SAN FRANCISCO — The Giants lost more games to the Dodgers in 2022 than any season since the teams moved west. They were outscored 99-51. If they hoped to fare better in 2023, that quest started Monday night, and who better to be on the mound than staff ace Logan Webb?
But this season’s first installment of the Giants-Dodgers rivalry only brought more of the same.
Julio Urías mystified and Max Muncy mashed, as Giants were done in by their oldest nemeses in a 9-1 loss to the Dodgers.
Outdueling Webb for six innings, the Giants’ only damage off Urías came on a towering Wilmer Flores solo shot to left field. With one run on four hits over six innings, Urías actually increased his ERA against the Giants dating back to the start of last season to 1.00 over six starts.
With a three-run shot off Webb and a seventh-inning grand slam that sealed the loss, Muncy was responsible for seven of the Dodgers’ nine runs, managing to find a new career-high to set against a Giants team that he has victimized for six years now.
“He’s certainly had his ups and downs but he’s always dangerous,” Kapler said. “It’s not gonna surprise us to see him do damage. In order for us to win against his team, we’re gonna have to avoid big innings and damage like we saw tonight.”
Muncy’s grand slam extended the Dodgers’ lead to 9-1, after he made it 4-0 with his first homer in the third. His third-inning homer was the second allowed by Webb, after Mookie Betts led off the game with a line-drive shot to left-center.
In three starts, Webb has now surrendered four home runs, more than a third of his total in 2023 (11). Just once in 32 starts last season did Webb allow multiple home runs, and dating back to the start of 2021, no pitcher had surrendered fewer at his home ballpark.
After serving up two more Monday, Webb has allowed multiple homers in two of his three starts this season. And he no longer holds the title of least homer prone at home, which now belongs to rotation-mate Alex Cobb (with seven, a number he will put on the line in Wednesday’s series finale).
While Kapler noted that Webb’s command “hasn’t been perfect” and that teams are elevating against his sinker more, there’s nothing Kapler see as “problematic long term.” In addition to the four runs, six hits and two homers, Webb struck out six and walked only one and recorded a rare 95-mph reading on the radar gun.
“What I see from Logan is a guy that’s getting swings and misses and not walking guys,” Kapler said. “This is a good signal early in the year that he’s coming out throwing 94. Obviously in order for us to beat a team like the Dodgers, he has to be great and he wasn’t at his best tonight.”
Threatening with the bases loaded and no outs against reliever Alex Vesia in the seventh, the Giants proceeded to strike out twice before Flores flew out to right to end the inning without a run. After 10 games, they have struck out 115 times — 13 more on Monday — and have fanned more times to start the season than all but two teams in MLB history.
“We’re chasing a little bit more than we need to in order to be a great offensive team,” Kapler said. “A 10-game sample, it’s just not enough to get bent out of shape or jump to any conclusions. We have to play better baseball, we have to swing the bat better, but it’s certainly not a reason for us to dramatically change course with our approach.”
Few players have tormented the Giants to the degree of Muncy in recent years. In fact, you have to look back further than before the COVID-19 pandemic to find the last Giants-Dodgers game at Oracle Park that didn’t feature the Los Angeles third baseman on base. So despite a slow start to 2023 — taking a .121 average and a league-leading 16 strikeouts into Monday’s contest — Muncy used the Dodgers’ visit to the Giants’ waterfront ballpark as a bit of a slump-buster.
Muncy walked in the first, extending his on-base streak at Oracle Park to 28 games, but did his real damage in his ensuing trips to the plate. With two on and two outs in the third, after Webb muffed a potential inning-ending double-play ball from Freddie Freeman, Muncy whacked the third straight slider he saw from Webb into the Giants’ bullpen for his first homer. He stepped in again with two outs against Hjelle, this time with the bases loaded, and lofted a first-pitch fastball beyond the left-field wall, his second homer of the evening and the 23rd of his career against the Giants.
Webb said Freeman’s slow roller — with an exit velocity of 59 mph — was “100% a play I need to make.” If he had fielded it cleanly, it could have started an inning-ending double play, but it glanced off his glove toward Brandon Crawford, who threw wide to first base, and set up Muncy’s three-run homer.
Calling his own game, Webb said he regretted going back to the slider against Muncy.
The home run issues that have plagued him his first three starts, though, he chalked up to too many mistake pitches.
“Just a horse (expletive) job by me,” Webb said.
Betts had Webb’s number prior to Monday night, taking a .435 career average (regular and postseason) into the game, but his résumé was missing something: a home run. He took care of that on Webb’s fifth pitch of the game, sending a 2-2 sinker that crossed the low, inside portion of the plate on a line-drive trajectory into the left-center field seats. Adding a single in the third, Betts finished the game 12-for-26 (.462) all-time against Webb, more hits off the Giants’ ace than any other player in the majors.
Muncy’s 23 home runs, 50 RBIs and 49 runs scored against the Giants are the most of any player since 2018.
Webb fell to 0-3, and his ERA sits at 6.35 after three starts. He has dropped three consecutive decisions only one other time in his career (Aug. 18-30, 2022) and has never lost four starts in a row.
In six career regular season starts against the Dodgers at Oracle Park, Webb has yet to win a decision and has a 7.15 ERA. Meanwhile, the Giants have beaten Urías only once in their past six times facing him.
Source: www.mercurynews.com