Giants take season series in Buehler’s first ever loss to San Francisco
By: Rowan Kavner
Tags: Dodgers, Postgame, MLB, Giants, Walker Buehler

(Photo by Jon SooHoo/Los Angeles Dodgers)

by Rowan Kavner

A back-and-forth season series went to the Giants. The Dodgers still have a month to make sure the division doesn’t, too.

Walker Buehler had never lost a game to the division rivals, entering Sunday’s series finale in San Francisco with a 7–0 record and 1.83 ERA in 12 career starts against the Giants. He carved his way through their lineup each of his first five times seeing them this year, allowing three earned runs in 34 innings.

That’s what made the final regular season matchup between the National League’s top two teams, a 6–4 loss for the Dodgers which put the Giants back in the NL West driver’s seat, particularly bewildering.

With the season series tied at nine games apiece, the 19th matchup of the year between the teams pitted Buehler against a San Francisco bullpen game. What looked on paper to be a favorable matchup did not play out as such, as the Giants struck early and often against the Dodgers’ Cy Young Award candidate in a way no team had prior this year.

Buehler, who had gone at least six innings in 26 of his first 27 starts this year, allowed a season-high six runs in a season-low three innings. He had not allowed more than two runs in any of his previous 10 starts before watching his ERA climb from 2.05 to 2.31 on Sunday.

It was the first time Buehler had allowed six runs in a game since Sept. 2, 2019. The Giants’ five swings and misses against him were tied for the Dodger ace’s fewest in a game this season (also on May 28 against San Francisco).

“Not a whole lot was very good,” Buehler said. “Probably the worst I’ve thrown in a long time. We’ll get back to the drawing board and improve, but tough day for me today.”

Manager Dave Roberts said familiarity tends to benefit the hitter, but when Buehler’s making pitches, that typically doesn’t matter.

The Giants plated runs on Buehler in each of the first three innings — including a home run in the first, two run-scoring hits in the second and another two run-scoring hits in the third — before the righty’s night ended at 53 pitches. He had not gone fewer than five innings in any other start this year.

“They were just on him tonight,” Roberts said. “I think there were some missed locations, some tough luck and also some quality contact. There just wasn’t a lot of swing-and-miss stuff. You’ve got to give credit when credit’s due.”

Boasting the top pitching staff in baseball, Sunday marked just the third time a Dodger starter allowed six earned runs in a game this year. No Dodger starter had allowed even four runs in a game all of August.

Despite that, the Dodgers got the tying run to the plate in the ninth inning following a pinch-hit two-run homer from Albert Pujols before their comeback attempt fell short.

Most of their opportunities to strike came much earlier.

The Dodgers left eight runners on base through the first five innings against a litany of Giants pitchers. They had two runners in scoring position with no outs after an RBI single from Will Smith in the second inning, but they stranded both runners.

An inning later, Smith popped out with the bases loaded to end another threat. The Dodgers loaded the bases again two innings later but came up empty on a Chris Taylor strikeout.

“We let those guys off the hook,” Roberts said. “Situationally, they were better than we were.”

The result was a seesawing division lead that tipped in favor of the Giants, who took two of three games this weekend.

The Dodgers have 25 games remaining, including a four-game trip to St. Louis beginning this week, to reclaim first place and defend their division crown for a ninth straight year.

“We have a month left,” Buehler said. “This is a big game, a Sunday night game, tied in the division and all that, but what it boils down to is playing a better month of baseball than they do.”