LOS ANGELES — The Giants cut ties with Nick Ahmed earlier this month, and on Thursday the veteran shortstop might have sealed their fate this season.
Only playing his second game for the Dodgers, Ahmed launched a two-strike sinker from Tyler Rogers in the eighth inning into the left-field bleachers that gave the lead right back to the home team after the Giants rallied for two runs to tie the score in the top half.
Shohei Ohtani followed with a moonshot to right field, and the Giants lost to the Dodgers for the third time in four games, 6-4.
If they weren’t already, Farhan Zaidi and the Giants’ front office must be seriously considering whether they have the pieces to make a playoff push with 58 games to go and five days until Tuesday’s trade deadline. Even in the crowded National League wild card race, the Giants stand near the back of the pack, falling 5½ games out and behind five other teams, tied with the Cubs, who have already committed to selling.
With a chance to build on the momentum from Robbie Ray’s electric club debut the night before and return home in better fashion than they began the second half, the Giants sent their ace to the mound on a sweltering Thursday afternoon against a somewhat neutered version of their longtime arch nemesis.
Not even those favorable circumstances could overcome the chasm between them and the Dodgers, who got only four innings from Clayton Kershaw in the 36-year-old’s first start since offseason shoulder surgery but knocked around Logan Webb enough to take three of four games in their final meeting until next June.
Opening the second half by dropping two of three to the last-place Rockies, the Giants lost three of four to the Dodgers to go 2-5 on their first road trip after the All-Star break. In the 13-game season series, the Giants dropped nine of their meetings against the Dodgers, including all but one of their seven games in Los Angeles.
Baking under 90-degree temperatures, and even hotter conditions under the direct sunlight on the playing surface, Webb lasted only one inning longer than Kershaw, surrendering four runs on nine hits and three walks while expending is 89 pitches to complete five innings.
The National League leader in innings pitched, Webb is also encroaching on less favorable spots on the league leaderboards. Having allowed seven or more hits in each of his past four starts, Webb now has surrendered the most in the majors this season — 143, 10 more than second-place Patrick Corbin — while putting an average of 1.32 runners on base per inning, the highest rate since he was a part-time rotation member in 2020 and among the 11 highest qualified starters in the majors.
The Dodgers put traffic on the bases in all but one of Webb’s five innings and plated runs in three of them. The last time Webb pitched past the sixth inning or allowed fewer than four runs was at the start of this month, when he beat the Braves 4-2 in Atlanta on Independence Day.
A leadoff walk to Gavin Lux came around to score to open a 1-0 Dodgers advantage in the second inning, and Lux kickstarted their two-run rally in the fourth with a leadoff double. Webb allowed the leadoff man to reach again in the fifth, and after Lux’s third hit of the afternoon, Andy Pages was able to score from third on a double play.
In Webb’s 16 career starts against the Dodgers, the Giants fell to 8-8 while his ERA rose to 4.11.
Pitching in his 60th career game against the Giants, Kershaw’s ERA remained the second-lowest of any pitcher to face San Francisco at least 20 times, even after surrendering a pair of runs in the third inning that gave the Giants a brief 2-1 lead and increased his career mark to 2.04.
Jorge Soler led off the inning with a single, and Tyler Fitzgerald tripled him home from first base when Teoscar Hernández misplayed his line drive into the left-field corner. The next batter, Heliot Ramos, singled home Fitzgerald and the Giants appeared to have something brewing with nobody out. But Kershaw struck out the next three batters, getting empty swings from Patrick Bailey and Thairo Estrada on backfoot sliders and freezing David Villar with a 72-mph curveball, to end the inning.
Whether or not Kershaw is still around when the teams meet again next June remains to be determined. He possesses a player option for 2025 and has not addressed his future beyond this season.
Notable
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IF Wilmer Flores was placed on the 10-day injured list prior to first pitch with tendonitis in his right knee, the second time the issue has forced him to the IL this season. Flores, 33, previously missed nine games, but Melvin indicated this could be a longer absence as he will receive a platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injection to try to mitigate the pain.
In the meantime, Melvin said IF David Villar, recalled from Triple-A Sacramento, should receive the bulk of the playing time at first base against left-handed pitchers.
Up next
The Giants begin a six-game home stand Friday (7:10 p.m.) against the Colorado Rockies, with LHP Kyle Harrison (5-4, 3.86) facing off against LHP Kyle Freeland (2-3, 5.63) in the first of four games. LHP Blake Snell (0-3, 5.83) will start the first half of Saturday’s scheduled double header, with RHP Hayden Birdsong (2-0, 3.55) expected to be recalled to start the nightcap. Jordan Hicks’ rotation spot comes around next on Sunday, which could be when RHP Alex Cobb makes his season debut.
Following the Rockies with two games against the A’s, the Giants’ next 16 games and 21 of their next 25 come against teams below .500.
