Steve Webb
Game 8, 4/2/2024: Dodgers 5, Giants 4
CHAVEZ RAVINE, CA — Welcome to the Dodgers quasi six-man rotation. Having gone through the five starters on the roster one time, manager Dave Roberts figured that one extra day of rest would help everyone at this early stage of the season. So, rather than go back to Tyler Glasnow on four days’ rest, it was decided that this second game of the series with the Giants would be a “bullpen game.” It wasn’t perfect, but given the fact that the Dodgers were facing the Giants’ ace Logan Webb, the 5-4 win was everything that they could have hoped for.
“We’ve been doing it for quite some time,” manager Dave Roberts said. “I think we’ve been a lot of trailblazers for some ideas that have come with some resistance….“Ultimately, we feel that their (the starters’) recovery is better and they perform better over the long haul.””
Ryan Brasier got the nod out of the pen to start things off, and he acquitted himself very nicely, pitching a scoreless first. That gave the Dodgers a chance to get out to an early lead in the home half of the first, and they did just that, cashing in a Mookie Betts single, a stolen base, and Freddie Freeman single into the first run of the ball game.
However, the Giants were able to come back against the Dodgers’ second arm of the night, lefty Ryan Yarbrough. They got a run in the top of the second and another in the third to stake an early 2-1 lead. However, that lead was very short lived indeed, as Mookie Betts connected on his FIFTH homer of the season in the bottom of the third to knot the game at two runs apiece. With his two hits tonight, Betts’s ridiculous start continues apace and shows no signs of letting up. He now leads MLB in almost every conceivable offensive category and his hot start has more than made up for the lack of production from a certain Japanese superstar hitting behind him in the lineup.
The Dodgers went ahead for good in the the bottom of the fourth when they hung a three-spot on Logan Webb and chased him from the game. Although Webb was benefiting from a ridiculously generous strike zone in this one, the Dodger hitters hung in there against him and got off some good swings to send him to the showers early. The key hits in the inning were a leadoff double from Max Muncy, a two-strike double from Gavin Lux, and a two-run single off the bat of Kiké Hernandez. Hernandez helped the effort in the field as well with a couple of great defensive plays in left field, one a diving stop on a line drive from Matt Chapman that might just have been the turning point of the whole game.
After the third, the Dodgers were pretty much done scoring for the night, and though the Giants were able to score a couple more off Yarbrough in the sixth to make it a one run ballgame, that was as close as they could get. In relief of Yarbrough, Alex Vesia was able to stop the bleeding, stranding two Giants on the bases. Michael Grove was fantastic in the seventh before running into a bit of trouble in the eighth, forcing Dave Roberts to go to closer Evan Phillips one out earlier than he would have liked. But, all’s well that ends well. Phillips proved more than up to the task in this one, retiring the Giants on just one pitch in the eighth before securing the Dodger win in the ninth with his third save of the year. Phillips has yet to give up an unearned run.
With the bullpen game buying the additional day off, the Dodgers (6-2) will send a rested and ready Tyler Glasnow to the mound for the series finale on Wednesday. He will face off against lefty Kyle Harrison (1-0, 3.00), who turned in a good performance in his season debut against the Padres last week. Get out those brooms, boys!
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