharp as he’s been all year: a 1-2-3 inning on 11 pitches. More of this please. Anyway, that brought on those accursed words: extra innings!
Mookie comes through Max provides insurance
With Cody Bellinger starting the 10th inning at second and Austin Barnes at the plate, the Dodgers decided to play a little small ball. Austin Barnes laid down a perfect sacrifice bunt and Belli took third on the out. That brought up the top of the lineup, all of whom had come up empty in extras at the beginning of the road trip in San Diego.
Not so this time. Mookie Betts dug in and quickly fell behind 1-2. However, after working the count full, Mookie golfed a low slider down the left field line for an RBI double.
The Dodgers were ahead 3-2, but we all know that it’s the second run of the inning that wins these wacky extra inning games. And they got that run thanks to some Gabe Kapler strategy that backfired. After Trea Turner flew out and failed to advance Betts to third, Freddie Freeman was intentionally walked. Then, reliever John Brebbia was oh so careful with Justin Turner and he ended up walking him as well to load the bases with just one out.
Kapler made a pitching change and brought in left-hander Thomas Szapucki to pitch to Max Muncy. Now Max Muncy has a good eye, but even I could have done what happened next. On five pitches, four of which weren’t particularly close, Muncy walked and collected the free RBI, giving the Dodger pen a two-run cushion to work with.
Jackson and Bruihl secure the win
The seldom-used Andre Jackson started the 10th inning, and things didn’t go exactly according to plan. He walked the lead-off man and then gave up a towering fly ball out to our old friend Joc Pederson that just sort of died on the warning track and landed in Mookie Betts’s glove for the first out. Jackson then gave up a single to Wilmer Flores to score the placed runner from third and tighten the score to 4-3, He got JD Davis to chase an elevated fastball for a strikeout, but then walked Evan Longoria to load up the bases with two outs.
Dave Roberts had seen enough. He went to the only lefty he had still in the bullpen, the recently recalled Justin Bruihl, who’s had his struggles at the big league level. Doc needed Bruihl to pitch to Lamont Wade Jr., who had had so many clutch hits last season that they started calling him “Late Night Lamont” up in San Francisco.
Well, that name was half right. It was late (the game was nearly 4.5 hours old), but Lamont would not be the hero this time around. On a full count, he grounded a slider to the right side. Freddie Freeman made a nice play on the ball and with the underhand scoop to Bruihl covering the bag, the game was over and the sweep was complete.
Kersh gets the ball back at the Ravine on Monday
No rest for the weary in this compact last few weeks of the season. The Dodgers had to hop a plane and head for Southern California as soon as the game was over, because the Arizona Diamondbacks were headed into town. This last meet-up with the Diamondbacks will be a five-gamer, and will include a double header on Tuesday. So, as you might guess, pitching is still in a bit of flux at the moment. Clayton Kershaw takes the mound on Monday, and we’ll see what happens after that. Kersh just had a great outing against the D-backs young lineup, so it will be interesting to see if they are able to adjust this time around. Merrill Kelly gets the ball for the Snakes. 7:10 start time. Then on Tuesday, it’s a traditional doubleheader, with two different groups of fans watching the ballgames, one at 12:15 and the other at 7:10. Busy! Busy! Busy!
Cans of Corn…
- Props to Justin Bruihl for getting that last out.
- Hanser is a natural broadcaster. Jaime Jarrin, we’ve found your replacement! (Okay maybe not, but he was great)
- Rainy games just beg for injuries. Good thing all Dodgers survived the game intact.
- Kimbrel was good tonight. Like seriously filthy.
- The Dodgers are now 5-8 in extra innings.
- The Dodgers 15-4 mark against the Giants marks their best season against their rivals ever. Quite the difference from last year.
