Only real fans know this won’t be their final trip of the calendar year, though.
They say there’s a rivalry going on between both teams. The late, great Willie Mays used to be involved in those, and so in this final trip of the season by LA to SF, expect there to be some acknowledgement of what once was. It’s really strange that this is the final visit of the regular season by the Dodgers. The balanced schedule is weird, wild stuff. They should have a home and home in September, at least!
Instead, we’ll just have to expect that these two teams meet again in the postseason. Is that so outlandish? Everybody gets a crack at knocking out the dominant Dodgers in the postseason. A check swing that wasn’t took the Giants out in 2021, but maybe their 79-win third Wild Card Frankenteam can shock the world, just as the Arizona Diamondbacks did last season when they took out the 100-win Dodgers.
And that’s really what we’re hoping for, right? That someday the San Francisco Giants will beat the Los Angeles Dodgers when it really counts. Therefore, this weekend doesn’t matter. Not really. They’re two franchises going for different things and in the middle, we fans get to decide if we’ll take pleasure from a couple of nice innings among 27 or maybe even 1 win out of 3… Logan Webb won his last start against them, after all, and he’ll kick off the series tonight.
Mainly, though, we’re dreaming about the future, which might not be so distant. If an unknowable amount of luck pushes the Giants into the postseason, these two teams could meet! And because it’s the postseason — where anything can happen, but what usually happens is that a 100-win team gets taken out by a scrappy Wild Card — maybe the Giants can be the 2003 Marlins to the Dodgers’ 2003 Giants. So, probably, while the Dodgers are wailing away on our beloved team, we’ll be muttering, “Just you wait until the playoffs, ya bums!” But maybe it’s not all so hopeless?
Hey, look at that! Mookie Betts and Max Muncy are on the IL. So are Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Walker Buehler. These are all thorns in the sides of the San Francisco Giants whenever they matchup against the Los Angeles Dodgers. I’m not glad they’re injured, it’s a bit of a relief that this kind of firepower won’t be directed at my favorite team for a few days.
But then there’s Shohei Ohtani, Freddie Freeman, and really the rest of the roster, which, if they’re not thorns, then they’re broadswords that slice the Giants diagonally. Nobody’s watching this series to gauge where the Giants are, competition-wise, against the best teams in the sport. We’re doing it out of habit. The Dodgers are a much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much better team than the Giants — by design! The Giants are aiming for 83 wins and a chance at the third Wild Card. The Dodgers have eyes on global dominance.
The Giants might play harder, though, because this is the last time the Dodgers will play in San Francisco… in the regular season. Usually, that last visit of the season winds up in an embarrassing sweep. Maybe that won’t happen this time! The Dodgers haven’t lost a series at Oracle Park since June 2022, and have already won 5 out of the 6 meetings this season, but even in yesterday’s loss, the Giants looked better playing at home.
Luis Matos is 7-for-17 (.412) since his return on June 22nd. Taylor Rogers and Erik Miller have allowed just 7 runs (5 earned) combined in 22.1 innings pitched this month, striking out 21 and walking 8. I know it’s a bit tricky combining the two lefties like this, but they’ll be key figures in the bullpen this series. Heliot Ramos seems to have soft landed a bit (7-for-42 in his last 10 games, with 12 strikeouts against 4 walks), but he’s had some solid at bats and seems like a player who is focused and not just a free swinger (even when he swings wildly on any slider up). After soft criticizing the bullpen the other day, the team seems to have a bit of a handle on how to manage the workloads in the near-term.
The Giants are in as good a shape as they can possibly be at this point in the season, given their offseason plans, and while they’re facing a much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much better team, the Dodgers are leaking a little bit of oil just in terms of their unexpected injuries.
Despite playing only two teams with a winning record this month (Yankees & Royals) they’ve “only” gone 15-8. In the past five seasons, the Dodgers have lost fewer than 10 games in a month many, many times (11 months, actually), but they’ve yet to do so this season. We’ll find out if that’s good news for the Giants.
Probably not, but it never hurts to hope.
Series details
Who: San Francisco Giants vs. Los Angeles Dodgers
Where: Oracle Park, San Francisco, California
When: Friday (7:15pm PT), Saturday (4:15pm PT), Sunday (1:05pm PT)
National broadcasts: Fox (Saturday)
Projected starters
Friday: Landon Knack vs. Logan Webb
Saturday: Tyler Glasnow vs. TBD
Sunday: James Paxton vs. TBD
Where they stand
Dodgers, 51-31 (1st in NL West), 409 RS / 289 RA | Last 10 games: 8-2
Giants, 39-43 (4th in NL West), 358 RS / 388 RA | Last 10 games: 4-6
Dodgers to watch
Shohei Ohtani: Dude has a 1.160 OPS in June (107 PA). Career-wise, this has typically been his best month for offensive output. He has a career 1.188 OPS on a line of .331/.424/.764 in 558 career PA. How many dingers will he hit and will any of them get wet? Or will the Giants give him the Bonds treatment? With Betts and Muncy not involved in this series, the temptation must be greater, even if the Dodgers are getting stellar production from literally everybody else.
Landon Knack: I don’t keep up with Dodgers prospects, but along with 24-year old position player Miguel Vargas (.968 OPS in 37 PA), Knack has been a solid callup with a 2.10 ERA in 25.2 IP (5 starts). He is a four-seam, slider, changeup, curveball starter with a fastball that averages 93. His slider has a 2,600 rpm, and that’s fantastic — basically, Ryan Walker’s slider (2,603 rpm). But it doesn’t quite look like Walker’s. It looks like he can shape it and deliver it like his other pitches, so it just winds up being really tight and near the zone. Could be a big matchup issue for Heliot Ramos in particular, but as a game 1 matchup against Logan Webb, it’ll be fun to watch. The Giants trying to figure out how to score 1-2 runs off of him while, hopefully, the Giants’ ace aces. I just think it’s unfair that the Dodgers also have a Landon (though the Giants’ one is Landen) and he’s better.
Daniel Hudson: The 37-year old reliever has a 0.00 ERA and 1.19 FIP in 10.2 IP in the month of June and while it’s weird to think about the Dodgers having a bullpen at this point — I just assume they win every game 8-3 and so the dudes who get the final 6-9 outs could be anybody — if the game’s close late, I wonder if the Giants have a chance to take advantage. As good as LA’s relief corps has been (8th-most valuable according to fWAR), they really haven’t been challenged this month. The only opponent they’ve faced with an above average lineup in the month of June has been the Yankees (117 wRC+ – #3 in MLB). The Giants are a bit better than average and they’ve got a group of young guys and aging vets with something to prove.
Giants to watch
Michael Conforto: Let’s go, Michael Conforto! You’ve been solid against the slider this season. You’re facing a touch matchup in Landon Knack tonight, but let’s hit some doubles or dingers in this series.
LaMonte Wade Jr.: Welcome back, old friend. Get on base and drive in some runs!
Camilo Doval: If you get a save situation, don’t blow it!
Luke Jackson: Don’t worry. We’re all seeing the same player. He hasn’t been good, and if he gets into a game in this series, it’s probably because things are going very bad. His 40.2% Hard Hit rate against is right in line with his career (for the “but his career averages!” nerds out there), but he’s striking out just 17% of hitters (career 23%) while walking 12% (career 10%). You can envision Bob Melvin thinking that a veteran like Jackson might be able to work his way through a Pages-Vargas-Biggio part of the lineup, but he’d be mistaken!