FSM Essential Recap: Dodgers vs. Giants - Series 15

FSM Essential Recap: Dodgers vs. Giants – Series 15

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Los Angeles Dodgers (29-18)  |  San Francisco Giants (28-19)

 

“Baseball is like driving, it’s the one who gets home safely that counts.”

– Tommy Lasorda

 

Game 3:

 

The Dodgers finished off a sweep of their rival San Francisco Giants on Sunday with Julio Urías dominating on the mound and with his bat in an 11-5 trashing. This was the seventh straight win for Los Angeles, who also have won 11 of 12.

The Dodgers have been careful with Urías since they called him up to the majors. He has never thrown more than 128 innings in any season, and though last year was his longest extended run in the starting rotation, it came in a schedule shortened to 60 games by a pandemic. This year, the Dodgers took the kid gloves Urías, and he is rewarding them for it.

“He’s a veteran big-league pitcher now. There’s no more project. There’s no more prospect,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said before Sunday’s game. “Certainly having the value of losing a starter in Dustin May, but having Julio be one of the four guys that posts and performs has just been huge for all of us.”

Urías on Sunday retired his first 16 batters faced before having the audacity to allow three hits and two runs in the sixth inning by the time the game was already decided.

He struck out 10; it is the third time this season Urías reached double digits in strikeouts. On the season, Urías has 70 strikeouts against only seven walks to go with his 3.03 ERA in 10 starts.

At the plate, Urías lined a double over the head of Mike Yastrzemski and to the right-field wall that scored a pair in the second inning. That was one of two hits on the day for Urías and three runs batted in. Gavin Lux hit his second grand slam of the week, and Max Muncy stayed hot, hitting another home run in San Francisco to lead the Dodgers offensive attack.

 

Game 3 Boxscore:

WP: Julio Urías (7-1 / 3.03 ERA)

LP: Anthony Desclafani (4-2 / 3.54 ERA)

HR: Gavin Lux (3), Max Muncy (10); Austin Slater (5)

 

The Dodgers are off today as they travel to Houston to take on the Astros. Tuesday’s pitching match-up will be Clayton Kershaw against Zack Greinke. The first pitch is at 5:15 and you can catch the game on either SportsNet LA or FS1.

 

 

Game 2:

 

Dodgers pitching has been the driving force of their latest hot streak, and Walker Buehler continued the trend on Saturday in leading Los Angeles to a sixth straight win, this one 6-3 over the Giants at Oracle Park in San Francisco.

Buehler scattered three hits and a walk over his first six innings, then the Giants managed three more hits against him in the seventh for their first run. But facing the tying run at the plate with one out in the inning, Buehler responded with strikeouts of Mauricio Dubón and Darin Ruf to extinguish the threat.

Dodgers starters have 28 quality starts this season, five more than any other team. They’ve lasted seven innings 14 times, most in the majors.

Buehler has lasted at least six innings in all nine of his starts, tied with teammate Trevor Bauer and a handful of others for the most such games in the majors this season.

“It’s been kind of a theme of my career, and something I’ve always wanted to do better is go deeper into games,” said Buehler, who leads the Dodgers averaging 6.48 innings per start, ranking seventh in the majors.

The Dodgers have won 10 of their last 11 games, allowing only 24 runs in that span.

Scott Kazmir, pitching in his first major league game in 56 months, limited the Dodgers to only two hits in his four innings. Both hits were by Max Muncy, who has been locked in for basically all of May.

 

Muncy’s first hit was a 423-foot shot down the right-field line and into McCovey Cove, his third splash hit in this ballpark. He added two singles later and continued to stay hot this month. Muncy is hitting .383/.493/.733 with six home runs.

“I think it’s just one of those cool things in baseball,” Muncy said. “When it comes to seeing where a ball goes, there’s not many ballparks out there where there’s a cool thing to hit at, and that’s one of them. Putting it in the water is pretty cool.”

With Kazmir out of the game, lefty Jarlin Garcia had the fifth inning, and with a 2-1 count on catcher Austin Barnes, former Dodgers first-basemen Eric Karros who was on the call for the Fox broadcast said, “Austin Barnes, looking for his first home run of the year,” when Barnes hit a screaming flyball into the left-field bleachers for his first home run of the season.

Barnes has shown very little power this season — even with the home run, he’s slugging .318 — but he does have an extra-base hit in three of his last four starts, and has reached base in 12 of his last 13 starts.

It was the first home run for Barnes since Game 3 of the World Series, and he also repeated his other feat that night — aside from catching a Buehler win — by bunting home a run later in the game.

“Austin right now, I think his approach, his mechanics at the plate is in as good a spot as I’ve seen since 2017,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “He’s just been an all-around good ballplayer.”

 

Game 3 Boxscore:

 

WP: Walker Buehler (3-0 / 2.78 ERA)

LP: Scott Kazmir (0-1 / 2.25 ERA)

HR: Max Muncy (9), Austin Barnes (1); Buster Posey (9)

 

Julio Urías starts Sunday afternoon’s series finale against the Giants Anthony Desclafani. The first pitch is at 1:05 and can be seen on SportsNet LA.

 

 

Game 1:

 

A theatrical Trevor Bauer struck out 11 in his first career start against San Francisco, Chris Taylor hit a two-run homer, and the Los Angeles Dodgers extended their winning streak to five by beating the Giants 2-1 Friday night.

The Dodgers needed innings from Bauer after Thursday’s bullpen game, and they used as many arms as they needed. He threw 126 pitches, the most in a game across all of baseball this season and the most by a Dodger since Clayton Kershaw in 2015.

He went 6 ¹⁄₃ innings, striking out a season-high 11. Bauer allowed only two hits, which were both results of the shift. An errant throw Bauer made to first base brought in the only Giants run, but he was able to limit the damage all night, despite issuing four walks, tying a season-high.

When he was taken out of the game, Bauer raised his hand to his ear, encouraging more boos from the home crowd. He then did the “Are you not entertained!?” pose from the movie Gladiator. It will absolutely become an iconic moment in the Dodgers vs. Giants history.

 

“They’re going to hate me anyway,” Bauer said. “Might as well lean into it. I like when the crowd’s into it. It makes the moment feel bigger, and I perform better in those moments. It just feeds me.”

Giants left-hander Alex Wood held Los Angeles to two runs over six innings but suffered his first loss of the season. Asked about Bauer’s antics afterward, Wood could only smile.

“Do you expect anything else from Trevor?” Wood asked. “I’m sure Giants fans will love to hate Trevor. And he’ll love that they hate him.”

On the offensive side of things, the two runs came courtesy of a two-run home run from Chris Taylor. That was it. L.A. had 10 hits, but they were 1-for-6 with runners in scoring position and stranded eight runners on base.

Following Bauer in relief was a new face in Dodger Blue, Nate Jones. Jones was called up to be another arm in the Dodgers bullpen and added to the 40-man roster prior to the game. Jones threw 1 ²⁄₃ innings of scoreless ball with two strikeouts. The Dodgers signed Jones just last week after pitching for the Atlanta Braves earlier this season.

After throwing in three of the last four nights, Kenley Jansen was out for the game, so Blake Treinen was called upon to get the save. He got three quick outs, shutting things down for his second save of the season.

The Dodgers have now won five in a row and nine of their last ten games. Los Angeles is now one game back of first place behind the Giants and the San Diego Padres.

 

 

Game 1 Boxscore:

 

WP: Trevor Bauer (5-2 / 1.98 ERA)

LP: Alex Wood (5-1 / 1.93 ERA)

SV: Blake Treinen (2)

HR: Chris Taylor (6)

 

The Dodgers and Giants are right back at it this evening in game 2 game of their 3 game series. Walker Buehler takes the mound for Los Angeles and is unbeaten over his past 17 regular-season starts dating back to September 2019. The Giants haven’t announced a starter. The game can be seen on Fox with the first pitch scheduled for 4:15.

 

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