The Giants Found Their Run Early and Spent the Rest of the Day Searching

Scott Bandura’s ground-ball single to center scored Shay Whitcomb in the second inning, giving the San Francisco Giants an early lead over the Los Angeles Dodgers. It also became the entire offensive account of a 5-1, 10-inning loss at Oracle Park on Sunday—a fairly meager meal for a game that ran nearly three hours.

The first missed chance came immediately after the run. Whitcomb had singled with one out, stolen second and scored when Bandura followed with his hit. After Bandura reached first, though, he was picked off and caught stealing second while Christian Koss was batting. The Giants had taken the lead, then surrendered one of the inning’s remaining opportunities before Koss could finish the plate appearance.

By the time San Francisco created its next substantial opening, the Dodgers had tied the game. In the fourth inning, Kyle Tucker reached on a fielding error with nobody out, Teoscar Hernández lined out, Max Muncy doubled and Andy Pages lifted a sacrifice fly that brought Tucker home.

The Giants answered in the bottom half with two singles before recording an out: Bo Davidson singled, then Victor Bericoto singled behind him. Marcelo Mayer struck out, and Shay Whitcomb grounded into a double play that retired Bericoto at second and Whitcomb at first.

That was the cleanest example of what the Giants failed to buy with their early run. Two runners reached before the inning had collected an out, but the threat ended without even restoring the lead.

The double play deserves credit for ending it, while San Francisco’s next two hitters deserve the less comfortable accounting: the lineup had created traffic and did not turn it into damage.

The Dodgers’ pitching made that problem persistent rather than accidental. Jack Dreyer allowed two hits and one run over two innings. Justin Wrobleski then covered the third and fourth, striking out Koss and Drew Gilbert in a clean third before allowing Davidson and Bericoto to single in the fourth.

He followed those hits by getting Mayer to strike out and Whitcomb to hit into the double play.

Roki Sasaki worked a scoreless fifth with two strikeouts, and Edwin Díaz handled the sixth without allowing a run, striking out Jonah Cox. Bobby Miller then worked around a seventh-inning walk and single. Victor Bericoto walked to begin San Francisco’s half, Marcelo Mayer singled, and pinch-runner Grant McCray stood at third.

Turner Hill struck out for the first out. During Drew Cavanaugh’s plate appearance, a wild pitch moved Mayer to second, but Cavanaugh struck out before Bandura grounded out.

The Giants had begun that chance with runners at the corners and nobody out. They finished the inning with no run and two strikeouts. It was a useful chance against a Dodgers staff that kept changing faces without changing the basic problem for San Francisco: reach base, then find a way to advance somebody across it.

For most of the afternoon, the Giants’ pitchers supplied enough time for that solution to appear. San Francisco held Los Angeles to one run through nine innings. The Dodgers finished the full ten innings with eight hits and six walks.

Sam Hentges entered the third with runners on first and second and struck out Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman. Jason Foley worked around Tommy Edman’s seventh-inning double, and Camilo Doval escaped the ninth after Edman walked and stole second.

The 10th was the counterpoint. Miguel Rojas began the inning at second under the extra-inning rule, and Duncan Davitt retired Enrique Hernández and Tucker. With two outs, Alex Call doubled to score Rojas.

Davitt then intentionally walked Muncy, and Pages hit a three-run homer. Four runs arrived after the first two outs, turning a tense 1-1 game into a 5-1 final. That collapse belongs in the accounting; it is also why the score makes the preceding nine innings look less competitive than they were.

The offensive total is harder to soften: San Francisco finished with five hits, two walks and 16 strikeouts. The Dodgers used seven pitchers, and their succession of scoreless innings after the fourth-inning tie kept every Giants opportunity expensive. The Giants had the baserunners to change the score in both the fourth and seventh. Los Angeles got the outs that separated those chances from actual runs.

The final plate appearance supplied the blunt punctuation. Turner Hill started the bottom of the 10th at second. Cavanaugh struck out, Brett Harris lined out, and Koss came up with two outs and the Giants down four. Koss struck out swinging, leaving Bandura’s second-inning single as San Francisco’s lone answer—and the only run it would score all afternoon.

Sources

Official game data

Official game box score

Official game data