The San Francisco Giants scoreboard pays tribute to Los Angeles Dodgers broadcaster Vin Scully who passed away on Tue Aug 1, 2022 as the Dodgers line up to congratulate each other after defeating the Giants at Oracle Park in San Francisco (@juantoribio photo)
Los Angeles (70-33). 9. 13. 0
San Francisco (51-53). 5. 7. 2
Tuesday, August 2, 2022
By Lewis Rubman
SAN FRANCISCO–This season’s trading deadline came and went at 3:00 o’clock this afternoon, and Joey Gallo came to Los Angeles. The Dodgers acquired the 29 year old left handed all or nothing at all batter in exchange for Clayton Beeter, a right handed starting pitcher who was 0-3, 5.75 for AA Tulsa when he left the Dodgers’ system. Gallo is expected to report to the Dodgers tomorrow.
Two Giants on the active roster, one farm hand, and a member of the injured list went. At the deadline, San Francisco sent Darin Ruf to the Mets for left handed pitcher Thomas Szapucki and a pair of pitching prospects, rated #24 and 27 by Baseball America. They are, in that order, righty Carson Seymour and lefty Nick Zwack.
The Giants also dealt backup catcher Curt Casali and double A pitcher Matthew Boyd to the Mariners, getting in return righty hurler Michael Stryffeler and high A catcher Andy Thomas. Reliever Trevor Rosenthal, who might have saved the A’s bacon last year if he hadn’t gone on the IL in spring training and who joined the Giants’ IL earlier this season was off to the Milwaukee roster. The Giants got the Brewers’ 19th prospect in the MLB.com rankings, Trilstan Peters, a outfielder currently hitting .306 in High A.
And, as the TV detective Colombo used to say, just one more thing. San Francisco recalled left handed pitcher Alex Young from Sacramento.
San Francisco opened this evening’s contest with Alex Wood, a 6’4″, 214 pound southpaw with a season record of 7-8, 4.11, and a inventory of four seamers, changeups, curves, and sinkers, on the bump to face the team with the best record in major league baseball, the 69-33 Los Angeles Dodgers.
The Angelinos countered with another tall lefty, one who brought a more impressive record to the mound with him. 6’2″ Tyler Anderson tipped the scales at 220 and toed the rubber at 11-1, 2.6.
By the time the game was over, a definitive 9-5 Dodgers victory, the visitors’ record stood at 70-33 and the Giants’ at 51-53. Wood had pitched 5-1/3 innings, leaving with his team trailing 6-5 and a man on base. He had made 99 deliveries, 65 of which were counted as strikes. All slix of the runs he allowed were earned, and they came on nine hits, a walk, and a hit batter. Wood struck out a half a dozen batters and took the loss, giving him a record of 7-9, 4.42.
Anderson didn’t last quite as long. He was on the mound for five plus innings, leaving with runners on first and second. Those runners didn’t score, so Anderson’s line read five runs, all earned, on six hits, one for the distance, four walks, and a wild pitch. He struck out three and had a pitch count of 86, 32 of which were balls. He got his 12th win against but one defeat but saw his ERA rise to an admirable 2.89.
Sloppy play put the Giants behind in the second inning. Hanser Alberto led off with what sounded like a broken bat single to left and strolled to second when Wood issued a free pass to Trayce Thompson. Both runners moved up a notch when Wood tried to pick Alberto off second and heaved the ball into left center field.
Gavin Lux was at bat during that play and followed it with a single to center that drove in Alberto and moved Thompson to third while Lux advanced to second. Austin Barnes was hit by a pitch to fill the bases with Dodgers. Cody Bellinger’s sacrifice fly brought Thompson home with LA’s second tally.
Mookie Betts then laced.a line drive that bounced off center fielder Slater’s glove, was fielded by González and scored as an RBI single that sent Barnes to third, and Slater was charged with an error that allowed Betts to take second. Turner’s sac fly to center plated Barnes with the so-called Bums’ fourth run of the inning and of the game.
They made it five in the third. An infield single put Will Smith on first. Alberto’s single to center moved him to second. Dixon Machado made a lovely play on Thompson’s ground to force Alberto at second while Smith went on to third. He scored on a fielder’s choice lin which Belt fielded Lux’s bouncer to first and lobbed the ball home too late to catch Smith.
Mookie Betts’ 24th home run, leading off the fourth, landed’ in the Giants’ Garden, over the 391 foot sign in dead center field, to put the visitors up by a half a dozen runs and extended the slugging left fielder’s hitting streak to 20 games.
Anderson held the Giants hitless for three frames, but their bats came alive in the fourth. Belt led off by slicing a cutter into left for a single. After Mercedes fouled out to first, Flores singled to right center, sending Belt to third. González singled to right, and Belt came in with SF´s first tally.
Villar dropped a double into medium deep right field, close to the foul line that made it 6-2 and put González 90 feet from home. He covered that distance on a wild pitch to Bart, who added to the momentum by slamming a 93mph four seamer, 408 feet into center field, over the Konica Minolta sign between the 399 and 391 foot markers. Almost before you knew what had happened, the orange and gold had turned a Dodger rout into a 6-5 ball game.
As though the Giants’ revived competence were contagious, Wood responded in the top of the fifth by throwing his first 1-2-3 inning of the game, setting LA down on a groundout and a pair of Ks.
John Brebbia relieved Wood when Betts came up in the sixth for his fourth at bat. He. had been two for three. Bellinger was on first. Brebbia ended the inning with a (called) strike him out throw him out double play.
After back to back walks to González and Villar, leading off the bottom of the sixth drove Anderson from the mound, Evan Phillips entered the fray and gave up a bunt single to Bart before retiring Wade, Machado, and Slater in order to preserve the Los Angeles lead.
Tyler Rogers pitched a perfect seventh for the home team.
After the seventh inning stretch, Alex Vesia replaced Phillips for the Dodgers and set the Giants down to a conga beat, one, two, three, kick.
Rogers continued his dominance against the right handed Alberto and Thompson in the eighth, but the left handed Lux touched him for a two out triple off the brick wall in right center. Then the left handed hitting Barnes lined a double to left center. scoring Lux with an insurance run.
The Giants challenged the safe call at second, but Mark Carlson and Paul Emmet confirmed it in New York. That brought the newly promoted Alex Young into the game to face Bellinger. He laced Young’s third delivery into triples alley and scored one pitch later on Betts’ down the line double to left. Just like that, the ball game had become a rout again. Mercifully, Turner flew out to right to end the bleeding, with Los Angeles ahead at the working person’s score of 9-5.
Chris Martin took over mound duties for the visitors in the home eighth and put the Giants away handily.
Young set down Freeman, Smith, and Alberto, the heart of the Dodgers’ batting order, one, two, three to give San Francisco one last chance. David Price was given t;he task of denying it to them. He got Wade to go down swinging. Alberto made a magnificent diving grab of Machado’s hard hit grounder behind third and threw him out at first. Slater bounced out to the mound, ending the night’s frustration for the orange and black.
While the game was in progress, the sad news came through that Vince Scully, the voice of the Dodgers in Brooklyn and Los Angeles from 1950-2016, passed away today at the age of 94. Our heartfelt condolences go out to his family.
The series continues tomorrow at 6:45 with Julio Urías (10-6, 2.71) going against Alex Cobb (3-5, 4.06).
