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Patrick Bailey’s walk-off grand slam that lifted the Giants to a thrilling 5-1 win on Friday night could have been a cathartic turning point.
Instead, San Francisco’s series-opening victory was just another tease before the team reverted back to status quo against the Dodgers.
The Giants have now played three series against the Dodgers. In all three, they picked up a win in the first game. In all three, the tone that set was moot. In all three, the Dodgers rebounded to claim the series.
Beat the Dodgers in dramatic fashion, then fizzle out: that’s how the rivalry has looked this season for the Giants.
“Just talking about that inside (the clubhouse),” manager Bob Melvin said after Sunday’s 10-2 loss. “We win the first game, we score four runs in the first inning yesterday and it feels pretty good. Then to be where we are today is disappointing. It got away from us in a hurry.”
The Mets’ collapse combined with the Giants’ turnaround and MLB’s expanded playoff format that rewards mediocrity have given San Francisco (75-74) a legitimate chance at a postseason berth. But the topsy-turvy trend of this season — and series against the Dodgers — make a miraculous fall daunting. A series-finale loss coupled with New York’s extra-inning victory against the Texas Rangers dropped the Giants to 1.5 games out of the final wild-card spot.
On Sunday, the Giants mainly beat themselves. Robbie Ray walked four batters and spiked a wild pitch. Melvin stuck with him too long in the fifth inning as he continued to spray his pitches around the zone and leave his strikes over the plate. Eventually, Joel Peguero inherited his mess and balked in one of four runs in the frame.
Giants pitchers walked six batters, including the ninth hitter twice. Infielders coughed up a pair of fieldable balls for hits, Jung Hoo Lee and Willy Adames miscommunicated on a routine pop up in center, and unfortunate infield positioning may have cost the Giants a run, too. Drew Gilbert also missed first base on a lucky double, but the game was already over by then.
Giving a team like the Dodgers free base runners and 90-feet escorts around the diamond is not the road map to the playoffs. Getting out-hit 18-to-5 isn’t, either.
“It’s frustrating obviously,” said Robbie Ray, who took the loss on Sunday. “But we’re still in it. We’re a resilient team. We’ve shown that we’ve been able to bounce back from stuff like this.”
Robbie Ray failed to complete five innings on Sunday and hasn’t turned in a quality start in a month. | Source: Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images
Even if there’s truth in the former Cy Young’s statement, it’s also a way ballplayers rationalize an inconsistent team.
This season, the Giants have gone from first place to an uninspired two-month stretch that made them sellers at the deadline. They went from dead to rights to resuscitated with a second-half surge. Up is down, down is up. Ride the rollercoaster.
Their series against the Dodgers have gone the same way.
The rivals waited until June 13 to meet for the first time this season. That’s when Logan Webb shut down Los Angeles in Dodger Stadium to pull the Giants even with the Dodgers atop the National League West standings. Two days later, president of baseball operations Buster Posey swung the Rafael Devers blockbuster to try to capitalize on the budding momentum.
Yet as Devers was packing his bags, the Giants lost for the second consecutive day in Chavez Ravine.
The second series started with another Webb win as Dom Smith and Adames homered in an 8-7 victory. San Francisco’s offense then went cold in back-to-back defeats.
This weekend, Bailey’s stunning walk-off preceded a blown four-run lead and Sunday’s dud.
The Dodgers took advantage of Giants mistakes on Saturday and Sunday to earn a series win. | Source: Matthew Huang/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
The Giants have 13 games remaining to make up 1.5 games on the Mets (New York has the tiebreaker, so the Giants must finish a full game ahead in the standings to secure a playoff berth). Four remain against the Dodgers in Los Angeles, with that series beginning next Thursday.
Webb, who has faced the Dodgers a whopping 20 times in his career, is set to take the ball in the first game of the series, but is running out of tricks to fool the hitters who are intimately familiar with his arsenal. The Giants haven’t had much success against Tyler Glasnow — Sunday’s winning pitcher — or Yoshinobu Yamamoto, both of whom will likely make starts in the next series. Mookie Betts is swinging one of the hottest bats in the league, Shohei Ohtani is one blast away from his second straight 50-homer season, and Los Angeles’ rotation is as healthy as it has been all year.
Even if the Giants are knocking on the playoff door, the Dodgers still stand in their way. And there’s not enough season left for the Giants to repeat history next weekend.