The Giants’ Ryan Walker is high-fived by teammates after pitching a 1-2-3 ninth inning for a save against the Dodgers at Oracle Park on Tuesday.
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The Giants’ Willy Adames steams toward third base on Luis Arraez’s first-inning single against the Dodgers at Oracle Park on Tuesday.
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Giants second baseman Luis Arraez throws to first after fielding a ball hit by the Dodgers’ Alex Call in the second inning of Tuesday’s game at Oracle Park.
Carlos Avila Gonzalez/S.F. Chronicle
Ryan Walker (74) pitches in the ninth inning as the San Francisco Giants defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers 3-1 at Oracle Park in San Francisco, on Tuesday, April 21, 2026.
Carlos Avila Gonzalez/S.F. Chronicle
The Los Angeles Dodgers are not a friendly face. Not to most teams, and especially not to the San Francisco Giants of late. L.A. took nine of 13 games between the teams in 2025, to little surprise. Dodgers players are paid handsomely in the team’s bid to dominate, most notably the team’s biggest and priciest star Shohei Ohtani, who sits atop the lineup.
Giants reliever Ryan Walker couldn’t ignore Ohtani lurking in the corner of his eye. Walker was two outs into his second save attempt and had a full count on Alex Freeland when he saw Ohtani taking hacks in the on-deck circle.
“I don’t want to see that guy in the box,” Walker said. “There’s no fear there, but he’s a good hitter and you have to make your pitches. I didn’t want to make it harder on myself.”
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Freeland fouled off Walker’s 96 mph sinker, then Walker pumped a 97 mph one his way. Freeland whiffed, sealing the Giants’ 3-1 win over the Dodgers on Tuesday night at Oracle Park to take the first game of the season series against their rivals.
Ryan Walker reacts after striking out Alex Freeland to secure the save as the San Francisco Giants defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers 3-1 at Oracle Park on Tuesday.
Carlos Avila Gonzalez/S.F. Chronicle
Walker didn’t want to face the reigning MVP as the potential tying run — who does? — but Walker’s “no fear” mentality is far more emblematic of their attitude of late, just the kind manager Tony Vitello wants to see. The Giants got feisty and cleared their benches in Cincinnati, kept that energy going to a series win in Washington and aren’t afraid of the reigning world champions.
“Why would you be? I don’t care who’s on the team, I don’t care who the team pays for,” Walker said. “They’re all baseball players. When you start getting nervous about a team coming in, they’ve already beat you. So when the Dodgers are in town or we go to L.A., who cares? It’s another baseball team. We have the same mindset of we’re going to go out and win.”
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That’s been an especially strong attitude from the bullpen, who heard all the talk of them being too inexperienced to compete. As reliever Erik Miller put it, the group is pitching with an “f— you” mentality. He referenced his expletive-laced tirade at the Cincinnati Reds’ dugout after a win there that got both benches cleared.
The Giants’ Luis Arraez scores on a sacrifice fly hit by Casey Schmitt in the first inning of Tuesday’s game against the Dodgers at Oracle Park.
Carlos Avila Gonzalez/S.F. Chronicle
“I think a lot of guys are pitching more with an edge,” he said. “Not to quote what I said, but more of an ‘f— you’ on the mound. It can be different for every guy, not everyone is going to be outwardly emotional. Obviously a lot of our guys in our ’pen are not, but maybe you’re seeing it more because — early on there were a couple tough games and a lot of guys wanted to go out and prove … we see what people say about us back there and it seems to me like we’re trying to prove people wrong. Every guy has their own motivators but for me that’s one of the big things.
“People like to not give us a lot of credit, which, everyone has a right to their own opinion. Obviously there weren’t a lot of guys with experience pitching later in games. But if you have the stuff to do it, it doesn’t matter.”
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The bullpen had the stuff on Tuesday and Vitello was bold in the way he deployed it. The Dodgers rolled out their most left-handed lineup against starter Landen Roupp, who overcame a four-walk, one-run fourth inning to gut through five innings total. That left the bullpen to cover four innings with a two-run lead.
Landen Roupp (65) catches the ball back from Patrick Bailey (14) in the fourth inning as the San Francisco Giants played the Los Angeles Dodgers at Oracle Park in San Francisco, on Tuesday, April 21, 2026.
Carlos Avila Gonzalez/S.F. Chronicle
Vitello burned through all three of his left-handed relievers in the sixth and seventh inning. That meant getting the left-handed Miller in for lefty Matt Gage to face Ohtani, who represented the potential tying run in the seventh. Miller is the Ohtani guy; in six meetings, he’d struck him out five times. This time, Ohtani beat out an infield hit to keep things moving, but Miller struck out Kyle Tucker to strand two baserunners. He pumped his fists and circled off the mound to celebrate.
Walker said it meant something to get the ninth inning after blowing a lead in their extra-inning win against the Nationals last week. The situation was further amplified with Ohtani looming and no more lefties to choose from. Despite a handful of rocky outings, Walker said his slider and two-seamer feel exactly as they felt in 2024, his standout season. That showed as he worked the outer parts of the zone for two strikeouts in a 1-2-3 inning.
Dodgers right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tuesday’s starter, hasn’t been a friendly face either. Especially the previous three matchups in which the Giants scored one run and struck out 24 times against the 2025 World Series MVP.
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Yoshinobu Yamamoto (18) stretches his neck in the second inning as the San Francisco Giants played the Los Angeles Dodgers at Oracle Park in San Francisco, on Tuesday, April 21, 2026.
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The Giants pushed that door ajar just enough, scoring three runs off the ace.
Those runs all came in the first inning with a huge help from sloppy Dodgers defense. Willy Adames led off with an infield single, but wound up on second when shortstop Hyeseong Kim’s throw sailed into the visiting dugout. Luis Arraez stroked a cutter the other way for a single to move Adames to third and Matt Chapman drew a walk to load the bases for Rafael Devers. He singled past second base to score the first run.
Outfielders Alex Call and Teoscar Hernandez then collided chasing Casey Schmitt’s shallow flyball, and Call held on to keep it to a sacrifice fly. Jung Hoo Lee singled home Chapman to cap off the scoring.
Roupp came out strong again, striking out Ohtani twice — once swinging at a changeup, then later a curveball — while cruising through the first three innings.
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Shohei Ohtani (17) strikes out swinging in the third inning as the San Francisco Giants played the Los Angeles Dodgers at Oracle Park in San Francisco, on Tuesday, April 21, 2026.
Carlos Avila Gonzalez/S.F. Chronicle
Then in the fourth, a hiccup: Roupp couldn’t find the zone. He said later he was speeding up in the zone, trying to locate too much. He walked four batters, twice with challenge calls that went against the Giants, and a run scored on the last. Call then grounded into a double play to relieve Roupp of his misery, but he’d thrown 32 pitches. A clean fifth inning was his last as he’d thrown a career-high 106 pitches by the end.
“Made the bullpen work a little more than they should,” Roupp said. “Wish I could have gone six or seven, but it worked out. We got the win.”
Briefly: Lee was removed from the game in the eighth inning after injuring his right quad, replaced by Jerar Encarnacion in right field. Lee was hurt while sliding into home plate as he was thrown out while trying to score from first base. Lee and Vitello did not seem concerned that the injury would keep Lee out for an extended time.