SAN FRANCISCO -- Patrick Bailey's first home run of the season was a big one.
Bailey hammered a three-run shot to snap a scoreless tie in the seventh inning and spur the Giants to a 3-0 win that clinched a series victory over the rival Dodgers on Wednesday night at Oracle Park.
The Giants (11-13) were shut out through the first six innings by two-way star Shohei Ohtani, but they finally managed to break the deadlock against left-hander Jack Dreyer in the bottom of the seventh.
Jung Hoo Lee and Heliot Ramos led off with back-to-back singles before Drew Gilbert laid down a sacrifice bunt to put runners on second and third with one out for Bailey.
The switch-hitting Bailey entered Wednesday batting only .145 with a .362 OPS and zero extra-base hits through his first 18 games of the year, but he came through with the swing of the night, driving a 1-2 slider from Dreyer a Statcast-projected 407 feet out to left field to put the Giants ahead, 3-0.
Bailey punctuated the blast with an epic bat flip, sending the announced crowd of 40,277 into absolute bedlam.
"It felt good, obviously,” Bailey said. “I’m happy to come through for the guys. Obviously, the swings have been feeling better. To be able to come through in those moments is huge.”
“When they showed the replay, it was a cocky swing,” manager Tony Vitello said. “I'm not talking about celebrating a home run or anything. It was a confident, slow, cocky swing.”
Bailey has underperformed at the plate for the Giants in recent years, but he’s developed a knack for late-game heroics against the Dodgers. He memorably delivered a walk-off grand slam against Los Angeles left-hander Tanner Scott on Sept. 12, 2025, which was his only home run from the right side last year.
With his big homer, Bailey became one of three Giants since 2010 with multiple go-ahead homers in the seventh inning or later against the Dodgers, joining Buster Posey and Juan Uribe.
While he’s widely regarded as the top defensive catcher in baseball, Bailey’s anemic offense had started to cost him playing time to hot-hitting rookie Daniel Susac this year. Still, Bailey found himself back in his starting role when Susac landed on the 10-day injured list with right elbow ulnar neuritis on Tuesday, which is expected to sideline the Rule 5 Draft pick for two to three weeks.
Susac was batting .478 (11-for-23) with a 1.152 OPS over 11 games when he hit the shelf, so the Giants are hoping that Bailey will be able to make up for that loss by picking it up with the bat in the interim.
“We've got a really good group of catchers,” Vitello said. “It just so happened at the time of the start of the season, one was going about as good as you can go offensively, and one was probably literally at the floor. But [Bailey’s] had big moments late in games here against some pretty damn good arms. I think it was just good to see him in that moment.
"That's probably the loudest cheer I've heard out of that locker room. They usually take 30 seconds or so once everybody's in there after a game. I think they knew it was coming for him, and it came at a pretty good time there.”
Despite Bailey’s poor start to the year, Vitello said he didn’t consider pinch-hitting for him in the seventh, as he wanted to keep Bailey’s Gold Glove defense behind the plate. The Giants’ coaching staff also had confidence that Bailey would find a way to put the ball in play against Dreyer.
"It’s huge,” Bailey said. “The confidence that he has in that situation in me means a lot to me. Obviously, I’ve had a history of coming through in those situations, and I’m glad he’s getting to see that.”
But Bailey wasn’t the only Giant to get on the board in a big way on Wednesday. Veteran right-hander Tyler Mahle also struck out five over seven scoreless innings to outduel Ohtani and earn his first win for San Francisco.
It was a significant step forward for Mahle, who entered Wednesday 0-3 with a 7.23 ERA over his first four starts of the year.
"I just made pitches,” Mahle said. “I just needed to make more pitches, and I did that tonight.”
The Giants’ pitching staff has held Los Angeles to only one run over the first two games of this series and also managed to end Ohtani’s 53-game on-base streak on Wednesday, which was tied for the longest streak in Dodgers history since they moved to Los Angeles in 1958.
San Francisco has won five of its last six games and will go for a three-game sweep behind two-time All-Star Logan Webb in Thursday afternoon’s finale at Oracle Park.