San Francisco Giants’ Darin Ruf, left, is congratulated by third base coach Mark Hallberg (91) after hitting a home run against the Los Angeles Dodgers during the eighth inning at Oracle Park in San Francisco on Fri Jun 10, 2022 (AP News photo)

By Jeremy Harness

SAN FRANCISCO – It doesn’t matter.

Doesn’t matter where these two teams are in the standings. It could be a rather-meaningless game in June or Game 5 of the National League Division Series. Heck, the Warriors could be playing in the NBA Finals at the same time.

One thing remains constant. The rivalry between the Giants and the Dodgers has withstood the test of time, and it will continue to do so. Till death do them part, these two squads will continue hating each other.

They resumed their eternal battle Friday night, as the Dodgers made their first trip to Oracle Park this season. The atmosphere mirrored that of a postseason matchup, which was clearly visible when Even Longoria and Brandon Crawford had back-to-back RBI hits to give the Giants a 2-1 lead in the second inning, en route to a 7-2 win to kick off a three-game weekend series.

Orange towels waving all around the ballpark, quickly followed by the “Beat LA” chants. It all felt like last October’s epic playoff series, which isn’t what you get with a midseason series with, say, the Rockies or the Padres.

Again, these are the Dodgers we’re talking about here.

Los Angeles entered Friday’s game on top of the National League West with a 37-20 mark, while the Giants came in 6 ½ games behind the Dodgers. Furthermore, the Dodgers had taken each of the first two games between the two teams when they linked up in SoCal last month.

The Giants didn’t exactly come into this weekend with guns blazing, either. They had lost five of their previous eight games, including two of three against Colorado at Oracle Park, a team they typically dominate at home.

None of that seemed to matter during Friday’s weekend series opener. It took the Giants’ bats a couple of innings to warm up against Dodgers starter Walker Buehler, who was 7-1 with a 2.55 ERA in his career against the Giants, including a 6-2 overall season mark.

Following the second-inning surge, Darin Ruf came up in the fourth and smashed a solo homer to give the Giants a 3-1 lead, and by the fifth inning, Buehler was out of there.

Friday was in no way consistent with the way the two teams have played leading into this weekend. The only thing that lined up was what has been there over the years, dating back to the early years in New York: the simmering rivalry and the energy that comes along with it.