Loaded Dodgers cruise once more
LOS ANGELES — It’s a wonder Dodgers manager Dave Roberts can sleep at night weighing tough decisions like whether to start his lineup with Mookie Betts followed by Max Muncy, or go with Muncy and then Betts ahead of Justin Turner and Cody Bellinger.
Most baseball experts picked the Dodgers to win another pennant in this short season, and for good reason. They are that loaded, and in two games they have run into no resistance from a team expected to reside at the other end of the standings.
The Giants took their second staggering loss in two nights Friday. The Dodgers rolled 91, with two homers and a double from Muncy in the No. 2 spot, two scoring hits from Turner and all the help they could get from their opponents.
The Giants hit poorly, pitched poorly and fielded poorly, committing four physical errors to go with a host of mental mistakes. They are playing none of the crisp baseball from their intrasquad games, which offered at least some hope of competitiveness.
Gabe Kapler has started his
managerial tenure 02, same as Bruce Bochy, hoping to break through in a Fox Saturday afternoon game. (Bochy did win his third game in 2007.)
The Giants have scored once in each of their first two games. Friday night’s run was notable, as Jaylin Davis homered off Ross Stripling in his first atbat of the season, an oppositefield drive in the third inning.
That homer is the Giants’ only extrabase hit in two games.
Two of the Giants’ projected starters, lefthander Tyler Anderson and righty Kevin Gausman, made their Giants debuts. Each could commiserate over a Muncy solo homer.
Sam Coonrod finally got to make news on the field, pitching the seventh inning and allowing two runs. He was not good, but the defense behind him was worse.
Kiké Hernandez advanced two bases on a groundout when the shifted infield left third base uncovered, and Hernandez scored the inning’s first run on a throw by catcher Rob Brantly on Joc Pederson’s steal of second that went under Mauricio Dubon’s glove and into center field for an error charged to Dubon.
Kapler gave Davis the start, citing reverse splits but also hoping to get him rolling after he hit 35 homers in the minors last year, plus a walkoff to beat the Rockies in the bigs.
“His bat speed is elite, his foot speed is elite and he’s got a cannon,” Kapler said. “What he needs most is consistent confidence.”
Leading off the inning, with the Giants down 20, Davis turned around a 93 mph Ross Stripling fastball and drove it over the fence in right for his second bigleague homer and the Giants’ first extrabase hit in the series.
Anderson opened the game allowing two runs in 1 2⁄3 innings. Gausman entered as the “bulk pitcher” to start the third and gave Kapler four innings, allowing three runs, one unearned.
Anderson, a 2011 firstrounder, had a fine rookie season in 2016. In fact, he had a betterthanaverage ballpark-adjusted ERA in his first three seasons before the knee injury that held him to five starts last year.
Anderson did not make it through two innings, pulled after walking three of his 11 hitters. Kapler was not going to let Anderson face Turner with two on and two outs. The Dodgers third baseman was 15for31 against the lefty.
So Kapler turned to Rico Garcia for the second night in row, and Turner got the job done anyway, rapping a firstpitch RBI single to left.
Muncy and Turner hit consecutive doubles off Gausman in the fourth. Gausman allowed an unearned run in the fifth after Wilmer Flores’ second error in two games at third, a high throw that prompted a collision between Pablo Sandoval and Chris Taylor.
Taylor lost.