Webb shuts out Dodgers, Giants get three homers in victory

SAN FRANCISCO — Well. Not a whole lot to say about this one. Walker Buehler was pretty good for the Dodgers, but Logan Webb was fantastic for the Giants. End of story. Buehler gave up one home run early and another home run late, and the Dodgers’ ace was outdueled by his mound opponent tonight. The Giants’ big names all showed up. Buster Posey, Kris Bryant, and Brandon Crawford all homered in the Giants’ 4-0 shutout victory over the Dodgers on Friday night. The Giants take a 1-0 in this best of five series.

The inexplicable pitch

The game started off promisingly enough. Mookie Betts led off with a ground ball single through the infield. However, things kind of sputtered out after that. Logan Webb got three straight ground balls. And while, the Dodgers’ kept moving the lead runner over, he ended up stranded at third when Justin Turner hit a comebacker that bounced off Webb, but he was able to collect it and fire to first in time for the final out of the inning.

Walker Buehler got the ball for the Dodgers, and given his postseason resume, Dodger fans had good reason to expect big things out of him. However, he had trouble locking in on the strike zone in the first inning and it cost him. He walked the lead-off man Tommy La Stella on just five pitches, never a good start to a game in enemy territory. Buehler then got a ground out from Wilmer Flores for the first out that moved La Stella to second. Brandon Crawford gave one a ride but, it seemed to die in mid-flight and was caught by Mookie Betts well short of the track for the second out.

Then, four batters into the game came the turning point of the entire night. Buster Posey came to the plate, with a long history of breaking hearts of Dodger fans on his resume. So, when Walker Buehler quickly fell behind him 3-0, one would think that he would walk the veteran Posey to face LaMonte Wade Jr., who was on deck preparing for his first-ever postseason at-bat. You’d think that, but that is not what happened.

Instead, Buehler threw a fastball in the zone to Posey and he went oppo with the pitch to deep right. It cleared the stands and bounced into McCovey Cove where it was scooped up by some goofball with his fishing net (where do those guys come from anyway?). Just like that, it was 2-0 Giants. Ouch.

Too much Logan Webb

Though the Dodgers didn’t know it, the game was essentially over at that point. Logan Webb was so good and so efficient on this night that the Dodgers barely had a chance to catch their breath before they had to go out and play defense again. They would get a hit here or there, but never really mounted any sustained threats against the young righty. Webb’s slider and changeup were simply too much for the Dodgers’ hitters on Friday, and they didn’t help matters by chasing more than a few sliders out of the zone. Of course, a lot of that was caused by home plate umpire Carlos Torres‘s verrry generous strike zone. Whatever the reason, the Dodgers just couldn’t break through against Webb. The final line on the Giants’ young stud: 7.2 IP, 5 H 0 ER, 10 K.

Buehler keeps it close but Bryant goes deep in the seventh

Like Max Scherzer on Wednesday, Walker Buehler didn’t have the good stuff on Friday night. However, after the Posey home run, the Dodgers’ righty went into battle mode. He hung in there for another six innings, and when he went out to pitch the bottom of the seventh the score was still 2-0. Dave Roberts tried to get one hitter too many out of Buehler on this night. As he neared 100 pitches, Buetane gave up another home run in the seventh, this one to new Giant Kris Bryant, who had a three-hit night for the home team. That spelled the end of the night for the Dodgers’ young hurler. Final line on Buehler’s night: 6.1 IP, 6 H 3 ER 5 K. He was good, but not great. And tonight, he needed to be great.

Crawford puts the nail in the Dodgers’ coffin

Alex Vesia came in to pitch the eighth and got a couple of strikeouts to start his night. However, he got a little cute with his first pitch to Brandon Crawford and tried to sneak a slider past the veteran shortstop. It didn’t work. Crawford mashed the pitch to right and it landed among the paying customers for the Giants’ third home run of the night. The Dodgers went quietly in the ninth to hot young reliever Camilo Dovall, and that was that. Final score: 4-0 Giants. Ugh.

Urias faces big start in Game 2

In the end, it was a textbook Giant victory in 2021: Good pitching and a bunch of homers to put the game out of reach. However, hope is not lost for the Dodgers. When you are the visitors in a playoff series, the goal is get a split on the road, so that you can come home with a chance to finish things up at Dodger Stadium next week. So while it’s nice to win the first one, it’s more important to win ONE. That opportunity still exists for Saturday when Julio Urias takes on Kevin Gausman in Game 2 of the series. For all the hype, the Dodgers looked very flat in this first game, so hopefully, they can shake this off, get a good night’s sleep, and put the universe right again on Saturday evening. 6:00 game time for this one. Still on TBS for this round.