SAN FRANCISCO — In the moments leading up to first pitch, the scoreboard at Oracle Park flashed an updated look at the NL wild card standings. The New York Mets continued their free fall, losing their eighth game in a row. The stakes in San Francisco were set; if the Giants won, they’d the third and final wild card spot was theirs.
If the Giants are going to usurp the Mets, they will have to wait at least one more day.
Following Friday’s dramatic walk-off win, San Francisco lost 13-7 to Los Angeles and remains 0.5 games back of New York for the final wild card spot.
Logan Webb endured one of his worst starts of the season, tying his season-low for innings (four) and season-high for earned runs (six).
Through one inning, the energy at Oracle Park mimicked that of a playoff atmosphere.
The Dodgers struck first when Freddie Freeman drove in Shohei Ohtani, but the Giants responded with a four-spot in the bottom of the first against Clayton Kershaw. Willy Adames, Matt Chapman and Luis Matos had RBI singles, and Jerar Encarnacion manufactured a run by beating out a double play. Going into the second, the Giants led 4-1 with their ace on the mound.
Los Angeles proceeded to score eight unanswered runs.
Ohtani’s 454-foot solo homer and Teoscar Hernández’s RBI double in the third trimmed the Giants’ lead to one run. In the fifth, the Dodgers landed their six-run haymaker against Webb and company, taking a lead they’d never lose.
Webb faced three batters in the fifth and didn’t retire a single one, departing the game after loading the bases on a single and two walks. José Buttó entered to put out the fire but he couldn’t prevent the Dodgers from flexing their muscles.
Hernández drove home two with a double. Former Giant Michael Conforto contributed a sacrifice fly. Ben Rortvedt double home a pair. Mookie Betts singled home a run, the final blow that ended Buttó’s night. Left-hander Matt Gage entered for Buttó following Betts’ single, the Giants’ third pitcher of the inning, and retired Freeman to finally end the inning.
San Francisco would not go quietly, responding to Los Angeles’ six-run frame by scoring three runs in the bottom of the fifth on an RBI double by Encarnacion and a two-run double from Friday’s hero Patrick Bailey. The Dodgers responded by getting those three runs right back in the top of the sixth against Gage, two coming on a double from Miguel Rojas.
