SAN FRANCISCO — How to beat the big, bad Dodgers? A few good, big swings.
A screaming solo shot from Luis Matos got the Giants on the board Friday night, a two-run no-doubter off the bat of Matt Chapman provided their first lead, and a third and final blast from Brett Wisely sealed a rare win over San Francisco’s divisional foes, 5-3, backing seven strong innings from Logan Webb.
Wisely walked off the Dodgers with a two-run blast onto the concourse in right field, where fountains spewed water in celebration, after Blake Treinen walked the leadoff batter, Luis Matos, to give the Giants only their third win in the past 14 times they’ve hosted the Dodgers at Oracle Park.
The ninth-inning rally was necessary after Camilo Doval was unable to close out the 3-2 lead he was handed to begin the top half of the inning, allowing the first batter he faced, Andy Pages, to line a triple off the glove of center fielder Heliot Ramos and score on a sacrifice fly.
Departing holding a 3-2 lead, Webb gave the Giants seven innings for the 10th time this season, the most of any pitcher in the majors. With the help of a pair of double plays started himself, he scattered nine base runners and allowed the Dodgers to score in only one inning.
After allowing the first two batters of the inning to reach base and score, the fifth had a big inning written all over it for the Dodgers, who had one run in and one man on with nobody out when the lineup turned over to Shohei Ohtani.
Just two batters later, Webb was emphatically stomping back to the dugout.
Manager Bob Melvin opted to intentionally put the Dodgers’ dangerous leadoff man on base, only for the next batter, Will Smith, to rip an RBI single up the middle, anyway. That was all the Dodgers managed, though, after Webb coaxed a soft comebacker from Freddie Freeman, which he spun and fired to second to start the second of his 1-6-3 double plays.
The game was scoreless until the Dodgers opened a 2-0 lead with their fifth-inning rally, but Los Angeles wouldn’t hold a lead for long.
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Homering for the second time since being called up Saturday, Matos jumped on the first pitch he saw in the bottom of the fifth and sent it on a line-drive trajectory into the seats above the 399′ sign in left-center field, pulling the Giants within a run.
Chapman flipped the score an inning later, launching a Daniel Hudson fastball 414 feet to left field — leaving the bat at 110.5 mph — to score Heliot Ramos, who reached when Freeman wasn’t able to corral his ground ball to begin the inning.
Notable
— The Giants announced the death of Hall of Famer Orlando Cepeda before the sixth inning at age 86. The crowd honored the “Baby Bull” with a moment of silence.
— Webb reached back and hit 95.5 mph on a fastball in the first inning, the fastest pitch he has recorded since 2021.
Up next
With multiple vacancies in their rotation, the Giants are listing their starters for the final two games of the series as “TBA.” Playing in front of a national television audience on Saturday, they will be opposed by RHP Tyler Glasnow (8-5, 2.88), with first pitch scheduled for 4:15 p.m. on FOX.
