Longoria homer helps Giants beat Dodgers to take 3 of 4 in series.
Blach again at his best against L.A. as S.F. climbs to .500 mark
As the Dodgers rolled toward the airport Sunday amid controversy and bitterness between their manager and big-hitting first baseman, they bade farewell to San Francisco until the final week of the season, a bizarre feature of the schedule.
Where will these teams be when the boys of blue return?
Will the Dodgers be back atop the National League West, finishing off their sixth consecutive division title? Perhaps. They have the pedigree, the horses and a history of playing better as the weeks progress.
The Giants? Nobody around baseball expects them to be playing for anything in Games 160, 161 and 162. Even some of the diehards have whispered to their friends and neighbors they would take 81-81 after last year’s 98 losses.
The past three series might recalibrate people’s thinking. The Giants took them all, and in winning 4-2 Sunday to take
three of four from L.A., they showed the type of pluck and execution missing from these parts since the 2016 All-Star break.
The Giants have overcome a 7-11 start and some significant injuries to reach .500. They completed a 5-2 week against two reigning division winners despite coughing up 15 runs in each of the two losses. They will end April in far better shape than last year, when they wheezed into May at 9-17.
“It’s not an area we were hoping to be in, .500,” manager Bruce Bochy said. “But considering some of the things that have happened, it’s OK. Considering where we were, battling back to .500 is a good sign.”
It’s too early to confer any meaning into the Giants’ 7-11 start or their 7-3 record since then. But even a 10-game display of the “it” factor that good teams possess is encouraging.
“We got off to a bit of a slow start and it’s now starting to come together,” said third baseman Evan Longoria, who has been hot as a firecracker after a dud of a Giants debut. “Top to bottom, we’re feeling much more confident as a group.”
Longoria propelled the Giants to their sixth victory in 10 games against the Dodgers when he hit a three-run homer in the first inning off Kenta Maeda, one pitch after he missed a run-scoring extrabase hit by inches foul.
Buster Posey started the two-out rally with a double and Brandon Belt walked with a bit of help from home-plate umpire Dan Iassogna.
Three-run homers are huge by definition, but Bochy said Longoria’s gave the Giants an extraordinary lift after Saturday’s fatiguing doubleheader split.
It also allowed Giants starter Ty Blach more freedom to attack the strike zone and continue his uncanny domination of the Dodgers (six innings, two runs). His ERA in 531⁄3 career innings against L.A. is 2.06, but 5.14 against everyone else.
Longoria started to hit on the road but still sought that big blow at home that would allow him to bond with fans who viewed him warily when he was hitting .149 after 12 games. He said his two-run double in the seventh inning of Saturday’s 8-3 win in the nightcap, which provided two insurance runs in what was then a 4-3 game, let him exhale.
“That was kind of weighing on me a little bit,” Longoria said. “Just getting that hit yesterday freed up my mind and let me go out there a little more relaxed.”
Brandon Belt added an RBI double off the bricks in rightcenter, Sam Dyson pitched the Giants out of a big jam in the seventh, and Tony Watson and Hunter Strickland ended it, Strickland earning his seventh save in nine chances.
Cody Bellinger hit a double in the fifth that manager Dave Roberts considered a triple off the bat. Bellinger watched the ball too long and did not run hard out of the box. Roberts responded by benching him. Bellinger responded to Roberts with public comments akin to, “Whatever, dude.”
The difference in moods between these teams late Sunday afternoon was hard to ignore. For the Giants, being the happy bunch had to feel like a nice change of pace.