Los Angeles – The Giants lefty Alex Wood wasn’t his usual sharp self, he allowed three homers and a season-high four runs in San Francisco’s 4-3 loss against the Los Angeles Dodgers tonight.
Justin Turner, DJ Peters, and Max Muncy all hit bombs off of Wood to spark the Dodgers win. It’s the first time this season that Wood allowed more than two runs in a start and the three home runs allowed were the most he’s allowed in a game thus far. Entering tonight’s start, Wood had allowed a total of three home runs on the season.
“I think the home runs were the result of some misses honestly,” Giants manager Gabe Kapler said. “I think this is just a matter of location on a couple of pitches and pitches that Woody would tell you’d he’d like to have back and do over.”
Wood just didn’t have his best stuff. He allowed a season-high four runs on six hits while striking out eight in his second loss of the season. Both of Wood’s losses this season have come against the Dodgers, in back-to-back starts. His then sub-2.00 ERA inflated a bit after tonight, going from 1.93 to 2.44.
“I just got away from my game plan a little bit, got too cute,” said Wood. “They made me pay. I felt like I held my own for the first part. They just put some swings on a few mistakes. On to the next one.”
San Francisco’s lineup was again unable to find a solid rhythm at the plate. Evan Longoria homered to left in the fourth inning to put the Giants on the board, and Donovan Solano hit a two-run homer to left to tie the game 3-3 in the sixth after Mike Yastrzemski singled with one away.
“It’s big for us,” Kapler said about Solano’s big hits in the last two nights. “We’re not anticipating that Solano is a home run hitter for us. But, he can come up with a big elevated ball for us once in a while.”
Muncy’s home run to center off Wood bottom of the sixth put the Dodgers ahead. It’s the third straight game against San Francisco, that Muncy has hit a home run. He’s hit home runs in back-to-back games on Saturday and Sunday of last weekend’s series at Oracle Park.
“That’s just one of the ones I got too cute,” Wood said on Muncy’s home run. “I probably should’ve gone somewhere else, but he’s a great hitter, he’s one of the better hitters in the game.”
Despite the three runs scored for the Giants, they were held to just three hits while LA’s bullpen combined for 13 strikeouts on the night. One of those hits was a bunt single by Yastrzemski in the sixth, just before Solano’s then game-tying home run.
The Dodgers pitched a bullpen game on the night, starting with long-time veteran southpaw David Price, former teammate of both Kapler and Longoria.
Price, unlike his old self back in the day, only went 2 ⅔ innings on the mound Thursday, tossing just 35 pitches, holding the Giants hitless while striking out five.
“I think we’ve gotten off to a good start and got a ways to go,” said a frustrated Kapler “Obviously we need to play better against the Dodgers. I don’t feel like this is ‘let’s try harder against the Dodgers,’ it’s a matter for us being at our best. I don’t think we’ve played our A-game, but I think they’ve played very well against us.”
San Francisco is now 30-20 as they’ve hit the 50 game mark of the season, and are within reach of the top spot in the National League West. However, despite their struggles against the Dodgers. The players, specifically Wood, feel like the Giants aren’t in any kind of panic.
“We’ve played really well up to this point. They’re a great team,” Wood explained. “Sometimes you’ve gotta tip your cap.
We’ve played the long game all year with a lot of our best hitters. We’re just sticking with the course through 162 games, and we’ve turned in some really good wins so far and played some pretty good baseball. Hopefully we can scratch out a win (against the Dodgers), they play pretty well at home. Every game, except that Sunday game, we’ve played them pretty tight so far. Hopefully we can sneak out with a victory or two before the series is over.”
Anthony DeSclafani (4-2, 3.54 ERA, 51 K) will take the mound for San Francisco Friday night (7:10 pm PT) against Walker Buehler (3-0, 2.78 ERA, 59 K). DeScalfani is looking for a big outing after his previous start that was a 10-run disaster last Sunday.
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