The Los Angeles Dodgers ended the SF Giants winning streak at four on Tuesday by a final score of 6-3. While Dodgers starter Tyler Anderson surrendered a pair of homers, a Giants bullpen game was insufficient to shutdown Los Angeles' high-powered offense.
The Giants got off to a promising start when outfielder Lewis Brinson pounced on the first pitch of the game and deposited it in the left-field bleachers for a lead-off homer. It marked Brinson's third homer in the past two days and the first lead-off homer of his career. While it was his only hit of the game, the 28-year-old is now hitting .333/.333/1.000 in five games since the Giants acquired him.
The Giants clearly planned to attack Anderson early in counts, but while that worked on the first pitch of the game, San Francisco's hitters struggled to replicate that success going forward.
On the other side of the equation, the Giants had reliever John Brebbia start in a planned bullpen game. After designating Andrew Knapp for assignment earlier in the day, the Giants had an open 40-man roster spot and several well-rested pitchers at Triple-A. Instead of bringing in a fresh arm, though, they opted to stick with the guys already in their bullpen. It gave them little room for error.
Brebbia worked around a two-out double by Freddie Freeman, but Jarlin García was clearly struggling with his release point from the moment he entered in the second inning. Max Muncy doubled to lead off the inning followed by a four-pitch walk to Justin Turner. With two runners on, Joey Gallo sat on a fastball and blasted a three-run homer to give the Dodgers a 3-1 lead.
Even though García clearly did not have his best stuff, though, manager Gabe Kapler still sent him to the mound in the third inning. Why? With a limited number of relievers capable of throwing multiple innings, the Giants manager had to stick to the script. Things did not go much better for García in the third. Trea Turner led off the inning with a single and a few batters later, Max Muncy hit a two-run homer to extend the Dodgers lead to four.
Other than García, the Giants bullpen was solid. Tyler Rogers gave them 2.1 innings of shutout ball and while Dominic Leone surrendered a solo homer to Muncy later in the game, he gave Kapler a much-needed two innings.
The Giants only other damage against Anderson came in the top of the sixth inning when
Brandon Crawford kept a high fly ball just inside the foul pole for a two-run homer. Otherwise, the Giants offense scattered six singles and was unable to get another rally going.
Anderson only struck out three hitters across his seven innings of work, but did more than enough to get the Dodgers the win. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts turned to Chris Martin and Craig Kimbrel, who each threw perfect innings for the final six outs.
San Francisco falls to 65-70 on the season and will send Alex Cobb to the mound for the start tomorrow against Clayton Kershaw in the series rubber match. The Giants would prefer a late start to help their depleted bullpen, but it's a day game with a scheduled first pitch at 1:10 PM Pacific.
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