SF Giants hang on to even season series with Dodgers behind bullpen masterclass
SAN FRANCISCO — It doesn’t make sense, but it doesn’t have to. It’s baseball.
In a stellar game from San Francisco’s bullpen, Giants relievers twice escaped the jaws of death. With strikeouts of Freddie Freeman and Mookie Betts and a double-play ground ball from Trea Turner, Jarlín García and Camilo Doval escaped bases-loaded jams in the seventh and eighth innings to preserve the Giants’ slim lead.
After the Dodgers swept a two-game series in Los Angeles last month, many fans cried out about the disparity in depth, talent level and investment between the two NL West rivals. One team retained one All-Star acquisition and signed another, while the other did nothing to replace its living legend of a backstop and stuck with its aging core.Neither of the Giants’ two major offseason additions, Joc Pederson and Carlos Rodón, started Saturday’s game.
“We don’t think about payroll discrepancies when we toe off with them, so that doesn’t creep into our minds,” said Tyler Rogers, who followed Long with two scoreless innings. “We just know what the opponent is and go at them with our best. … Before the game, we came together as a group and said let’s do this. On bullpen days, it’s next man up. You never know what kind of situation you’re going to come into.
José Álvarez recorded the final three outs for the save, though he made sure it was nerve-wracking for the 41,236 in attendance by allowing a solo shot to Freeman to lead off the inning that pulled the Dodgers within one. “It was really cool to be able to face off with Kershaw today,” said Long, whose annual birthday present growing up outside Sacramento was tickets to a Giants-Dodgers game each year. “Dodgers-Giants games, they never fail to keep you on your toes.”
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