LOS ANGELES -- With an 11-6 win on Saturday, the Giants have strung together back-to-back victories against the Dodgers -- an encouraging turnaround after San Francisco dropped the first four meetings between the two clubs.
“Last night was important,” catcher Buster Posey said prior to Saturday’s game. “But this one's probably equally as important.”
The Giants took that to heart, seizing onto the momentum with a team-wide offensive barrage in which every starting position player had at least one hit. With the win, the Giants moved to 32-20 and moved ahead of the Dodgers for second in the National League West standings, 1 1/2 games back of the Padres. They also guaranteed at least a split of the four-game series.
Here are three takeaways from San Francisco’s victory:
1) Solano’s wild day
Donovan Solano endured a topsy-turvy span of 10 minutes on Saturday. In the bottom of the second inning, the second baseman misplayed two straight routine grounders, ultimately leading to a run for the Dodgers. Solano quickly atoned for his mistakes in the top of the third with a two-run shot, his second homer of the series.
Before Saturday, Solano had not made an error in 22 games at second. But defense was an issue for Solano last year, as his -8 outs above average was second worst among qualified defenders. And though he’s been greatly improved in 2021, his metrics took a bit of a hit with his performance on Saturday.
“Those are uncharacteristic errors for Solano, obviously,” manager Gabe Kapler said. “Sometimes those errors turn into losses. In this particular case, we saw [starting pitcher Logan Webb] pick him up by continuing to throw strikes and get ground balls, give our infielders more opportunities. And then we saw Solano pick us up with the bat.”
Solano’s homer, meanwhile, was his second of the season. Following a Silver Slugger campaign in 2020, Solano hasn’t looked quite the same so far this year, with a .649 OPS coming into Saturday, and nearly one month missed with a right calf strain. But he’s putting together a solid run of late, going 6-for-21 with three extra-base hits in his last six games.
“I’ve been able to work pretty hard after I came back from the IL,” Solano said through an interpreter. “And I think that I have a lot of faith in God that if I continue working and putting in the hard work, things will start paying off.”
2) Webb’s solid return
Webb was impressive in his return from a right shoulder strain, allowing two runs (one earned) on just one hit and a hit batter, with seven K’s in five innings. His velocity was in line with his season averages, though interestingly, Webb relied much more heavily on his slider than usual. Throughout the season, his sinker has been the most used of his arsenal.
“That's been a big emphasis with both [the changeup and the slider], is, instead of being so far off the plate, kind of having it work on the plate and just down,” said Webb. “And I think that's the best I’ve felt throwing my slider, for sure.”
Webb revealed after the game that he was on a limit of 60-70 pitches -- hence, his exit after 62.
“We were going to be pretty disciplined here, coming off the shoulder injury, with one of our young pitchers that we're going to be depending on for a really long time,” said Kapler. “I wouldn't say that we were going to stay strictly to 60 pitches, as you saw, but we weren't going to push him much beyond that.”
3) Kazmir’s 'pen debut
Scott Kazmir’s time in the rotation was brief, amounting to just one start. Saturday marked the left-hander’s first appearance since he was moved to the bullpen. It was a rocky outing, with two runs scoring on a walk and three hits, including another Max Muncy home run. Following a booming RBI double from Albert Pujols that put runners on second and third, Kazmir settled down, striking out the next two batters to end the threat.
This is the next chapter as Kazmir continues his comeback quest. Prior to his start against the Dodgers on May 22, the veteran had last appeared in a Major League game on Sept. 23, 2016.
Asked his impressions of Kazmir’s first time out in relief, Kapler said, “We saw the velocity where it needed to be, in that kind of 92 [mph] and up to 93 range. And we did see him flash a changeup -- we saw him flash a good changeup. I don't think it was the performance that he wanted, and obviously, I think he’d like to have that pitch back that he threw to Muncy.”