Dodgers Sweep Giants in Come from Behind Style to Advance
Dodgers Sweep Giants, but Every Game Hangs in the Balance.
The final result says sweep. The three games tell a much closer story.
The Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the San Francisco Giants 7–5, 6–5 and 6–5 to advance past the first round. San Francisco held a late lead in every game. Los Angeles erased all three, scoring 11 of its 19 series runs in the innings that turned those leads around.
GAME 1 — DODGERS 7, GIANTS 5 - Sale’s 13 Strikeouts Lost in Five-Run Eighth
SAN FRANCISCO — Chris Sale gave the Giants everything they could have asked for in the opener. He struck out 13 Dodgers in 6⅓ innings and allowed just two earned runs. A four-run fourth inning, highlighted by Pavin Smith’s double, put San Francisco ahead, and the Giants carried a 5–2 lead into the eighth.
Then the inning got away. Matt Shaw started the trouble, Ezequiel Tovar and Brice Turang kept it moving, and Los Angeles scored five times against the Giants’ bullpen. San Francisco managed no answer in the eighth or ninth.
The Dodgers had won the opener, but the lasting image for Giants fans was Sale’s brilliant start disappearing in a single inning.
GAME 2 — DODGERS 6, GIANTS 5 - Díaz Gets the Lead, Dodgers Take It Back
SAN FRANCISCO — Daulton Varsho’s two-run homer gave the Giants an early response to Shohei Ohtani’s first-inning blast. Later, Trea Turner came off the bench for a two-run single during a three-run sixth. Jake Burger’s sacrifice fly completed the rally and put San Francisco ahead 5–3.
The Dodgers got one back in the seventh. Adrián Morejón delivered a scoreless eighth. With a 5–4 lead in the ninth, the Giants handed the ball to Edwin Díaz—precisely the finish they had planned.
José Fermín opened with a double. Walks and a hit batter brought home the tying run, and Andy Pages singled in the go-ahead run. Aroldis Chapman and Mason Miller kept the Giants from mounting one more rally.
This loss was especially hard to explain away as a bad plan. San Francisco built the lead and got the ball to its closer. Los Angeles won the inning anyway.
GAME 3 — DODGERS 6, GIANTS 5 - Perkins Delivers the Final Blow
LOS ANGELES — Facing elimination, the Giants struck first on another Varsho homer. Corey Seager added a two-run shot in the third, and Turner supplied his second two-run pinch-hit single of the series in the sixth. San Francisco led 5–2.
Bubba Chandler took that lead into the bottom of the seventh. Pages singled and stole his way to third before Spencer Steer doubled him home. Tovar followed with a run-scoring single. Suddenly the Dodgers were within one.
Blake Perkins then hit a two-run homer to put Los Angeles in front, 6–5. Díaz struck out the side in the eighth, but by then the lead was gone. Miller retired the Giants in the ninth, ending the series.
HOW THE SERIES TURNED
The Giants’ starting pitchers allowed nine earned runs in 19⅓ innings. Their bullpen allowed ten earned runs in 6⅔ innings (13.50 era!!). San Francisco scored five runs in every game, committed no errors, and still went home without a win.
Could a quicker move to Díaz have changed Games 1 or 3? Possibly. Morejón had earned a chance to work with his strong season, and Chandler had pitched well enough to begin the seventh. The lesson is not that either pitcher was an obvious mistake. It is that, once a late lead came under immediate threat, the Giants’ best available relief option needed to be considered right then. Game 2 offered no such easy second guess: Díaz had the ninth-inning lead and lost it.
The Giants also ran into a Dodgers bullpen that gave them little room for recovery. Chapman and Miller protected late leads throughout the series. San Francisco did not score in the eighth or ninth inning of any game. One more late run on any of those nights might have changed the story.
The running game added to the frustration. Los Angeles repeatedly found good leads while Giants runners struggled to do the same. LA 12 steals to SF 1
SERIES STANDOUTS
For the Dodgers, Perkins supplied the signature swing and drove in runs in all three games. Miller saved all three wins. Chapman delivered four scoreless innings (Bullpen 1.74 era!!). Turang brought power and pressure on the bases, while Tovar produced important run-scoring hits during the late rallies.
For the Giants, Varsho homered in both Games 2 and 3. Sale’s 13-strikeout opener deserved a win. Turner drove in two runs off the bench twice. Smith helped power the Game 1 rally and kept reaching base, while Jacob deGrom left Game 2 with San Francisco positioned to win.
THE TOUGH SERIES
Los Angeles advanced despite getting short starts from Zack Wheeler and Drew Rasmussen, while Yoshinobu Yamamoto saw five Giants runs score during his Game 1 outing. James Wood and Hunter Goodman had quiet series at the plate.
For San Francisco, Morejón was charged with five earned runs across three appearances. Díaz’s Game 2 ninth was costly, even though he rebounded with a perfect Game 3 inning. Randy Rodríguez was part of the decisive Game 1 eighth. Drew Millas went hitless in the four at-bats, and Ronald Acuña Jr. never found the game-changing hit the Giants hoped for going 2-15 0 runs scored, 0 walks, and 0 RBI’s!!
SERIES MVP: BLAKE PERKINS
Miller saved every game, and Chapman helped make those saves possible. Perkins gets the award because he contributed to the Dodgers’ comeback in each game and supplied the two-run homer that ended San Francisco’s season.
The Giants might nominate their own bullpen for the Dodgers’ award. It would get a few votes. But this was not a series in which San Francisco failed to compete. It was a series in which the Giants did enough to lead three times—and Los Angeles won every final test.
