San Francisco Giants interim manager Kai Correa stands in the dugout during the third inning as Correa and Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts become the first MLB managers of Asian decent to oppose each other in MLB history at Oracle Park on Sat Sep 30, 2023 (AP News photo)

Los Angeles (99-61). 000 010 000. – 1. 8. 1

San Francisco (79-82). 001 001 00x. – 2 5 0

Time: 2:07

Attendance: 39,253

Saturday, September 30, 2023

By Lewis Rubman

SAN FRANCISCO—Well, two questions were answered last night. Yes, the Giants will finish the season with a losing record. No, Gabe Kapler will not be the team’s manager any longer. Bench coach Kai Correa will handle the orange and black’s managerial duties for tonight and tomorrow’s games.

His choice this evening in San Francisco’s 2-1 hard fought victory. over the division winning was 27 year old right hander Tristan Beck. Statcast calls Beck’s four seamer his best pitch. He throws it 36.6% of the time, and opponents have a .167 BA against it.

This was Beck’s third start of the season for the Giants. The first two were as an opener, but he went five full innings tonight and shut the Dodgers out in the first four of them. In all. This all, Beck allowed one run, and it was earned, on six hits and a walk.

He struck out three Dodgers, and 47 of his 70 pitches counted as strikes. The youngster faced 21 batters and went home with a no decision and a record of 3-3, 3.92. Ryan Walker relieved him to start the sixth. Walker would get the win, his fifth, against four defeats and bring his ERA down to 3.23.

The Dodgers sent an established star, Clayton Kershaw with a sparkling season’s record of 13-4, 2.42, to which a September earned run average of 1.93 contributed, to the mound as a tuneup for the oncoming postseason. The three time Cy Young Award isn’t only a strong candidate for that trophy; he’s a strong candidate for a trophy in Cooperstown as well. Kershaw pitched well tonight, but left with the Dodgers trailing 2-1 with one down in the bottom of the sixth.

Kershaw had faced 22 batters, throwing 83 pitches, 52 for strikes. He allowed two runs, both earned, in his 5-1/3 inning tenure on the mound. They came on two hits, two walks, and a wild pitch. He was tagged with the loss and will end the season at 13-5, 2.46.

The air was, as the cliché has it, rife with speculation about who will be Kapler’s eventual successor. Curtis Pashelka offered a list in this morning’s San José Mercury News. conveniently divided, like Gaul, into three parts. Those already on the Giants’ payroll are Ron Wotus, currently Special Assistant to Baseball Operations, with 36 years of service to the organization; third base coach Mark Hallbereg; and Correa.

Candidates not currently on the payroll but with ties to it or the bay area are Bob Melvin, in the likely event that he’s let go by underperforming Padres; one time Giants hitting coach and resent Texas Rangers bench coach and offensive coordinator Donnie Ecker; and Marin County’s Will Venable, who had been a candidate for the job at Oracle Park in 2019, but Kapler beat him out for it.

The one member of the group Pashelka calls “external candidates with prestige is Craig Counsell, whose contract with the Brewers is at the tail end of its last year.

You pays yer money and you takes yer cherce. Make mine Melvin.

There was little to choose between the way the two teams played in the first two frames. Each got one hit, a double, but nothing more in the first. (San Francisco’s two bagger came from Austin Slater, who suffered The Cure of the Leadoff Double). Each pitcher threw 13 offerings in the first and 11 in the second.

That situation changed in the home third. Rookie Tyler Fitzgerald set his second big league round tripper . It travelled 414 feet before landing in the left center field bleachers and came off a 72mph curve.

The Giants threatened to tack on to the 1-0 lead Fitzgerald’s blast provided them. Luis Matos and Thairo Estrada hit back to back singles that put runners on the corners with two down, but Estrada got caught trying to steal second, and that was that.

Elay tied the score in the top of the fifth on a one out down the line double into the right field corner by David Peralta and a two out double to left by the irrepressible Mookie Betts.

Poor fielding by Max Muncy contributed to San Francisco taking the lead and driving Kershaw from the mound in the bottom of the sixth, but Kershaw wasn’t faultless either. Slater led off with a base on balls and, with Matos batting, went to second on a wild pitch. Matos walked and was forced out at second on Estrada’s grounder to Muncy at third, where Slater arrived safely on the play.

Wilmer Flores then hit a bouncing ball to Muncy, who bobbled it two or three times. Flores reached first on the error, and Slater crossed the plate with the tie breaking tally. The run was earned, and the Giants’ first baseman was credited with an RBI, his 61st of the year.

That’s when Michael Grove replaced Kershaw. He held the Giants hitless through the seventh and was relieved by Caleb Ferguson, who set the Giants down in order in his inning on the hill.

Tyler Rogers, the right handed submariner pitched a crisp 1,2,3 top of the eighth.

Interim manager Correa called on Camilo Doval to try to earn his 39th save in 47 attempts. He got Jason Heyward to fly out to center. He fanned James Outman. Chris Taylor kept the Dodgers’ hopes alive with a clean single to left, bringing David Peralta to the plate. Taylor broke for second on Doval’s first pitch to Peralta, and Bailey threw him out, Estrada providing the tag.

Kyle Harrison (1-1 4.85), recovered from his recent illness, will start for the Giants’ season closing game tomorrow, Sunday, at 12:05. He’ll be opposed by Bobby Miller (11-5, 3.89)