LOS ANGELES — The Giants are leaving Los Angeles with something.
After dropping the first three games of their four-game set with the Dodgers, the Giants (77-79) avoided being swept by earning a 3-1 win on Sunday afternoon at Dodger Stadium.
Rookie right-hander Trevor McDonald turned in the best outing of his young major-league career, allowing one run over six innings with three strikeouts.
The Giants will now return home to San Francisco for their final six games of the season: three against the St. Louis Cardinals, three against the Colorado Rockies.
In the bottom of the sixth, McDonald received a huge assist from his infield. Shohei Ohtani led off the inning by lunging at a well-placed down-and-away changeup. McDonald shattered Ohtani’s bat, but Ohtani muscled a soft line drive into right field for a single, representing the go-ahead run of a scoreless game.
With Ohtani on first, McDonald used a sinker to induce a grounder off the bat of Mookie Betts. Shortstop Willy Adames went into a short slide and fielded Betts’ grounder on the backhand. From his knees, Adames fired to second baseman Christian Koss. Instead of stopping his momentum, Koss received the ball as he tagged the bag, then made a leaping throw to first baseman Bryce Eldridge.
In the seventh, the dam finally broke.
McDonald began the inning by walking Max Muncy, who benefited from a pair of curveballs at the bottom of the zone that were called balls instead of strikes. Andy Pages followed Muncy’s walk with a single, then former Giant Michael Conforto scored the game’s first run with an opposite-field single, spelling the end of McDonald’s day.
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With runners on second and third following Miguel Rojas’ sacrifice bunt, pinch-hitter Tommy Edman turned on a cutter by Spencer Bivens that looked destined to roll down the right-field foul line and score a pair of runs. Enter Eldridge, who used his six-foot-seven frame to make a diving catch, then fired to Chapman at third to double off Pages.
Immediately following Eldridge’s inning-ending double play, the Giants’ offense finally found life by putting up a three-spot against reliever Blake Treinen, who was showered with boos as he was taken out of the game in the middle of the inning.
Patrick Bailey tied the game at one apiece, coming off the bench to deliver a pinch-hit, ground-rule double that scored Koss. Rafael Devers was intentionally walked with one out to load the bases, then Willy Adames followed by drawing a nine-pitch walk to score another run. Matt Chapman’s check-swing groundout scored Bailey to give the Giants a 3-1 lead.
