Giants Beat Dodgers In 11 Innings 7-5

San Francisco Giants’ Wilmer Flores, right, rounds second after hitting a two-run home run as Los Angeles Dodgers second baseman Miguel Vargas watches during the seventh inning at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles on Fri Jun 16, 2023 (AP News photo)

By Barbara Mason

Friday night the San Francisco Giants (37-32) took on the Dodgers (39-31) down at Dodger Stadium with the opportunity to make a move in the NL West and make a move they did defeating the Dodgers 7-5 in the opening game of the series. This three game series is only one of two three game series coming up for the Giants that could make a huge impact.

Following the Dodger series, the Giants will play the Padres for four games starting Monday night and a three-game meeting against the Arizona Diamondbacks starting Friday night. Only 4.5 games separate these three clubs with San Francisco currently in third place with Arizona in first and the Dodgers in second.

Friday night’s game show cased one of the longest, fiercest rivalries in baseball; a 131—year history between these two storied franchises. It all began in the late 19th century when both of these clubs were based in New York City.

Fast forward and this long-standing rivalry that got underway Friday night to continue that tradition. The Dodgers won the last series they played back in April. The difference in this game; the Giants are playing a whole lot better then the last time these two clubs met coming off a sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals.

Emmet Sheehan was on the mound for the Dodgers in his first MLB start. Sheehan pitched six innings walking two and striking out three. The Giants featured John Brebbia who threw for one inning, for one walk and one strike out as an opener.

Friday night game recap: The first four innings of this game were quiet for both clubs. In the fifth inning the Dodgers put four runs up on the board. Will Smith singled, J.D. Martinez doubled and James Outman had another single. Left fielder Michael Conforto had a fielding error and when the dust had settled Los Angeles had built a 4-0 lead.

In the seventh inning an errant hit off the bat of Wilmer Flores threatened to put him out of the game. The ball hit him on the foot which brought him down in obvious pain but he was able to stay in the game. After the mishap Flores went on to knock a home run into the left field seats with Thairo Estrada on base and the Giants were back in this game 4-2.

Victor Gonzalez took over on the mound for the Dodgers in the eighth inning. The Los Angeles bullpen has been struggling terribly of late. Gonzalez walked one runner and gave up a couple of hits. Joc Pederson singled Brandon Crawford home and this was a one run game 4-3.

The Giants didn’t have a hit through six innings but really turned things around in the seventh and eighth. Thairo Estrada hit a sacrifice fly and Austin Slater scored to tie up this game 4-4. San Francisco took the lead 5-4 when Pederson scored off a Casey Schmitt infield single.

Once again we saw more come from behind play from San Francisco; from being down 4-0 to taking the lead 5-4. Dodger Stadium had grown silent.

Camilo Doval would come in and try to close out this game for San Francisco in the bottom of the ninth inning. Singles from Miguel Rojas, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman tied up the game 5-5.

The game would go into extra innings. The Dodgers have not lost an extra innings game this season and the Giants were hoping to hand them their first. Neither team could score and this game went into the 11th inning. Crawford who had been quiet all night really stepped up with a single.

Patrick Bailey scored from third and San Francisco took the lead 6-5. A Slater single drove Luis Matos home for a 7-5 lead. After a very messy bottom of the 11th San Francisco held on for the two run win.

Game two of this series will be played at Dodgers Stadium on Saturday with first pitch at 6:10 PM. The Giants will start lefthander Alex Wood (1-1 ERA 4.80) he’ll be opposed by the Dodger righthander Bobby Miller (3-0 ERA 0.78)