Los Angeles Dodgers Shohei Ohtani (right) crosses the plate and is greeted by teammate Freddie Freeman (5) in the top of fourth inning at Oracle Park in San Francisco on Tue May 14, 2024 (AP News photo)

Los Angeles (29-15). 000 410 104. 10 13 0

San Francisco (19-25). 000 001 001. 2. 9. 2

Time: 2:36

Attendance: 33,575

Tuesday, May 14, 2024

By Lewis Rubman

SAN FRANCISCO–The most important news concerning the San Francisco Giants’ travails wasn’t the 10-2 shellacking they suffered at the hands of the Los Angeles Dodgers at Oracle Park tonight. It was María Guardado’s report that the results of Jung-Hoo Lee’s MRI showed possible structural damage to his left shoulder that could require season ending surgery. Lee will see Dr. Neal ElAttrache on Thursday for a second opinion.

The Giants’ terrible performance tonight served to underline the severity of the threat posed by the impending loss of Lee’s. contributions and those of the other occupants of the injured list.

San Francisco’s starting pitcher had not looked good in his previous start last Thursday, where he took his second straight loss, this time to Colorado at Coors Field, where he one hit the Rockies for three innings before allowing seven runs on as many hits in the fourth. Hiis performance tonight parallelled that. Although he shut the Dodgers out on no hits in the first third of the game, the 26 year old righty left after throwing 78 pitches, 49 for strikes, in 4+ innings, in which he allowed five runs, all earned, one of which was posthumous, and three walks while notching four Ks. With the loss his record declined to 3- 6,6.17.

25 year old Gavin Stone, the Dodgers’ fifth round draft choice four years ago, broke into the show last May, was 1-1, 9.00 after going 18-12, 3,19, with a 1.21 WHIP in his minor league career. He was a post-season All Star in the PCL in ’23. He was tonight’s winning pitcher, having held San Francisco to one run, earned, on five hits and three walks over six innings. He struck out a couple opf batters and had a pitch count of 90 with 58 strikes. His redcord now stands at 4-1, 3.27.

The rivals traded zeros for the first three frames, which. were notable for at least two plays. One was Luis Matos’s three base error on Freddie Freeman’s first inning drive to deep center, a premonition of what might happen if Lee’s diagnosis is confirmed. An optimist might have observed that Winn pitched out of the jam. The other was the nifty double play that shut down LA in the top of the third. With James Outman, who had walked, stole second, and advanced to third on Blake Sabol’s throwing error (another example of the perils of a bulky injured list) on second, Matt Chapmans snatched Mookie Betts bouncer down the line, tagged Outman, and threw the speedy Betts out at first.

But Los Angeles asserted itself in the next few innings. Their designated hitter, 大谷 翔平, AKA Shohei Ohtani, powered the Winn’s initial offering in the fourth, an 88 mph slider, into the right centerfield bleachers, 446 feet from home to give him an even dozen homeruns for the season and the Angelinos a 1-0 lead. Back to bak walks to Freeman and Will Smith, followed by a double to center by Teoscar Hernández and Max Muncy’s sacrifice fly, and the Giants were reeling from a 4-0 deficit

Two batters into the fifth and Winn was out of the game. Back to back singles to center by Betts and Ohtani brought Randy Rodríguez to the mound. A one out single to left by Will Smith drove Betts in with an inherited run, which was charged to Winn

The Giants staged a comeback of sorts in the sixth on a walk to LaMonte Wade, Jr. and, after Wilmer Flores popped out to short, two wild pitches while Héctor Ramos was at bat, Ramos, when he got a hit he could pitch, drove Wade in with the Giants’ first tally, a run that LA responded to in their next turn at with a leadoff triple to right by Betts and Ohtani’s automatic double to left.

Nick Avila, a right handed rookie who was recalled from Sacto yesterday, set the Dodgers down in order in the eighth.

The home team hit Gus Varland, LA’s third pitcher of the fray, Gus hard – line outs to left by Estrada ahd Wade, and Chapman’s double into the right field corner, but he escaped unscathed when Ramos lined out to second.

Avila wasn’t as effective in the visitors’ half of the ninth as he had been an inning earlier. Outman led off with a double to right. Miguel Rojas, who had replaced Betts at short, replicated Outman’s two bagger, driving in Rojas. He, in turn, was driven in by Freeman’s single down the line in right after Ohtani finished his three for five night’s work by grounding out to second. Will Smith then doubled to right, but Freeman stopped at third because Yaz almost made a spectacular catch before the ball glanced off his glove. Both Freeman and Smith crossed the plate on Hernández’s triple to right center.

And so it came to pass that Nabil Crismatt gave up an automatic double to Sabol, an RBI single to Matos, an another safety to Shmitt to preserve the Dodgers’ win with a final score of 0f 10-2.

We don’t yet know who will start for the Dodgers when the series is wrapped up tomorrow, Wednesday, 6:45. It will be Logan Webb (3-4,3,88) trying to get the Giants and himself back on track.