SAN FRANCISCO -- Sunday afternoon provided a neat encapsulation of the virtues and flaws that have defined the first half of the Giants’ season.
They got another strong pitching performance from All-Star left-hander Robbie Ray, who fired six innings of two-run ball to keep them in the game. They showed their resilience by rallying late behind Luis Matos’ game-tying, two-run home run in the bottom of the ninth. But in the end, they couldn’t do enough offensively to avoid a crushing defeat at the hands of their archrivals.
The Dodgers used a pair of bloop singles to score three runs off Spencer Bivens in the top of the 11th inning to come away with a 5-2 win in the first-half finale at Oracle Park, sending the Giants into the All-Star break on a rather deflating note.
At 52-45, San Francisco is now six games behind the first-place Dodgers (58-39) in the National League West, though the club remains in the thick of the playoff hunt, as it stands only a half-game behind the Padres (52-44) for the third and final Wild Card spot.
“We’d like to have a few more wins, but we put ourselves in a position to have a good second half and get to the postseason,” manager Bob Melvin said.
The Giants believe their talented pitching staff, which has the third-best ERA in the Majors (3.50), is formidable enough to carry them into the playoffs for the first time since 2021, but they’ll need more support from a lineup that ranks 24th in MLB with a .678 OPS this year.
Willy Adames has started to turn it around following his slow start and ended the first half batting .282 (31-for-110) with seven home runs and 22 RBIs over his final 31 games, but the Giants have yet to see the best of three-time All-Star Rafael Devers, who has been playing through groin and back issues.
Devers went 0-for-9 over this three-game series against the Dodgers and is hitting only .202 with a .656 OPS and two home runs over his first 25 games for San Francisco, but the Giants are hoping he’ll be able to use the All-Star break to get healthy and return to form in the second half.
“We’re going to do better offensively,” Melvin said. “I believe that. We have some guys that are coming around a bit. We have some guys that will come around a little bit more. We have some guys in the middle of the lineup that are going to do more damage. I think our offense is going to be better in the second half. … I like our group. I think we have a really good chance.”
The Giants trailed, 2-0, after they were held to only three hits by All-Star Yoshinobu Yamamoto, but their lifeless offense roared to life after Matos tied the game with his first career pinch-hit home run in the bottom of the ninth.
After Matt Chapman reached on a one-out single, Matos stepped up to the plate in place of Mike Yastrzemski and drove a hanging slider from lefty Tanner Scott over the left-center-field wall, electrifying the sellout crowd.
“It was really exciting to be able to contribute to the team and take that big at-bat,” Matos said in Spanish. “It wasn’t the ending that we wanted, but it felt good.”
East Bay native Joey Lucchesi took over in the top of the 10th and retired Tommy Edman, Hyeseong Kim and James Outman to preserve the tie, but the Giants missed a chance to walk it off after they couldn’t score their automatic runner in the bottom half of the inning.
After Patrick Bailey lined out to open the bottom of the 10th, Dodgers reliever Jack Dreyer intentionally walked Heliot Ramos to force a left-on-left matchup with Devers.
Devers got a hold of a middle-middle fastball and sent a 106.1 mph, 381-foot drive out to straightaway center field, but it ended up being caught by Outman at the warning track for the second out. Los Angeles manager Dave Roberts then brought in Ben Casparius to face Adames, who grounded out to send the game to the 11th.
Bivens opened the next inning by intentionally walking Shohei Ohtani and then got two quick outs, but the Dodgers went ahead for good behind Freddie Freeman’s RBI single to the right-center-field gap, which came off his bat at 70.5 mph. Los Angeles added on via an infield single and another 64.3 mph blooper from Andy Pages, sealing a series win.
“Baseball can be a cruel game,” Melvin said. “It’s just the way it is. Unfortunately, it didn’t work in our favor.”