Photo credit: @SFGiants

By Jeremy Harness

The last time the San Francisco Giants saw the Los Angeles Dodgers, Joe Panik was the only one in a Giants uniform to generate any offense.

The second baseman accomplished a rare feat by hitting solo home runs in consecutive 1-0 wins to start the 2018 season, but the lack of offense caught up to the Giants last Saturday and Sunday, and the Dodgers were able to rally and get a split of the four-game series at Dodger Stadium.

Lefty Derek Holland will take the hill for Friday night’s series opener at AT&T Park opposite Dodgers righty Kenta Maeda, who shut out the Giants over five innings in a 5-0 win Saturday night.

Holland, meanwhile, was on the wrong side of that contest, as he gave up five runs – three earned – on three hits, walking three hitters and striking out four of them.

One thing that is drastically different for the Giants, which was nonexistent in the opening series of the season, is the offense. The Giants split a two-game series at home against Seattle, during which they scored 14 runs.

Even more remarkable was the 10-1 explosion Wednesday afternoon, most of those runs coming against Seattle ace Felix Hernandez. The day was punctuated in the fifth inning, when Pablo Sandoval, noticeably trimmer than his days in Boston, launched a three-run homer into McCovey Cove beyond the right-field bleachers.

Things figure to be a little tougher against Dodgers pitching, as Rich Hill will take the mound for the Dodgers on Saturday, as he faces Chris Stratton. To close out the series, Ty Blach will hope to follow up his stellar effort in the season opener in beating Clayton Kershaw head-to-head, and he will be opposite Kershaw again on Sunday.