<\/p>\n
The Giants\u2019 Ryan Walker is\u00a0high-fived by teammates after pitching a 1-2-3 ninth inning for a save against\u00a0the Dodgers at Oracle Park on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Carlos Avila Gonzalez\/S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n
The Giants\u2019 Willy Adames steams toward third base on Luis\u00a0Arraez\u2019s first-inning single against the Dodgers at Oracle Park on Tuesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Carlos Avila Gonzalez\/S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n
Giants second baseman Luis\u00a0Arraez throws to first after fielding a ball hit by the Dodgers\u2019 Alex Call in the second inning of Tuesday\u2019s game at Oracle Park.<\/p>\n
Carlos Avila Gonzalez\/S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Carlos Avila Gonzalez\/S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n
The Los Angeles Dodgers are not a friendly face.\u00a0Not to most teams, and especially not to the San Francisco Giants<\/a> 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\u2019s bid to dominate, most notably the team\u2019s biggest and priciest star Shohei Ohtani, who sits atop the lineup.<\/p>\n Giants reliever Ryan Walker<\/a> couldn\u2019t ignore\u00a0Ohtani lurking in the corner of his eye. Walker was two outs into his second save attempt and had a full count on Alex\u00a0Freeland when he saw Ohtani\u00a0taking hacks in the on-deck circle.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t want to see that guy in the box,\u201d Walker said. \u201cThere\u2019s no fear there, but he\u2019s a good hitter and you have to make your pitches. I didn\u2019t want to make it harder on myself.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Freeland fouled off Walker\u2019s 96 mph sinker, then Walker pumped a 97 mph one his way.\u00a0Freeland 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n Ryan Walker reacts after striking out Alex\u00a0Freeland to secure the save as the San Francisco Giants defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers 3-1 at Oracle Park on Tuesday.<\/p>\n Carlos Avila Gonzalez\/S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n Walker didn\u2019t want to face the reigning MVP as the potential tying run\u00a0\u2014 who does?\u00a0\u2014 but Walker\u2019s \u201cno fear\u201d mentality is far more emblematic of their attitude of late, just the kind manager Tony\u00a0Vitello<\/a> 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\u2019t afraid of the reigning world champions.<\/p>\n \u201cWhy would you be? I don\u2019t care who\u2019s on the team, I don\u2019t care who the team pays for,\u201d Walker said. \u201cThey\u2019re all baseball players. When you start getting nervous about a team coming in, they\u2019ve already beat you. So when the Dodgers are in town or we go to L.A., who cares? It\u2019s another baseball team. We have the same\u00a0mindset of we\u2019re going to go out and win.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n San Francisco Chronicle Logo<\/p>\n Make us a Preferred Source to get more of our news when you search.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Add Preferred Source<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n That\u2019s 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 \u201cf\u2014 you\u201d mentality. He referenced his expletive-laced tirade at the Cincinnati Reds\u2019 dugout after a win there that got both benches cleared.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Giants\u2019 Luis\u00a0Arraez scores on a sacrifice fly hit by Casey Schmitt in the first inning of Tuesday’s game against the Dodgers at\u00a0Oracle Park.<\/p>\n Carlos Avila Gonzalez\/S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n \u201cI think a lot of guys are pitching more with an edge,\u201d he said. \u201cNot to quote what I said, but more of an \u2018f\u2014 you\u2019 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 \u2019pen are not, but maybe you\u2019re seeing it more because \u2014 early on there were a couple tough games and a lot of guys wanted to go out and prove \u2026 we see what people say about us back there and it seems to me like we\u2019re trying to prove people wrong. Every guy has their own motivators but for me that\u2019s one of the big things.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople like to not give us a lot of credit, which, everyone has a right to their own opinion. Obviously there weren\u2019t a lot of guys with experience pitching later in games. But if you have the stuff to do it, it doesn\u2019t matter.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Carlos Avila Gonzalez\/S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n 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\u00a0Ohtani, who represented the potential tying run in the seventh. Miller is the\u00a0Ohtani guy; in six meetings, he\u2019d 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.<\/p>\n 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n Dodgers right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tuesday\u2019s starter,\u00a0hasn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Carlos Avila Gonzalez\/S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n The Giants pushed that door ajar just enough, scoring three runs off the ace.<\/p>\n Those runs all came in the first inning with a huge help from sloppy Dodgers defense.\u00a0Willy Adames<\/a> led off with an infield single, but wound up on second when shortstop\u00a0Hyeseong Kim\u2019s throw sailed into the visiting dugout. Luis Arraez<\/a> stroked a cutter the other way for a single to move Adames to third and Matt Chapman<\/a> drew a walk to load the bases for Rafael\u00a0Devers<\/a>. He singled past second base to score the first run.\u00a0<\/p>\n Outfielders Alex Call and Teoscar Hernandez then collided chasing Casey\u00a0<\/a>Schmitt<\/a>\u2019s shallow flyball, and Call held on to keep it to a sacrifice fly. Jung Hoo Lee<\/a> singled home Chapman to cap off the scoring.\u00a0<\/p>\n Roupp came out strong again, striking out\u00a0Ohtani twice\u00a0\u2014 once swinging at a\u00a0changeup, then later a curveball\u00a0\u2014 while cruising through the first three innings.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Carlos Avila Gonzalez\/S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n Then in the fourth, a hiccup: Roupp couldn\u2019t find the zone. He said later he was speeding up in the zone, trying to locate too much.\u00a0He 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\u2019d thrown 32 pitches. A clean fifth inning was his last as he\u2019d thrown a career-high 106 pitches by the end.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cMade the bullpen work a little more than they should,\u201d Roupp said. \u201cWish I could have gone six or seven, but it worked out. We got the win.\u201d<\/p>\n Briefly:\u00a0Lee 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\u00a0Vitello did not seem concerned that the injury would keep Lee out for an extended time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Giants\u2019 Ryan Walker is\u00a0high-fived by teammates after pitching a 1-2-3 ninth inning for a save against\u00a0the Dodgers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":280202,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[109586,101,4820,103,102,104,106,105,10892],"class_list":{"0":"post-280201","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco","8":"tag-landen-roupp","9":"tag-san-francisco","10":"tag-san-francisco-giants","11":"tag-san-francisco-headlines","12":"tag-san-francisco-news","13":"tag-sf","14":"tag-sf-headlines","15":"tag-sf-news","16":"tag-tony-vitello"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=280201"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280201\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/280202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=280201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=280201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=280201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/p>\n
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