DeSclafani pounded; Posey exits after third
This one lacked the usual lategame drama the Giants and Dodgers have provided of late. That’s because the Dodgers bullied Anthony DeSclafani. Once again.
DeSclafani has had a splendid season and would have been a worthy pick if chosen to the AllStar team, but his nemesis remains the Dodgers, who chased the righthander in the third inning Wednesday night.
DeSclafani coughed up four runs in the inning, and the Giants failed to recover against Walker Buehler in an 80 loss before 33,728 at Oracle Park.
Catcher Buster Posey exited early in the game. He had taken an A.J. Pollock foul ball directly off his face mask in the second inning and stayed through the Dodgers’ big thirdinning rally before being replaced by Curt Casali.
Posey felt dizziness after getting hit and was checked for a concussion; there is no diagnosis yet.
Giants fans arrived anticipating an in
tensity level reached in the three previous games the teams met, all Giants wins in which they took leads in their final atbat — consecutive ninthinning comebacks, July 2122 in L.A. and Tuesday night’s tiebreaking moment in the eighth inning that featured a Cody Bellinger throwing error.
It was just the second time in history the Giants beat the Dodgers in their last atbat in three straight games, the other coming in 1991.
On Wednesday, DeSclafani put the Giants in too big of a hole, and they did nothing against Buehler, who worked seven innings and yielded three hits.
Though DeSclafani has a 3.10 ERA on the season, it’s 9.43 in five starts against the Dodgers. In fact, he’s 18 in 11 career starts against L.A., and the only win came in his bigleague debut way back on May 14, 2014.
A call by plate umpire Jim Wolf altered the momentum early in the pivotal inning. On a low 32 pitch to Chris Taylor that appeared in the strike zone, Wolf called ball four. DeSclafani thought it was strike three, which would have meant two outs and nobody on base.
Instead, DeSclafani worked from the stretch and gave up hits to four of the next five batters — Max Muncy single, Justin Turner single, Will Smith triple, and one out later, a Pollock single — and when a walk was issued to Matt Beaty, DeSclafani’s evening was done.
The Dodgers ran up the score with four late runs off John Brebbia with Bellinger delivering the big blow, a home run over the big brick wall in right field. Bellinger had been 1for35 with 15 strikeouts against the Giants this season.
Because a game rarely goes by in which Muncy doesn’t destroy Giants pitching, he clobbered a tworun double off Brebbia.
Though DeSclafani has issues with the Dodgers, the Giants are no problem for Buehler, who has given up three earned runs in 34 innings over five starts, an 0.79 ERA. The Giants didn’t get a hit off Buehler until Wilmer Flores grounded a single through the middle with two outs in the fourth.
Buehler issued two walks, one to Flores, who was wiped out on a doubleplay grounder by Darin Ruf and one to reliever Jose Alvarez, of all people.
Ruf normally starts at first base against lefties, but he was in the lineup against Buehler because LaMonte Wade Jr. was sore with a leg contusion. Wade struck out as a pinchhitter in the sixth.