Saturday was a planned “bullpen game” for the San Francisco Giants, whose rotation sports just two healthy established starters in Logan Webb and Jordan Hicks and has five pitchers — Blake Snell, Kyle Harrison, Keaton Winn, Robbie Ray and Alex Cobb — on the injured list.
It turned into an impromptu bullpen game for Dodgers, which was both surprising and disappointing considering they had ace Tyler Glasnow, who was 8-5 with a 2.88 ERA and a National League-leading 135 strikeouts and had thrown five innings or more in each of his first 16 starts, on the mound.
Glasnow was rocked for five runs and seven hits in an abbreviated three-inning start, leaving Dodgers relievers to cover the final six innings. Not only was the bullpen up to the task, it worked overtime, limiting the Giants to one earned run over the final eight innings of a wild 14-7, 11-inning victory in Oracle Park.
The Dodgers blew the game open with a seven-run rally in the 11th, but they wouldn’t have gotten there if veteran right-hander Daniel Hudson hadn’t escaped a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the 10th.
The Dodgers had scored in the 10th off 6-foot-11 right-hander Sean Hjelle when Jason Heyward grounded out to first base, advancing automatic runner Chris Taylor to third, and Miguel Rojas blooped an RBI single to shallow right-center for a 7-6 lead. Gavin Lux flied out to left field and Kiké Hernández struck out to end the inning.
Hudson got Nick Ahmed to ground out to shortstop to open the bottom of the 10th, with automatic runner Brett Wisely holding at second, but pinch-hitter David Villar ripped an RBI double off the left-field wall to tie the score 7-7.
LaMonte Wade Jr. was intentionally walked, and Heliot Ramos dribbled a grounder to third for an infield single to load the bases with one out. The Dodgers brought Taylor in from center field for a five-man infield.
Will Smith hits a two-run double in the 11th inning during the Dodgers’ win over the Giants on Saturday.
(Godofredo A. Vásquez / Associated Press)
Hudson then escaped the jam by striking out Patrick Bailey with a nasty 88-mph slider and, with Taylor back in the outfield, getting Matt Chapman to pop out to catcher Will Smith, sending the game to the 11th.
Shohei Ohtani, who hit his NL-leading 26th home run to straight-away center field in the third inning, was intentionally walked to open the 11th, and Smith drove a two-run double to left-center field for a 9-7 lead.
Freddie Freeman followed with a bloop double to left to score Smith for a 10-7 lead. Teoscar Hernández blooped a single to right, Taylor grounded an RBI single to right for an 11-7 lead, Heyward roped a two-run triple into the right-field corner to make it 13-7, and Rojas hit a sacrifice fly to left to make it 14-7.
Glasnow limited opposing batters to a .179 average in his first 16 starts, the third-best mark in the league, but the Giants had seven hits in 14 at-bats against him Saturday and batted around in the third, an inning in which Glasnow threw 37 pitches after throwing only 24 pitches in the first two innings.
Dodgers pitcher Tyler Glasnow walks to the dugout after the third inning Saturday.
(Godofredo A. Vásquez / Associated Press)
The inning began with Glasnow’s walk to No. 9 hitter Ahmed and Jorge Soler’s RBI double to right field. Soler tried to advance on Wade’s grounder to shortstop but was thrown out at third by Rojas.
But Ramos singled to center, Bailey hit an RBI single to right, and Dodgers third baseman Cavan Biggio couldn’t get the ball out of his glove after charging Chapman’s chopper, a play that was generously ruled an RBI infield single.
Michael Conforto walked to load the bases, and Luis Matos grounded into a run-scoring fielder’s choice for a 5-2 lead before Wisely flied to end the four-run inning.
The Dodgers countered with four runs of their own in the top of the fourth, batting around against relievers Spencer Howard and Randy Rodriguez, a rally that Andy Pages sparked with a one-out walk.
Heyward singled to right, advancing Pages to third, and Rojas, who followed Pages’ second-inning double with a two-out RBI single, grounded an RBI infield single to the shortstop hole. Lux followed with an RBI single to right.
Biggio popped out on a bunt attempt, but Ohtani walked to load the bases. Smith beat out a slow roller to shortstop for an RBI infield RBI single, and Freeman walked with the bases loaded to give the Dodgers a 6-5 lead.
San Francisco evened the score in the bottom of the fifth when Chapman hit a one-out single off right-hander Yohan Ramírez, Conforto walked against left-hander Alex Vesia, and Wisely, who won Friday night’s game with a walk-off two-run homer in the ninth, hit an RBI single to center for a 6-6 tie.