Solano’s HR in 11th extends streak to 7
The Dodgers, in their ceaseless quest to convert their dominance of West Coast baseball into their first World Series championship since Ronald Reagan’s presidency, face a new, eyerolling wrinkle, an extra playoff round.
Assuming they don’t collapse into the lower half of the playoff seeding, they will host as many as three games at Dodger Stadium immediately after the regular season, needing to win two to advance to the usual first round, the Division Series.
You think the Dodgers want to play the Giants in that threegamer?
If the answer was a lukewarm “no” before the Giants’ crazy and historic 108 victory over L.A. at Oracle Park on Tuesday night, it has to be a hard “no” now.
The Giants roared back from deficits of 30, 63, 76 and 87 to win on Donovan Solano’s tworun homer in the 11th, the first walkoff blast of his life, after Evan Longoria’s tying single.
In extending their winning streak to seven games, the Giants became the second team since 1900 to win a game they trailed in the ninth, 10th and 11th innings. The other was the 1988 Phillies.
Break down the Dodgers’ 239 record: They are 44 against the Giants and 185 against everyone else, which brings us back to that bestofthree playoff series the Dodgers must survive.
If they finish with the league’s best record and the Giants sneak into the playoffs as the eighth seed, the rivals would meet again. Same if the Dodgers are seeded second and the Giants seventh, and so on.
“I think we make a pretty tough matchup for them,” first baseman Brandon Belt said. “We’ve got a good ball team, and we know when we play the Dodgers, we’ve got to play our ‘A’ game.”
Belt sent Tuesday’s game into extra innings with a ninthinning solo homer off Kenley Jansen, his second HR of the game and the first Giants home run in the past 23 years to tie a game against L.A. in the ninth inning or later.
Belt hit a threerun homer in the first inning off Julio Urias to match the one that Max Muncy hit off Johnny Cueto on Muncy’s 30th birthday.
Belt also doubled, singled, walked and had five RBIs. When he struck out against Dennis Santana in the 11th, right before Solano won it, Belt lost a streak of 11 plate appearances reaching base. Barry Bonds was the last Giant to do that. He had 12 in 2006.
Belt and Longoria combined to reach base 10 times out of 12 on Tuesday. Henry Schulman covers the Giants for The San Francisco Chronicle.