Giants jump on Dodgers, back returning Logan Webb with 11 runs

San Francisco erupted for at least ten runs at Dodger Stadium for the first time since 2013, with Logan Webb making a strong return to the mound as the Giants ran away with an 11-6 victory over the Dodgers Saturday.

Coming off a dramatic win Friday, the Giants (32-21) picked up right where they left off offensively, putting up all seven runs in the first four innings. Two infielders coming back from recent injuries delivered a boost, as Donovan Solano went 2-for-4 with a two-run shot in the third and Wilmer Flores recorded three hits fresh off an IL stint. Evan Longoria also went deep for the second time in the series, and the Giants had multi-hit games from Brandon Crawford (2-for-4, 2 R, BB) and Mike Yastrzemski (2-for-5, RBI, BB).

The Giants struggled mightily against southpaw Julio Urías the last time they faced him on May 23, when he took a perfect game into the sixth inning. They had a second shot on Saturday and started the afternoon with a different approach at the plate, when they tallied two hits in the first inning against Urías (L, 7-2, 3.61 ERA).

This story has been updated with quotes and post-game material from the Giants clubhouse at Dodger Stadium.

Los Angeles opened up the scoring in the bottom of the first against Webb when Gavin Lux was drilled and later came around to score when Justin Turner lined a double into the left-center field gap that was just out of the reach of a diving Mauricio Dubon in center field.

The Giants responded in the second by cranking three straight singles against Urías to begin the frame. Dubon –– who entered into the contest mired in an 0-for-14 stretch –– grounded a softly-hit ground ball up the middle that scored two runs to give San Francisco a 2-1 lead.

After Webb laid down a sacrifice bunt and Buster Posey was walked intentionally, Urías lost control and unleashed a bases-loaded walk to Yastrzemski to extend the Giants lead.

Kapler noted his team’s offensive outburst:

“It’s really important in this league to put up crooked numbers. Big innings in this league –– they don’t just win baseball games –– they also allow you to save your bullpen, they allow you to not overuse your leverage relievers., and that’s just a game strategy thing. But ultimately I think it can really take control of the momentum when teams are having big innings, and we try to play for them.”

The Giants entered into the game with 17 errors in 51 games, the fewest of any big league club. Solano, who has struggled defensively during the course of his career, had zero errors of his own in 66 total chances before misplaying two straight ground balls in the bottom of the second. The miscues costed San Francisco a run when Urias laid down a run-scoring sacrifice bunt for his fourth RBI in two games against the orange and black.

After Flores lined a single to left to open up the third, Solano rebounded by launching his second homer (2) of the series to make it 5-2. The Giants now have an MLB-best 54 home runs on the road. They’ve only scattered 19 long balls, tied for the fourth-fewest in baseball.

Flores credited Solano on his resilience after misplaying two ground balls and homering the half-inning after:

“He’s (Solano) always able to hit the ball at any time, doesn’t matter how it’s going. It happens, tough inning for him but it says a lot about him. When you’re on offense, you’re just not thinking of anything else and when you’re playing defense, you’re not thinking about your offense so that’s how this game goes.”

After Yastrzemski doubled down the left field line, Longoria continued his hot streak with an opposite-field single for the sixth run of the game for the Giants. In his past nine games, Longoria is hitting .384 with 12 runs batted in. Flores was next, lining his third hit to left field to score Longoria from second to give San Francisco a 7-2 lead.

Webb, coming off a missed start due to a right shoulder strain, rebounded nicely after pitching through traffic in his first two innings of work. Heading into the action, Giants Manager Gabe Kapler told reporters the club had plans to evaluate Webb inning-by-inning as he eases back from the shoulder soreness he felt during his last start in Cincinnati on May 17. He finished the afternoon with five innings pitched, one hit allowed, one earned run, and seven strikeouts. He had retired 11 straight at the time of his departure.

His success was reliant upon his two secondary pitches –– his slider and changeup –– and he threw them a combined 63 percent of the time compared to his fastball/sinker, which was thrown just 27 percent of the time. Webb’s 13 sliders generated a total of 11 swings and misses and his fastball at one point even reached 95.9 mph.

Webb recalled his pitch mixing:

“I think the main thing was kind of getting ahead with the changeup and the off-speed pitches. When I did that I think it just kind of set up everything else and I obviously had pretty good success doing that and kind of just rolled with it, kept going with it throughout the game and it felt like it kept getting better each inning.”

The Giants turned to their bullpen and 37-year-old left-hander Scott Kazmir in the sixth inning to hold down the lead. Max Muncy greeted him with a laser over the right field wall for a solo homer (12) to make the score 7-3. It was Muncy’s fourth homer in five games against San Francisco and his second of the year against Kazmir. After walking Cody Bellinger and allowing a single to Will Smith, Kazmir surrendered a double off the bat of Albert Pujols to score a run and put the Dodgers within three runs at 7-4.

The Giants loaded up the bases again in the seventh to make way for a two-run double from Steven Duggar to make it 9-4. Longoria made it double-digits in the eighth when he launched his eighth home run of the season and Dubon added his third RBI with a sacrifice fly later in the inning.

After Smith singled, Pujols blasted his 669th career home run (7) over the left field wall off José Álvarez in the bottom of the eighth to inch the Dodgers closer and make the score 11-6. Righty Matt Wisler struck out three of the final six hitters of the game to secure the victory for the Giants.

Up Next

Kevin Gausman (5-0, 1.53 ERA) takes the mound for the Giants and looks to wrap up his strong month in the series finale against the Dodgers on Sunday. In his last five starts, Gausman has fired 30 innings and yielded only three earned runs while striking out 42. The Dodgers will sent left-hander Clayton Kershaw (7-3, 2.94 ERA) to the mound, who took his previous outing into the eighth inning against the Astros. First pitch is scheduled for 4:15 p.m.

Notes

Before Saturday’s game, the Giants activated Webb and infielder Wilmer Flores from the 10-day injured list and optioned infielder Jason Vosler and right-hander Nick Tropeano to Triple-A Sacramento. … Yastrzemski also made some friends down the right field line during Saturday’s game:

Steven Rissotto

Steven Rissotto has covered the San Francisco Giants for SFBay since 2021. He is the host of RizzoCast, a baseball interview show featuring players, coaches, media and fans. He attends San Francisco State University and will major in Journalism and minor in education.